"Eisboch" wrote in message
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"jps" wrote in message
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It was perfectly obvious to me that they were rushing into war. The
inspectors were pulled out, there was no effort at diplomacy. Saddam
was bluffing and still thought the Americans were his allies.



BTW, I seem to recall that the inspectors were kicked out by Saddam in
violation of UN resolutions to which he had previously agreed. Only after
months of UN debate did Saddam allow limited and controlled access to the
inspectors again and they basically gave up due to the new controls and
limited access. Even that Swedish Chief Inspector (forget his name)
complained bitterly that he couldn't do his job because of the restrictions
imposed by Saddam. Interestingly, he later changed his colors like many
others and claimed that Bush lied to him too. It's all about legacy,
reputation and egos.

Saddam also had begun a practice of shooting at UN resolution authorized
aircraft patrolling the "no fly" zone intended to prevent further Iraqi
aggression against it's neighbors.

Basically, Saddam, after a few short years of recovery from the first Gulf
War was giving the finger to the UN and the rest of the world. Clinton
ignored it, despite warnings from Congress and including members of his own
party. But when Bush took the reigns with a new administration, the
warnings turned into "I was misled and lied to."

Eisboch