-> On 16 Apr 09  18:07:00, Bob Klahn got back to Dan Ceppa 
-> Re: US foreign policy

 DC> to their reasons to invade.  The neocons were hell bent on
 DC> going after Saddam.

 BK> Yeah, I remember.

 BK> First he wouldn't allow inspections. He allowed inspections.
 BK> Then he wouldn't allow them to go where they wanted. He let them

He needed to to prevent his neighbors from knowing how weakened he 
had become.  

 BK> go anywhere they wanted. Then it was getting late in the year,
 BK> and if we waited it would be too hot. We been there 7 years and
 BK> it's gotten hot every year.

There are conditions that just are not conducive for regular, let 
alone miltary, activity.  One example on the other end of the 
temperature scale is invadimg Russia in the winter. 

 BK> Then Bush gave Saddam 2 weeks to leave the country. I wondered,
 BK> who the hell are you to give anyone two weeks to leave his own
 BK> country?

I thought that was a silly thing to do.  But, it enforced W's need 
to sound as if he was the western sheriff confronting Big Black Bart.  

 
 DC> The Mushroom Cloud, though, was their most effective
 DC> driving force on public opinion.

 BK> Yes, it was.

They used that one as often as they could.  Further, they had the 
media in line.  The media dropped the ball and never questioned 
W's reasons for the war.  Something like 97% of the guest commentary 
was pro-war.  LBJ and Nixon would have been envious.  



... Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?
--- OMX/Blue Wave/DOS v2.30