I would assume Dubya knows more about what is going on in Iraq than we do perhaps the "proof" of the terror-Iraq connection can't be shown to the public without tipping our hand? I don't know What tells me it's time to invade is weapons of mass destruction+willingness to use them+personal threat to Saddam+ U.S. plans to invade his country on CNN= INVADE before he attacks us first does anyone really doubt he will as soon as he gets a good shot at us?
These aren't exactly great reasons to attack ANYONE. If Iraq gets nukes, how will he use them against us, the USofA?
If Iraq did get nukes, they don't have any weapon systems capable of delivering them to the U.S. They do have systems capable of delivering them to Israel, but I doubt they would do that, because Israel has nukes of their own, and I'm sure wouldn't hesitate to use them on Iraq.
Azarde, How are we supposed to take you seriously when you admit to being in a fight club? You sure your bean didn't get rattled once too often? DaDakota
And nuclear weapons are not the only WMD. There's ample (not conclusive, but ample) evidence he continues to develop chem & bio weapons. These are cheaper to make, easier to hide, and MUCH easier to deliver.
These are just stall tactics. Saddam can see the writing on the wall. His days are numbered, and not big numbers mind you. I'm talking about grade-school math kinds of numbes.
What if: Saddam holds secret talks with Saudi. He tells them he has found Allah and will use any means to defeat the infidel Satan boogeyman West, particularly the US. Either they join him (and Iran and Kuwait) in an oil embargo or his vision has told him to deny the oil by force. Now the Saudis know that the US would retaliate, but then again that's ex post facto, as our friend the Refman would say. It doesn't help them much when their land is glass and glowing. So they say screw it and capitulate. They announce they cannot continue to support the West as they prop up their Zionist puppets for the media feeding frenzy. Would that hurt the US? Would it hurt if they denied oil to the West and Japan? You bet. And he never had to use the nuke. Certainly never had to have a delivery system that could reach the US or Europe.
Hayes Street, that was a pretty good strole down fantasy lane man. If Sadam secretly threatened Saudi Arabia then Saudi Arabia would secretly tell us and we would not so secretly destroy Iraq. You and I both know that this is not going to happen. Sadam finding Allah....bwahahaha. Good one man.
Are you saying we would FIRST STRIKE Iraq with nuclear weapons if he secretly threatened them? I don't think you know too much about US nuclear doctrine. And I'm not saying Saddam WOULD find Allah, I'm saying he could use that as the kicker for nuclear blackmail. Try again.
OK, I'll try agaion. We won't nuke anyone that close to Isreal, thats not what I was saying. If Sadam had nukes, and to be clear on this he doesn't, and he threatened anyone with them, we could carpetbomb Bahgdad withen a half an hour. You actually think he could get a nuke in the air once we knew he had one? You really think that?
Uh, yeah. You see, we can't stop a SCUD FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. And thats a pretty damn old piece of equipment. Or they could send an infiltration team into Saudi with backpack nukes. It'd be like crossing the Rio Grande without the Rio Grande.
That was ten years ago, and I think it's a safe bet to say that we've adressed that problem. Hell, we had a system on our ship called the Phallanx Missle defense that was bad ass. Computer locked on the incoming missle and tore it to shreds. It shouldn't be too hard to modify that to suit our needs. This is a different story, however. I don't know how you stop something like this. I think this is all a bunch of hype though. I think that this government is overhyping the nuclear threat to go in there and clean house. If you think that the US should go in and take out governments we don't like, then you'll read these reports and say " Lets get him". If you are like me and suspect that we shouldn't be in the business of taking out and proping up pupet governments you'll say"We have no business there." Guess thats where we are at right now.
OK, so tell the Navy to steam all full into the Saudi desert and patrol for Iraqi missles? And we had that system during the Gulf War. Its not designed to stop those kind of missles. I believe the US ship that Iraq HIT with a missle in the 80s had the Phalanx system on it.
I'm not to big to admit when I am wrong, and I am wrong. I came into this discussion thinking"there's no way we haven't improved our ability to shoot down missles". I was wrong. I looked and looked for something on the internet and couldn't find jack. You know your **** about missle systems Hayes Street. I still hope I'm right about Iraq's nuclear capabilities being exagerated by the Bush White House to justify an attack.
Htownhero, you had it right the first time. Im not defending Sadam here. I served in operation Desert Shield gladly because it was justified. I am not sure that this is however. I think it reeks of Oil men turned poiliticians using any excuse they can to put in a puppet government that will roll over for US interests. Don't let the party line conservatives that follow the party line turn you around.
I was admitting I was wrong regarding our ability to stop Iraq even if they had a nuke. We surely cannot.
