He'll be confirmed, but its unfortunate. I don't want a Secretary of Defense who believes that the Persian Gulf and the Middle East would be more secure today if SADDAM HUSSIAN was still in power in Iraq.
The United States and its allies went to war with Saddam in 1991 because of his unprovoked invasion of Kuwait. Afterwards, US strategy while leaving Saddam in place put heavy international sanctions on Saddam and required Saddam to disarm of his WMD programs. Saddam cooperated early on, but in the mid to late 90s began to block and harrass inspectors and not cooperate. In addition, by 2000 many countries began to ignore the sanctions and Saddam used his oil wealth to bribe countries, organizations and individuals to start looking the other way. Saddam made Billions of dollars in black market oil in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Containment, the only option other than regime change at that point, had fallen apart.
The invasion in 2003 to remove Saddam was a necessity because containment had collapsed as well as the reports of WMD. But its important to mention that all US activity since the end of the 1991 GULF WAR was about PREVENTING SADDAM from getting WMD. Military force was also an option in accomplishing that task.
Only a fool would believe that the United States should have waited to invade Iraq and remove Saddam until he actually had WMD. WMD that could be used on US forces as they entered the country as well as civilians in Iraq and other countries in the region. Again, the objective is to PREVENT Saddam from getting WMD, not wait until he has it before doing something!
Hopefully are defense and foreign policy establishment will be able to weather the Kerry and Hagels weakness on defense and foreign policy issues over the next four years.
I don't normally support term limits for politicians, but I'm glad their in place to get Obama out in four years!
What you are saying is ridiculous. Saddam was defeated. The youth of his country was killed during Desert Storm and an 8 year war with Iran.
The guy was barely hanging on. What ever happened to "common sense" in the right wing?
If that were the case, Saddam would have been removed from power years before the 2003 invasion.
Instead, Saddam's power steadily increased from the late 1990s onwards as the sanctions regime fell apart.
In 2001, China broke the weapons embargo and help install a new air defense system with fiber optic capables for Saddam's military. Russian and French airlines were starting to run daily services which were also against sanctions. Syria opened up its entire border to Iraqi goods and services and let Saddam's oil be sold through its own pipline. Naturally, all of these people are making money off the process.
As long as your luck and blessed to be sitting on so much oil in the ground, you are ALWAYS in the game. Oil is money, and money is power.
Finally, Saddam's military was still one of the largest in the world at the time of the 2003 invasion.
Consider the fact that Saddam still had the following:
Active military manpower: 387,000
Main Battle Tanks: 2,700
Armored Personal Carriers: 2,200
Artillery towed and self propelled: 2,400
Multiple Rocket Launchers: 250
Short Range Ballistic Missiles: dozens
Combat Aircraft: 300
Plus, the scientist, know how, and facilities to produce sarin nerve gas, anthrax, and other types of WMD. The fact that we did not find actual weapons of with these agents when we invaded
DOES not change the fact that he had the ability to mass produce such weapons and failed to comply with the UN resolutions regarding those weapons and the means of producing them!
