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I posted before I was finished. What WMD's we were certain he had were chemical and biological weapons. We have found traces and small amounts of both, but not the large stockpiles that the media insists are necessary to prove that "Bush didn't lie." Besides the fact that he wouldn't allow inspectors in, and the fact that holding even a small amount of these items was in violation of the truce signed after Gulf War I and UN Mandates, it is quite likely that large amounts of the chemical weapons were hidden or moved into Syria. Lots of stuff went on while we listened to the UN drone on and on over that last resolution.

As far as Iran, I hate to tell you this, but NO intelligence is ever certain. No President is omnicsient; only God has that power. We make decisions based on the best intelligence we can get.

Iran, however, isnt hiding much of anything, are they? They are telling us that they are going to acquire a nuclear capability. They are telling us that they are launching a satellite missile. My personal opinion is that they are trying to bait us into an ambush, which is why the President is being so careful. However, there doesn't seem to be much doubt that they are working towards nuclear weaponry.

And since North Korea already has nuclear weapons, what are we to do with them?

I do not envy the President's responsibility. He alone has the burden of keeping this nation safe; to him the final decisions fall. He doesn't have the advantage of hindsight, nor the luxury of second chances or do-overs if he is wrong. He has to rely on the best intelligence he can get, which isn't always accurate, and he has to look into the faces of families who have lost loved ones in this fight.

I do not think he made this decision recklessly nor without the consideration of morality, despite what many think. I also think he is doing what any president of normal moral fiber and intelligence would have done in the same situation.

How easily people forget the months after September 11.

I'm well aware that no intelligence is certain but on the other hand we can't continue to initiate conflicts simply because we think something might happen. The current Iraqi debacle is testament to that. As for the suffering of the Iraqi people, I hear you, but it's by no means unique and if anything, we've enhanced it.

There are few countries where people are not oppressed to some degree or other by a maximum leader whose personality cult reigns supreme or by some ideological system. The closest is not 90 miles from Miami. Is it our mission to "liberate" them all?

I've heard the various theories as to why no WMD were found. They don't alter the fact that none were. As I pointed out in my first post, I'm not among those who are accusing the president of having ulterior motives. I think this was simply a bad call.

America needs to recognize the enemy. It is not secular dictators like Hussein. They come and go and the danger vanishes when the man himself perishes. Ideological wars, on the other hand, outlive their current fighters and continue until the philosophy itself is discredited. Our enemy is a violent theology rooted in Islam. Hussein himself was a total non-factor in this battle, in my opinion. Once upon a time he was in fact, our man on the front lines when he waged war against a neighboring Islamic state which had just embraced fundamentalism. Khomeini's Iran was our enemy then too and we stood back and applauded while Saddam gassed and bombed women and children. If he is evil now, he was evil then.

American foreign policy ebbs and flows with the vicissitudes of the moment. It always needs to be measure against the teachings of our faith.