Pete, you are a legend in your own mind, not mine.

Well no one cares about your inferior mind you stupid, pathetic, disgusting, vile, horrid, intolerable little peasant piece of filth!

There was much discussion as to whether Iraq was complying.

It was generally agreed that Iraq had started complying with allowing the inspectors access to facilityies and records (they initially refused access to imperial palaces). The contenscious point was whther Iraq was allowing full access to individuals. Many individuals refused to talk to the weapon inspectors without Iraqi government officials present. No legal right the UN had could force them to make the inspectors speak. The letter of the article was therefore not broken. Some were suspicious that Saddam was keeping the scientists quiet through threats or some other means.

It was actually a different paragraph requirying Saddam to provide lists of all WMD and weapons that the US claimed was broken! They claimed Saddam failed to account for quantities of WMD that they knew he once had, that his short range missiles could possible travel further than allowed, and that he was trying to process Uranium.

The UN security council did NOT agree that Iraq was in breach of article 1441.

Paul.

Much of the UN security council had made, and stood to make, billions from Hussein. No great wonder then that they opted to ignore situations that might lead to the unseating of the hateful, insane business partner.

This is going to be one of those discussions relegated to the "The US allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked" files. Sour grapes, an argumentative bent, whatever you want to call it, there'll always be someone willing to bloviate for an hour, regardless of the fact that the world is a better place.

Some will always question the means, regardless of the ends. Thank God such paralyzed people aren't relied upon to make decisions, and we should make certian we don't put such folks in positions of power.

Actually US companies made more from the oil for food programme than any other nationality.

Article 1441 was the wrong reason to try to invade Iraq. It was a mistake to try to argue for an invasion based on this. People knew this was just an excuse and were upset with the US for not being honest. They then got even more upset when the US tries to bully others into supporting article 1442. If the US and UK had been honest about their reasons from the start then maybe the UN would have supported action. To demonise France and others for not making a decision to invade based on a flimsy excuse of article 1441 as oppossed to the real reasons is pathetic.

Madine's article above gives good solid reasons for invading Iraq. These are at least reasons that people can seriously debate. These are proper reasons. Indeed, these are believeable reasons. These are the reasons the UN should have been debating, not article 1441.

Paul.

Article 1441 was the wrong reason to try to invade Iraq. It was a mistake to try to argue for an invasion based on this. People knew this was just an excuse and were upset with the US for not being honest. They then got even more upset when the US tries to bully others into supporting article 1442. If the US and UK had been honest about their reasons from the start then maybe the UN would have supported action. To demonise France and others for not making a decision to invade based on a flimsy excuse of article 1441 as oppossed to the real reasons is pathetic. Madine's article above gives good solid reasons for invading Iraq. These are at least reasons that people can seriously debate. These are proper reasons. Indeed, these are believeable reasons. These are the reasons the UN should have been debating, not article 1441.

Exxcellent post. This sums up my feelings on the matter.