Interesting that raph brought up the topic of Saddam actually going into exile like the US and others have demanded. I was thinking about it recently. Based on my totally unsubstantiated personal opinion and having not actually verified any facts, should Saddam actually go into exile, he would pose more of a threat to the US, Allies, neighboring arab world, etc...

Saddam, being the dictator that he is, starves his people and has become rich in the process, supposedly through selling oil on the black market by his sons. An exiled Saddam would presumably take his money, family and "regime" with him to a friendly nation. Saddam, obviously a power hungry, evil man, without a country to run and millions (billions?) of dollars at his disposal could presumably become a seriously legitimate international terrorist threat.

So, I find it ironic that while the US is fighting a war on terrorism, largely focused on another rich arab exile, is demanding a course of action that could result in *another* serious terrorist threat as a solution to the Iraq situation. The "Iraq situation" admittedly part of our war on terrorism through pre-emptive strike.

While I have mixed feelings as to the justifications of the Iraq situation, one thing is clear, Saddam's exile is not the solution. If we are going to go through with this, Saddam must come out of this either dead or as a tried war criminal.

One thing I am sure about is that alot more people could be helped (both domestically and internationally) with the amount of money that is being devoted to killing others than by waging war half-way around the world.

I also wish people would stop with this oil business. There are better, cheaper ways of getting oil out of Iraq. Not to mention the fact that we get a significant, if not most of our oil from outside the middle east, like Venezuela, which with it's current political situation and oil crisis has been largely ignored by the US.