It wasn’t everything I wanted to hear, but it wasn’t bad.

###We don’t have to ask permission

That was the key phrase in the whole evening. We don’t need the permission of the UN to act in our own self interest (and as a byproduct, in the interest of the World even if they don’t believe it).

###It really is that simple

Iraq has had 12 years to disarm. They continue to arm, they continue to fund terrorism, they continue to have no respect for the rest of the world. Do I **want*’ to go to war? Hell no! Do I ”’believe”’ that it’s the right thing to do? ‘*Hell yes!**.

The choice is Sadam Hussein’s. It really is that simple.

###Democracy

Also, it’s wonderful to hear George talk about freedom for the people in the middle east. I have a friend, however, that’s from that area and has taken the time to explain to me that the people there wouldn’t know what to do with freedom if they had it. The very idea of it scares them.

I just hope that we do the right thing… it’s going to take a couple of generations of freedom and democracy there for things to shake out. Dow we have the stomach for a 50 year occupation?

I hope so.

12 years and 17 resolutions later and Iraq is still thumbing its nose at the UN.

Counting from April 18, 1991, the 15th day after passage of U.N. Resolution 687, more than 4,330 days have passed since Iraq put itself in material breach of international obligations. It did so by ignoring that resolution’s 15-day deadline for listing the locations, amounts and types of all its chemical and biological weapons, all “nuclear weapons-usable” materials, and for disclosing the location of Scud and other ballistic missiles with ranges above 90 miles. So the current “rush” to war has consumed almost half again as many as all the 3,075 days of U.S. engagement in World Wars I and II and the Korean War.

So, like always, it’s going to take the US to stand up to the bullies of the world. To put it bluntly, no other country (with the possible exceptions of Great Britain and Israel) has the balls to **do the right thing**.

Yep. We helped Sadam Hussein and Iraq back in the 80’s. Yep, we supplied them with weapons. Does that really matter now? Jeff Jacoby says emphatically **no**.

Are American presidents forever barred from denouncing a vicious oppressor and leading a war against him because some of their predecessors neglected to do so?

There is no surer recipe for increasing evil in the world than the doctrine that evil may be confronted only by those who have never failed to do good. Our embrace of Saddam in the ’80s was shameful. How much greater our shame would be if we refused to destroy him now.

Very true. Why don’t people understand this?

Should the US go to war even if the UN Security Council votes against the resolution?