Abhijit Bhattacharya wrote:

The Bush administration has been spending enormous sums of money on
"potential" threats that Iraq supposedly posed while ignoring real
threats like those posed by North Korea.

North Korea is not being ignored, but it does represent a much tougher nut to
crack. I think the problems we're encountering with North Korea (possible
nuclear weapons being the the biggest problem) were the main reason we decided
to go into Iraq as soon as we did.

Plus, with ten times as many
troops in Iraq as in Afghanistan, the true "war on terror" is being
starved of resources.

The "true" war on terror exists outside of Afghanistan. You could increase U.S.
force numbers in Afghanistan by twenty and still be getting the same results,
albeit with more U.S. casulties.

I would have preferred that Hussein had remained in power

You and most of the democratic party in the U.S.

he was a
secular dictator who kept those Islamic fundamentalists in his country
from achieving the influence that they clearly now have for the first
time.

However, while he clamped down on Islamic Fundamentalists inside Iraq, he
supported both Hamas and Hezbullah by giving money to the families of suicide
bombers in Isreal and was actively helping Al Queada personnel fighting the
U.S. in Afghanistan. We know al Zarquawi received medical treatment in Baghdad
for wounds from fighting in Afghanistan, but how many more were helped that we
*don't* know about?

The US is much worse off by the invasion of Iraq, which has allowed
Islamic fundamentalism to take hold in there

There hold is tenuous and much less capable of being exported beyond its
borders than it would have been had Hussain remained in charge.


BUFDRVR

"Stay on the bomb run boys, I'm gonna get those bomb doors open if it harelips
everyone on Bear Creek"