Replies to post #62873 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[sarals]

In desert storm, sadaam committed an act of agression that by implication threatened them. It was in their self interest to join in the fight to remove sadaam from kuwait.

but it took a whole lot of diplomacy to convince the Saudi's and other Arab countries to allow US troops on their soil... it violated some basic principals of their culture and was a major concern.

and I guess you then agree that the neighboring countries didn't believe saddam was a not a threat to them.

[seabass]

>>>The two situations really aren't analagous. In desert storm, sadaam committed an act of agression that by implication threatened them.<<<

Ok, so you agree that the surrounding arab countries had already felt threatened by Iraq in the past and had no problem joining as then. So why wouldn't they feel threatened by Saddam Hussein possessing:

25,000 liters of anthrax
38,000 liters of botulinum toxin
500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent
30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents

Maybe because they, like much of the rest of the world, concluded that the threat was overblown by Bush. And unlike Bush, most world leaders still feel uneasy about going to war on false pretense.