Form 180?
 

Briticisms don't become you, really. Note that this is constructive criticism, not meanness.

Form 180?
 

you can be thick as a brick- no offense

Form 180?
 

now that "thick as a brick" line from whatever song is running through my head. Again, constructive.

Form 180?
 

I think that after Guld war I, the conventional wisdowm was that Saddam would fall to the Shiites and the Kurds. HW Bush has said many times that that was what he assumed. Saddam lasted longer than anyone imagined. The no flight zones were gettting harder to enforce and it was just a matter of time before one of our pilots got shot down and was captured by Saddam. He had completely disregarded the treaty that ended Gulf War I and the sanctions were only hurting the natives. The status quo couldn't last. The US had the choice of giving up on forcing him to comply with the treaty and cooperating wiht the inspectors or invade. After 9-11, I think the administration decided that this what not a time to act weak by giving up on enforcing the treaty and giving up on the Weapons Inspections. In addition, they probably thought that considering there were terrorists out there it was just a matter of time before they hooked up with the Iraqi regime. So the choice was 1) leave a hostile regime, that might hook up with other terrorrists (maybe giving them a WMD) that is constantly thumbing its nose at us by shooting at our planes and stopping the inspectors, and since we had fought him before, new we could take him out pretty easily, 2) or invade, solve all those problems and show the terrorists and the rest of the world that rules had completely changed after 9-11.

Number 2 was the only choice. They just tried to package it the best they could.

Form 180?
 

If you're going to start in on one of those Halliburton rants, I'm telling BRC.

Form 180?
 

Bush was just that offended about the violations of international law.

Form 180?
 

No but you lose credibility if you are part of these resolutions and nothing is done. The US sits on the security council and was part of the proceedings that issued these resolutions. There is nothing worse to ones crediblity than empty threats. And in the international community, if a country's resolve is in question then other countries will be more inclined to disregard your national interest. The UN kept issuing these resolutions, letting their inspectors be pushed around, and continue to let Saddam flout the resolutions. Every time one of these resolutions was issued and not backed, was another day that the UN's credibilty and the US's credibilty diminshed. From my point of view we had two choices. Enforce the UN resolutions or leave the UN. Personally I think the CinC made the right call.

An honest, though partisan, question
 

Oh, I agree that it's a bad idea, one that should go down in flames. It's just that, to me, "Folly" implies something so bad and haunting that it drags down lots of other stuff, as well as the effectiveness and standing of the proponent.

I don't see that happening here. If it does die, (and there's no guarantee it will), I think it just sails away into the sunset, and we all move on.

Arnold Quiz
 

I guess I don't get this. The evidence seems to at least strongly suggest that Davis was taking money in exchange for doing specific things that he would probably not have done. I've seen no such evidence concerning Arnold.

Besides, if this were my ideology speaking, wouldn't I be supporting someone who was a Republican?

An honest, though partisan, question
 

I don't think so. Here's a usage example: "Despite the follies of Bilmore's youth, he has matured into a fine, upstanding, Republican with a good stiff stick firmly entrenched up his ass."

dtb, ruling please?

An honest, though partisan, question
 

I don't think you do nuance well. Note that "Folly" is capitalized. "George's Folly" has a completely different implication than the simple use of the word "follies" in a sentence.

dtb would likely tell you to work on your use of commas.

I would simply add that, looking to the election results, it's a wonder the stick ended up in my ass when it's you who spent all that time bent over.

An honest, though partisan, question
 

The administration is too preoccupied reaming the elderly to worry about me -- they just keep working on giving me more tax breaks. Funny that.

An honest, though partisan, question
 

Given that that's the richest subset of our population, can I take this as your call to Bush to not back down on tax cuts?

Remember Voodoo Economics?
 

My father living on a military pension is truly pleased to be part of the richest subset of the population. I'm sure he'd love to know that cuts in benefits for retired military are going to fund tax cuts for the wealthy elderly.

Remember Voodoo Economics?
 

If you guys are right about the "endless war" he'll probably be called back to active duty soon- and i believe the entails a pay raise.