Reflections of a stormy petrel

As for your nonsense about Iraq not being a threat, Saddam Hussein was a threat every day he lived. The man was a throwback to a time when war was a natural occupation of political leaders. He came to power in 1978, and within two years he was at war against Iran. From then on till the day he was captured, he never went more than six months without war. His goal was to become the leading or sole Arab ruler by force of arms, and by 2001 he had managed, by sheer obstinacy coupled with massive bribery, to reduce the coalition against him to Britain and America alone. If he had been allowed to break the military grip these countries had on him, it is absolutely certain that he would have invaded some other country, probably Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He kept on his payroll, apparently doing nothing, hundreds of scientists who specialized in weapons of mass destruction. He had absolutely refused to accept any UN resolution and was in open breach of at least 13. And his rule at home, even by the brutal standards of Muslim countries, was hideous. The man had to be taken out. Your notion that he was no threat to US security interests only shows your ignorance in these matters. (And these were views I had at the time. By the year 2000 I was despondent, seeing that people were aligning themselves to Saddam one by one, and certain that there would be a war as soon as Britain and America left - which I reckoned in a year or two at most.)