You do realise that the Iraq had one of the best records for womens rights in the region don't you? Just one of the many, many reasons that Saddam and the Talliban didn't see eye to eye...
That is not even remotely relevant to what I said, which related to contemporary perception of the war and the likely effect of failing to prosecute it effectively.
Another poster bangs on about "Anglo" countries and he is right to do so. It is highly significant that it is the countries that share the common law and the English language are the ones that have chosen, for the second time in a century, to stand up to fascism rather than seek to cut a deal with it.
Isalmic radicalisation does not post-date the invasion of Iraq. Radical preachers have been active in the UK - especially on college campuses - for more than ten years. These people regard western liberal society as terminally decadent; they are determined to extinguish the values we hold and they are ready to accomplish this by force.
Iraq's place in this? That no WMD were found is not proof that none existed, though I accept is it highly persuasive. What cannot be disputed are Saddam's ambitions, plans and attempts to produce or procure nuclear weapons which without effective intervention would eventually have succeeded. Once ejected from Afghanistan, where were Al Qaeda going to settle?
Iraq was also to some extent a "target of opportunity" -- the state against whom ate least SOME western opinion could be mobilized. You gotta start somewhere!
It is to the credit of Bush and those around this that he perceived the need to fight this war. It is to his serious discredit that the war has been to say the least ineptly fought, with too little preparation for the aftermath of invasion - but the prescriptions offered by various opponents would not at this time improve the position: they would make it worse. Supporting Bush is therefore the only game in town and regretfully that is what I must do.
As to the tawdry comments about money: money is simply what we use to run our lives. Having a proportion of it grabbed by the government for ITS purposes, diminishes our ability to achieve OUR purposes as individuals whether that is handing it over to famine relief or spending it on big-dick porn. I simply believe in expanding the sphere of individual choice, by restricting the sphere of state choice. Now, who was it who said: "It's the economy, stupid!" ?