Reply #11: Thank you, Crunchy. I'll give it my best shot.

[conservative chick]

For many of us on the conservative side of things, Operation Desert Storm was unfinished business. We heard all the reasons given for not going into Baghdad but were not terribly satisfied that Saddam remaining in power was a good idea. Heck, even the powers that be at the time had conflicting viewpoints.

As the UN resolutions continued to be largely ignored by the Saddam regime and evidence (good or bad) of WMD's continued to mount, the Administration made the decision that Saddam was not only deadly to his own people, but to us as well.

I know that one of the main arguments from the left is that we went into Iraq for their oil. I'm not trying to be disrespectful for asking this question, I really want to know -- do you have a link that shows that we have accessed/appropriated/utilized the Iraq oil fields for American profits?

At any rate. I believe that Saddam was as evil a monster as many other dictators in history. And yes, I am well aware that he was, in large part, a monster of our own making. But for me, that doesn't mean that we ignore the problem, have him continue to slaughter and starve his own people simply because he once benefitted from American largess.

Thank you for the welcomes -- I hope I'm allowed to stick around for at least a little while. If not, well, I tried.