Lets clear the air here -
To say that Bush took pre-emtive action is wrong. The Gulf War of 1991 never ended because Saddam Hussein didn't want it to.
Great Britain & the United States of America have been at war with Saddam's Iraqi regime since 1991. The US military has policed the "no-fly" zone to prevent the extermination of the Kurdish and Shia populations. Almost daily Saddam violated the UN-supervised truce by firing on British and American planes. CLINTON bombed Baghdad in 1998 (during each day of his impeachment trial) - Clinton bombed Iraqi military targets in response to an assasignation attempt on George H W Bush, AND helped passed the Iraqi Liberation Act to bring about the forceable removal of Hussein
Saddam differs on his interpretation of Islam BUT kills indiscriminately nonetheless. Yes Saddam = Taliban.
How do you decipher one circumstance from the other. The Taliban were mass murderers and dictators - as a group. Saddam Hussein was so good at it he made it a one man job. The Taliban at least had a theological ideal to enforce when it stoned women to death or had a public execution or banned music, literature, dancing, etc. - Saddam would kill on a whim. Saddam is the man who set up torture & rape rooms, gassed his own peoples, genocide was a stroll in the park. The guy killed his own family members because he was paranoid - just like islamic fundamentalists kill sisters or daughters who have been raped because it shames their family. They are morally equivalent.
Oil-for-Food is the biggest scam in history. French bureaucrats, Russian businessmen, and individuals with the UN profited at the expense of starving Iraqi children. The United Nations is proving itself impotent and irrelevant.
Though the almighty surrogate, the UN, Europe set out to shape world opinion against America, more importantly against the Bush white house. Why? Because George called their bluff. Sixteen UNSC Resolutions were leved against Saddam. He had 12 damn years to comply - why did prominent UN members let him slide? MONEY. This why the US was forced into unilateralism. France, China, & Russia were all to lose a business partner in Saddam Hussein's overthrow. We are only now stratching the surface of Oil-for-Food. Where to start? Should I even begin to throw out names? There is now evidence that Kofi Annon's son pocketed kick-back money for chrissakes. Saddam turned bribery and deception into an art form - yet the world wanted to play the waiting game with Saddam.
CNN - Iraqi bribes to UN
MSNBC - Oil-for-Food Scandal
Aljazeera.net - Oil-for-Food Scandal
National Review - Kofi & Koji
Washington Times - Russian/French influence
I don't get a lot of Deutsch news - I can only go on what makes headlines in the US.
At no time did I say the Germans weren't fighting in Afghanistan. I am well aware of the fact Germany is on the ground and in the mountains helping eliminate islamofacism. I appreciate their efforts. That is why the poll is so upsetting to me personally. Lets assume the poll is slanted and/or misleading - (they claim 30% believe the US may have "sponsored" the attacks) - am i supposed to feel better if only 1 in 10 Germans think the US government was involved in 9/11?
Bin Laden has launched jihad on the WESTERN WORLD, which, last time I checked, included Germany. I expect solidarity from our allies in the global war on terror. If at any point we as civilized cultures find ourselves divided against each other we become more vulnerable to attack. April 5, 1986 - the Berlin disco bombing - don't you guys get it? We are all in this together. A suicide bomber isn't going to think twice about walking into a german shopping mall, or church, or school and blowing it up just because Gerherdt Schroder condemed the war in Iraq.
If America had it to do all over again we would have take Hitler out in 1937. We were isolationists and MILLIONS more died because we did not act pre-emtively. The choice is now clear - which side of history does Europe want to be on?