1 If you are so concerned about kids you might watch this http://www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html as you both contemplate the future for Your kids And consider with remorse or glee as you will, the estimated hundreds of thousands of iraqi kids who died under US led sanctions. Also You might remember that Saddam was just following the Brits 1922 lead; http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/e/omissi_graun_19jan1991.html Like Saddam's brothers, the squadrons of the Royal Air Force flew most of their missions against the Kurds who resented rule from Baghdad. For 10 years, the British waged an almost continuous bombing campaign in the oil-rich and mountainous north-east against the Kurdish rebels, to whom they had earlier promised autonomy. The Iraqi air force - which the British had built up, trained and equipped - carried on the work after Iraq became nominally independent in 1932. Churchill consistently urged that the RAF should use mustard gas during these raids, despite the warning by one of his advisors that "it may ... kill children and sickly persons, more especially as the people against whom we intend to use it have no medical knowledge with which to supply antidotes". In the event the air force did not use gas bombs - for technical rather than humanitarian reasons.

2 I keep hearing about "hundreds of thousands of iraqi kids who died under US led sanctions." Somehow, I find that difficult to even imagine with a rational mind. There doesn't seem to be a dearth of teenagers and young adults in that country. The wonderful "Oil for Food Program" was in place to help with things like baby formula, and medicines were never sanctioned. Unfortunately, our friends in France and Russia assisted Saddam in getting things other than the food and medicine he was supposed to have free access to. There are many parallels I could draw from in history for many things. Proving a point (which it really doesn't) with a piece of information gleaned from millions of contrary ones should give you some idea of how poor your logic is. Of course, you are interested in bashing the US, not in logical thought.

3 Somebody buy Charlie a time machine so he can back and stop the Brits. Then, he can stop our allies the French from killing the Jews, and our other allies the Germans from killing the Jews, and our other allies the Russians from killing the Jews. Maybe he can also stop our French friend Napoleon from invading and killing everybody. Of course, if he could stop M. Guillotine from helping to kill thousands of innocent French during the 'Terror', that would be nice too. And if he still has time, perhaps he can prevent the French from training future genocidal lunatics in Rwanda and Cambodia. It takes a first class educational system to create a Pol Pot!

4 >the estimated hundreds of thousands of iraqi >kids who died under US led sanctions Oddly enough, I agree with you that sanctions didn't work. They never work. They only hurt the people, not the scum in power. The only answer, as you have no doubt figured out, is to immediately remove bad leaders from power. Surely you advocated the immediate removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq three months after the 1991 cease-fire was signed, since that's when he violated it. Obviously, you understand that sanctions on Syria, Iran and North Korea won't work either -- sanctions only hurt the people. The leaders of rogue nations must be removed. I'm SO glad you've realised this.

5 I beg to differ that sanctions only hurt the people. It was Saddam that was hurting his people. He was the one that put them through wars and in mass graves. He got to decide what to buy through the oil for food program for his people via sanctions. That is the promise the U. N. hospitably provided to Saddam as they received their kickbacks as Kofi Annan's son was supervising what sanction approved products made it into Iraq. Sadly, supplies meant for the people were siphoned by a madman slowly refurbishing his finances through bribes and kickbacks at the U. N. as the U. N. looked on getting fat as the Iraqi people starved. This sad plight of people suffering under oppresive regimes can look to Sudan where the only country presently dropping food for the Sudanese people is the United State of America. Where is France? Where is Germany? China? Russia?

6 >I beg to differ that sanctions only hurt the >people. It was Saddam that was hurting his >people. You're right, of course. Allow me to rephrase my point. Sanctions on a non-democratic nation only hurt the people.