Bruce, you're turning more and more into a "paper" debater.
You lack common sense.
You told us that NO ONE IN AMERICA thought Saddam would abuse deadly agents we sent to his universities. He was in the middle of a war with iran, and his people were uprising. He had killed hundreds (many himself!) his first week in office, and thousands every year, ever since. NO ONE considered this possibility?
Now, you say "An Iraq that is largely free of terror attacks would be one form of victory. The longer term aspiration is to convince young Muslim men that freedom is a far more attractive choice than jihad.".
THIS is the goal our brave folks are dying for? "Convincing young Muslim men"? Dude, you've been reading mother goose. The answers you have, the assumptions you make... you completely ignore the real intentions of man. You're living in f'king candyland, dude.
Interesting post, although I'm not sure you wrote it with your tongue planted firmly against your inner-cheek or if you were serious. For the purpose of debate - I'll assume the latter.
Those universities you mention weren't actually the express property of Saddam. They were medical research facilities trying to save lives - as the Americans were. It's interesting you've neither admitted nor retracted your statement that we, in fact, gave Saddam chemical weapons or indeed WMD. This is despite me having proved to you that your allegations were entirely wrong.
You mentioned me turning this into a 'paper' debate. Well, are you honestly trying to tell me that we're not fighting an ideological war against militant Islamists? Is it not part of this fight to convince a would be enemy that the way of the jihad is an archaic hate ritual that the West has exposed as folly?
Yes, we fight on battlefields, ones that no known enemy can defeat us on. The fall of Saddam is proof that this coalition can take its forces across the world in a matter of days and annihilate the opposition. But, we are also engaged, whether we like it or not, in a war of intellectualism versus middle-age hatred and bigotry. If you believe this side of the war can be won with brute force alone than you do not have my support - the US has a great challenge ahead in persuading the growing Muslim demographic at home and abroad, that the Western way of life and freedom are ideologies worth pursuing. This will be the true test of this war.
