There is still the issue of the other Arab states - no matter whether they like Saddam or not, they like Western countries waging war on Arabs less. To be part of that is to antagonise the other Arab nations. As an example, Australia is already in a difficult situation with our vocal support of the war against terror vs our continuing strong relations with Iran now that GWB has announced his Axis of Evil. Someone recently posted an article which talked about the US antagonising billions to support a few million Israelis - maybe Europe feels the same way about Iraq?
Cheers Russell C. But it is, on the other hand, very important to remember that what the Arab states _say_ and what they actually believe are often two very different things. I was just in a seminar with an Arab political scientist - I don't want to identify him more closely than that - and he was quite clear in saying that there was widespread support for eliminating Saddam Hussein, particularly among the liberalizers in the Arab world. For obvious reasons, we want to support the liberalizers. He thought that a decisive removal of Hussein and his regime would both be very good for the immediate stability of the Gulf _and_ would provide great encouragement to liberal forces within the Arab world. But he was also unwilling to say that in public - I assume fear of reprisal from the radical Islamists. As for the difficult situation that the US has put you in - maybe that's a good thing. Maybe you _shouldn't have_ close relations with a government that supports Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that just attempted to smuggle weapons into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a gross violation of the Oslo Accords, and that has been pretty clearly shown to be responsible for the murder of American servicemen in the 1998 bombings. I, like most Americans, am grateful for Australia's support - but Bush's statement causes you to rethink your relationship with Iran, I can't say I'm unhappy with that fact. In fact, I'd say good for him for introducing some moral clarity into a situation where moral ambiguity only favors the terrorist states. Gautam
