Comment Re:Blood on his hands (Score 0) 489
The reason why other countries in the UN and NATO were not quick to take up arms (Only the US and UK are fighting in Iraq, the rest of NATO is in Afganistan), is that the UN inspectors were not pushed through with military support, so the UN was not finished with their efforts, which was a sure fire way to either verify WMD, or provoke an attack from the Iraq forces on the inspectors, either result would have given full NATO support for the attack. This is a very unpleasant option as it puts a great number of people at risk, if he had WMD he might have been provoked to use them, if soldiers were on the ground, they would have no support and they would likely all be killed. My estimation is that the Blackhawk down event soured the political will to have soldiers wounded or killed, if you look at the numbers from Somalia, the American Forces there kicked ass, it was unfortunate that they left before the country could get back on its feet. Also note your letter does not say only military intervention, it refers to diplomatic and political efforts, which were not fully exhausted as Saddam calls for last minute negotiations went unanswered, as the US was committed militarily to invade at that point.