Quote Originally Posted by Joemeek
He was a threat to his neighbours. There was a need to protect his neighbours from his aggression; and to protect the people of Iraq, who have suffered most of all from his brutality.

Quote-Saddam Hussein is the first world leader in modern times to have brutally used chemical weapons against his own people. His goals were to systematically terrorize and exterminate the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, to silence his critics, and to test the effectiveness of his chemical and biological weapons. Hussein launched chemical attacks against 40 Kurdish villages and thousands of innocent civilians in 1987-88, using them as testing grounds. The worst of these attacks devastated the city of Halabja on March 16, 1988

So again, should we just have left this "thug" as some people would call him to it ? It still surprises me how some people like to live with their head in the sand.
Saddam was weaker than most of his neighbors because the sanctions devastated Iraq. If we were so concerned of protecting Iraqi lives, we wouldn't of put sanctions on Iraq which only hurt the poor and middle class. These sanctions lets to hundreds of thousands of deaths and made the Iraqi more dependent on Saddam for food etc and hence less able to overthrow him. More so if we were so concerned about the Iraqis, we wouldn't of support Saddam as he was doing these crimes to Iraqi citizens and Iranians.

We should of left Iraq alone and got rid of the sanctions and the no fly zones. We could of had direct talks with Saddam the included sanctions and a non-aggression treaty. Also, with out sanctions, the Iraq middle class would rebound and be able to challenge Saddam instead of being dependent on him for handouts.