(2) The anthrax attacks had all the earmarks of a trial run. A number of very thoughtful FReepers have observed that they might indicate a blackmail attempt by Hussein.
(3) As for the possibility that we could lose a city, think about it: If the planners of the 9/11/01 hijackings had concentrated their fire, so to speak, and crashed all four planes either in Manhattan or in DC, they could have taken out the heart of either city. If their tactical planning was better, they could easily have selected flights that left nearly simultaneously, and much closer to mid-day. It doesn't take much imagination to visualize the horror that would have resulted.
(4) The point being that we already came within a whisker of losing much of Manhattan or DC, and we have already been hit with a bio-attack. The President has made it clear that he believes worse will occur if we do not aggressively take the battle to the enemy.
(5) Immediately after the attacks, the President said we would go after both the individual terrorists and regimes which harbor them. We polished off Afghanistant quickly. So it's on to the next object lesson among nations. Think about it: of the other regimes that harbor radical Islamic terrorists, which one is the easiest for us to rally the nation, Congress and the UN for an attack against its leadership?
(6) The President has access to intelligence that we can only speculate about, and clearly what he knows leads him to believe there will never be a better time to go after Saddam than in the very near future. He obviously knows the risks to the U.S. and just as obviously is doing everything possible to minimize those risks. But I also have no doubt that he is haunted by the certain knowledge that last year's attacks could have been orders of magnitude worse.
Conclusion: we don't have any choice, folks.
More true than most will admit..
Sooner or later, Sadaam and his administration will have to be dealt with.... In the meantime, we continue to take harder and more damaging hits in lives, treasure and morale.
Far better to acknowledge that we will NEVER be able to live in peace in a world that contains Sadamm and his ilk - or radical Islamanazis.... We must attack now, before we become weaker and they become stronger...
Time to give WAR a chance.. War afterall, is the result of failed diplomacy, or the inability to negotiate with a man of no character.
Semper Fi
Anyway, this is not going to be the Battle of Stalingrad, it's going to be the liberation of Dachau.