Quote:

The UN was just the vehicle we used to try to improve our hand in negotiations.



Not to me. The UN is a mostly useless debating society that is only useful when there is consensus, as Bush I got.

If our national security was threatened, there is no requirement to go to the UN to "authorize" an attack.

But, Bush II went to the UN. And, he couldn't convince them to act. Honestly, he didn't convince me either. But, once you go to the UN and they say no, you're just a vigilante on your own.

The authority to invade because of the resolution ONLY comes from the body that enacted the resolution. That is the reason those responsible for the war had to imply that Saddam could hurt us, which was bull. Saddam had no reach outside his own neutered dictatorship. And, he certainly had no missile that could reach us.

Turns out the UN was right to wait.



Quote:

Why would he deny inspections AND get rid of them?



You want logic out of a person who killed long time friends and members of his own family?

The reasons expressed are that he got rid of them once his military was impotent to avoid preemptive Israeli attacks.

BUT, he didn't want this concession to become public knowledge, especially to those in the Arab world who worshiped him as their "maverick' and those in his own country who feared use against them.

He viewed allowing inspectors as a violation of his sovereignty. Are there inspectors looking for h-bombs in Israel? He seems to have believed that if he destroyed them the same intelligence people who knew he made and maintained WMDs would easily discern that he destroyed them. Thus, the only reason for the inspectors from his crazy warped perspective was to harass him.

But the true reasons ... who knows ...
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Amo i Gemelli!! wink