I don't agree with what Saddam did or how he ran his country, but in the bigger picture, I don't think we should go take out anyone we don't agree with either.

As for policing the world, if it is anyone's job it is the entire UN. The rest of the UN wasn't convinced, but we went in anyway. The UN may be the closest thing to the police, but not the US alone.

As far as looking outside the US perspective, it fits in with some of the other messages in this thread. If we don't look at them and try to understand them we aren't going to get anywhere. Is continuing to throw troops at them going to solve anything? They aren't giving up...they look forward to dying because of their extremist views. I'm sure they think there are more riches and women for them with Allah the more of us they can take out first.
I think we need to look beyond Saddam at the big picture...how does the rest of the world view our actions. How do we affect relations by taking out these weaker countries. A lot of other countries don't view what we did as right, regardless of opinion in the US (which is divided, as we can tell). As was mentioned earlier, let's just not keep fighting everyone and creating more enemies along the way.

This can go on and on, because I don't think anyone knows what the right answer is and how to ultimately handle the situation effectively. I don't think the govt. has been able to do it, and I don't have much confidence that Kerry taking over would lead to a different plan of action that would work either. I've had enough of this thread for now....I'm out.