<HTML> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">. Figuring out most Americans' reasoning is like analyzing a Monty Python sketch.  I believe the thinking goes like this:  Saddam wasn't responsible for the 9/11 attacks, but the attacks were just the type of thing he would have done if he'd had the opportunity.  Also, Saddam didn't have weapons of mass destruction, but they're just the type of thing he would have developed if he'd had the opportunity.  So, Saddam was never at any time a threat to the US and could not be a threat to the US, but there is every reason to believe he did not wish us well -- hence, he had to be wiped off the face of the earth.  Oh and BTW, any Iraqi civilians killed by the US during this process would doubtless have been slaughtered at some point by murdering-bastard Saddam, so what the hell. Carl</BLOCKQUOTE> ^^^^^^ CB: An anecdote on US-type people thinking: I was in the doctor's office waiting room. There was a television ,and the news saying something about problems with Iraqis choosing their own govenment now. A guy, oh about sixty, said: "They can't choose their own government. They've got three religions there that have been at war with each other for thousands of years." He sort of said it in my direction like he wanted some agreement from me on it. I "bit" my tongue and gave no response, verbal or facial. The guy who said this sort of looked a little like Rumsfeld. I suppose the implication is that the poor, put upon U.S. has the latest chapter of the White Man's Burden to pick the government for Iraq. </HTML>