Some have expressed concerns that the war in Iraq will become another Vietnam, this will not be the case. We learned a hard lesson there about fighting a limited war with no intention of winning a decisive victory. I expect it will be more like the Gulf war where we will use air and missile power to eliminate their defenses, communications and supplies. I suspect that by the time our ground troops go in there, the majority of the Iraqi troops would be willing to surrender to even the French or Belgians just like they did in 91. The Iraqi army has little will to fight for Hussein and most of them are there because they have been forced into it. They are not treated well and receive little compensation for their service. By comparison, the Republican Guard, Hussein's personal body guard army is well payed, treated like royalty, and given many incentives to protect Hussein.
There will probably be some hard fighting when we go into Baghdad because that's where the Republican Guard is gathering to protect their dictator. Also, because we will try to avoid civilian casualties, we won't be as aggressive as we would like to be. We could put the whole city to sleep but we probably won't do that to protect the civilians. Unfortunately, most of the civilians know only what Hussein has told them and will be taking up arms against us thinking that we are there to kill them, which is the last thing we want. Yes, at that point, there will be casualties on both sides, but we will win a quick victory with superior intelligence and firepower.
Some people are saying we should do nothing about Iraq until faced with an eminent threat. Terrorism does not announce it's intentions before it attacks and Americans are not going to wait for another 911 before we take steps to protect ourselves. Our policy since 911 is to eliminate the threat before it can attack us here and abroad and that includes eliminating weapons of mass destruction and rogue dictators that would use them on us. Extreme measures? Perhaps, but we have been seriously injured and our economy is still suffering from the attacks of 911. We have no intention of letting this happen again. We are taking an offensive, instead of defensive stand on terrorism now as was made neccessary by the surprise attacks of 911.
Hussein is a serious threat to the world with his weapons of mass destruction. The UN has voted unanimously 17 times since the Gulf War to disarm him and has yet to follow through and inforce thier demands. Now that we have a strong president, the time has come to inforce the resolutions and some members are chickening out. They have other reasons for thier reluctance as well, including being trading partners with Hussein in spite of the resolutions and sanctions they signed forbidding it. France, Germany, Russia are the biggies here and have been Hussein's largest trading partners since the Gulf War. Obviously, these countries have said one thing and done just the opposite, essentially destroying the credability of the United Nations.
Some of our soldiers will die at the hands of French and German weapons sold over the past decade. Some may die from bio-chem attacks made from materials supplied by France and Germany, etc. Russia? Who knows what kind of trading has been going on with them? They have allot of missing nuclear materials that are unaccounted for.
Inspections haven't worked to eliminate or even find these weapons of mass destruction, and it's only because Iraqi borders are surrounded by American soldiers just waiting to attack, that some of the Al Samood-2 missiles are being destroyed now. This is not cooperation on the part of Saddam Hussein, but rather just another stall tactic to keep the impending war on hold. Just another crumb Hussein is throwing out to the inspectors to fuel the anti-war fight in the UN and give Hans Blix another excuse to claim the inspections are working and keep his job. This, of course, is ridiculous since the Al Samood-2 missiles were declared in the Iraqi Weapons Declaration and not something found by the inspectors. They're putting all this focus on a few missiles that go a few miles further than is allowed as a diversion from their failure to find the real target, the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Blix really doesn't want to find these weapons and would prefer that these inspections go on and our troops keep waiting in the Gulf forever. Blix is on the side of the French and the Germans in this but even he has admitted that the inspections cannot succeed without the full cooperation of Saddam Hussein. That's never going to happen and our President can't keep our troops on hold forever.
The United States doesn't want to look weak, like the French, and chicken out now, and let Hussein win this war before it even starts. We are the driving force behind enforcing the UN resolutions and if we didn't do that, then the UN might just as well close it's doors and go out of business as it would have no power to inforce anything and all the resolutions they pass would continue to be meaningless.
The other thing is the declared war on terror which is a serious commitment of our President to protect this country from terrorist attacks before they happen. So far, they have been doing a pretty great job of it and we haven't been attacked again since 911. We surely would have had it not been for this commitment by Pres. Bush and the work his administration has done to curb it and eliminate terrorists world wide. Hussein's bio-chem weapons are terrorist weapons and they have to go too before they are put into the hands of terrorists and brought into this country. In a nut shell, that's what it's all about, not oil. The only real factor oil plays in this is that without the oil, Hussein could not afford to maintain his weapons programs and feed his armies instead of his people. Those people who have something to contribute to the Hussein regime have a decent life and get what they need to live, the rest of the Iraqis are starving.
We have no intention of taking control of Iraqi oil after the war, that belongs to the Iraqi people and that is the position of the Bush administration. Some oil money will be used to rebuild Iraq and other expenses for the war will be negotiated with the neighboring countries as they will be the real beneficiaries of the war.
We don't intend to stay in Iraq for 20 years, I have heard estimates for as much as 5 to 10 years. The reason for that is to make sure that another Hussein doesn't take over the country and that a stable democratic government is in power with Iraqi military backing before we leave. Whether a democratic government is the best system for those Islamics remains to be seen but our government thinks it gives the Iraqis the best chance for freedom and liberty and stability. In time, it will probably become corrupt just like all the other muslim governments but that will be their problem, not ours.