I know the French would like to see him returned to power because they have quite a few contracts with him worth mucho dinero that won't be honored if he isn't.

No one thought that he was a good leader; everyone was in agreement that the guy was a thug. It was an 'unjust war' because the reasons given for it were shaky and unsubstantiated; it takes more than "we don't like him" and "he has WMD...somewhere...we can feel it..."

Good point Pete. I was thinking this when I was watching the news last Saturday. In a sense they were all (including some of the Dems.) saying "We're so glad Saddam is captured, but we don't think you should have gone in there and captured him."

Again, I think the relief is that the "Viet-now" atmosphere that has developed since the American invasion will somehow quiet (after it briefly gets worse) now that they have the "head honcho;" no more disillusioned Iraqis thinking that Saddam will return in glory...cut the head off, and the resistance will scatter (hopefully). That means no more American lives lost. The relief comes as a result of the unjust war; it isn't an attitude of, "Well, I was opposed to going in and getting him, but now I'm really glad you did it." It's more of, "Well, you did it, and thankfully you have captured Saddam so that his loyalists will stop senslessly killing American and UN soldiers."

Yeah, that's exactly what it is.

My opinion... who gives a shit if no WMD's are found? Who gives a shit if Saddam wasn't an immediate threat to the U.S. The guy was brutal. It was a known fact, no one in the world disputed it, that he had WMD's at one point. It's a documented fact that he used nerve agents to wipe out kurdish villages in the north and south. The guy invaded another sovereign country. The punishment in his regime for speaking out against him was having your tongues ripped out-- at best. We've already uncovered mass graves with thousands of bodies of political prisoners.

Now, why was it unjust that we went in to take down his regime?

Hi Craig. Presented like that, the "take down" of his regime doesn't seem to be unjust. Yet please attempt to remember back to the reasons given for going to war with Iraq: Saddam is a brutal leader, AND HE IS A DIRECT THREAT TO THE SECURITY OF THE US. Then there were flying accusations that, "Yes! He's also linked with terrorists!" As if Saddam needed any aid in demonizing his actions, the US demonized him further. The simple fact is this: once our ally and business partner, Saddam invaded a "sovereign" country that sat on the hottest oil bed in the Middle East; from the time that George W. took office, his motto was, "There needs to be a regime change in Iraq." Remember that? And Sept. 11 gave him license to pursue that goal with less obstacles. It is sad, but true. Hopefully, the Iraqi people will now be out from under an oppressive force, whether that be Saddam or the US. They are not little children who need to be taught how to run a government.

There is no doubt that he was a brutal dictator. But I cannot just say, "who gives a shit that we haven't found WMD..." I refuse to dismiss it that easily. It was the main pretense for war here in the US (a "clear and present danger" to the security of the US), and it was basically the ONLY pretense for war in England. They were flat wrong, and many people smelt it out. How can a country who had been placed under a US/UN-led embargo that denied Iraq pencillin for 13 years produce WMD? With what? And the UN inspector fiasco was just as Saddam said: they didn't want foreigners in their business (dumb, but true). Nevertheless, it is over, the country is a bit decimated (not near as decimated as Afghanistan, thanks to US might), and Saddam is no longer killing his people. For that, I am honestly happy. As MLK, Jr said, "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

It seems to me that you are saying that the war was just for reason A, but they said we were doing it for reason B, so the war was not just. I don't believe that is how it happened, but if the war is just for reason A, then the war is just, regardless of the stated reason.

well said.