My first thought on the subject is and always has been why, all of a sudden, did Iraq become a concern? The Gulf ``War'' was a decade ago, we heard nothing out of it for that entire decade, then, suddenly, it becomes an issue a few months after Sept. 11, 2001. I have yet to hear any evidence that Iraq's position changed around that time, nor that any contraband was found.

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut, I'm starting to honestly feel that this is all a big smokescreen. For what, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe for the fact that we've been unable to find Osama bin Laden. Maybe so that it becomes easier to curtail US civil liberties.

I also find the discrepancy between how we're dealing with Iraq and North Korea interesting. N. Korea has made blatant threats, and we're still well inside diplomacy as a tactic. Iraq has done, as far as I can tell, nothing, yet we're threatening the use of nuclear weapons against them.

Also, preventative attacks are explicitly against international law. Someone in the US government apparently claimed that it would be okay since we're talling them about it first. Did it make it okay when your school bully told you that he was going to pound you after school? I don't think so.

(In partial violation of point 4, it really embarrasses me on every level for GWB to claim that Saddam went after his daddy, especially considering that GHWB is the person most responsible for putting Saddam in power in the first place, back when he was the Director of the CIA.)