[Dilbert56]

General Zinni apparently checked his honor at the door somewhere.

From Foxnews:

Former Clinton CENTCOM commander, Anthony Zinni — the most prominent of the retired generals attacking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — now says that, in the run-up to the war in Iraq, "What bothered me ... [was that] I was hearing a depiction of the intelligence that didn't fit what I knew. There was no solid proof, that I ever saw, that Saddam had WMD."

But in early 2000, Zinni told Congress "Iraq remains the most significant near-term threat to U.S. interests in the Arabian Gulf region," adding, "Iraq probably is continuing clandestine nuclear research, [and] retains stocks of chemical and biological munitions ... Even if Baghdad reversed its course and surrendered all WMD capabilities, it retains scientific, technical, and industrial infrastructure to replace agents and munitions within weeks or months."

Also, equating Israel and Iraq is absurd. Israel is a democracy where elected leaders are held responsible by the People,They get tossed out year-in and year-out. Its people are free and prosper.

Iraq was brutal dictatorship modeled after Soviet Russia. Its people suffered most dreadfully. There was no freedom of speech - in fact the exact opposite flourished. Speaking against Saddam was often a death sentence. Iraq's natural resources were wasted. Its educated, intelligent people were squashed by a regime as oppressive as any on Earth.

Israel didn't invade neighboring countries, Saddam did twice. Israel didn't dump chemical weapons on their enemies but Iraq did. They didn't commit genocide within their borders, but Iraq did. Israel doesn't need to be fixed, but Iraq did.

[okiedog]

Your history of Iraq is true as to Saddam. He was a vicious dictator. The original post indicated that disregard for UN resolutions are a universal basis for attacking a sovereign country. I used Israel as an example to show the absurdity of this argument. I could have used Cuba, Libya, or several other countries. There is a duplicity in these absurd appeals to U.N. resolutions as a basis for war when the security council does not authorize it. Israel is a good example because there are so man that they disregard with justification. It is also silly to attack honorable men like Gen. Zinni and refer to their words and actions as "sewage" or "congealed mucous" as the kid over at National Review does in his article. The folks in Iraq want us out. To keep defending the war on the basis of the Iraqi interest is not persuasive. They don't want us there, if they ever really did.