wrote in message
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On Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:37:12 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

People seem to forget we were bombing Iraq virtually every day for 10
years. We didn't have many friends from that either. Three presidents
did that. Why didn't Bush 1 and Clinton get us out of there ?

We bombed them when we felt our patrols were being targeted, remember?
Once
Saddam's forces were sent home with their tails between their legs, we
didn't continue with major forays into the country.

We did bomb the **** out of them foir the next 10 years with impunity
in the name of "no fly zones".
That stopped with 9-11 when Islam proved we were "touchable" too.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I recall our limiting our bombing to points containing
radar & antiaircraft weaponry, not missions into their cities. Never mind.
The point was that our goal at that stage was, as you said, the no-fly zone,
or containment.

Here's what really concerns me: I keep hearing news reports about how
there's a growing number of Iranians who are disgusted with the lunatics who
run their country. Some of them give up and leave for other countries.
Various agencies of ours try and reach the ones who stay, with varying
measures of success. There is no reason to believe that we missed an
opportunity to do the same in Iraq, and will never again have a chance.
Instead, Bush chose to invade that country for reasons which are not worth
debating here.

The best way to collapse a regime is from within. But, it does not produce
the erection that the current administration desperately needs in order to
be personally happy.