Election 2004: The 5MV District

[Sa'ar Chasm]

I've spent the last ten years wondering why we didn't stick it out and do it the first time!

Pick you conspiracy theory (no guarantee on the level of rationality):
1) King George the First figured he'd need a scapegoat to blame ills on later (every President needs a nemesis: Reagan had Khomeini, Kennedy had Krushchev, everyone had Castro)
2) Encouraging the Shi'ites and Kurds to rise up, promising them help and then leaving them high and dry seemed like a good idea
3) Since most of Bush's cronies had helped put Saddam in power in the first place, it seemed like a flip-flop.
4) The Iranians might get uppity again, and we needed a client state next door to threaten them with.

The only argument for going into Iraq that would have carried any weight with me would be an admission of responsibility and a promise to try and clean up previous messes.

"We know Saddam has weapons. We kept the receipts."