>would they do this if the US/UK weren't launching an attack, and,
>say, the Kurds or the Shias were? If not, why not?
I may be weighing in late on this, but aren't there a number of obvious answers?
kurds/shias attempting to topple the hussein govt would not have the capacity (or desire) to kill hundreds of thousands, indeed millions of iraqis and/or destroy entire civilian infrastructure as the last and future war and sanctions did/ will do;
it would be a case of people within a country attempting to change their government, not the anglo-american "white man's burden" at work;
and like someone already mentioned, these are our governments and our tax dollars at work, and we bear a tremendous responsibility for the brutality they commit, which so far has been well above and beyond anything saddam could have ever dreamed.
'In the face of this approaching disaster, it behooves men and women not yet overcome by war madness to raise their voice of protest, to call the attention of the people to the crime and outrage which are about to be perpetrated on them' -Emma Goldman