the outcome of the election

[smithy]

Libertarians are against the projection of force beyond defending the US borders.  I'm a little more open minded.  I think we need to honor our commitments in defending our allies, but we should encourage them to become self sufficient.

We can discuss the doctrine protected by the UN charter of a threatened nation launching a first strike in order to defend itself.  In the case of Iraq, I agree the evidence of the threat evaporated once we got there, and that is the danger of acting based on bad information.  If North Korea was threatening a missile launch, I would expect the US to act to prevent it if possible.
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For me, the question is at what point do you decide that N.K. really is threatening the US, or any other country for that matter?

Do they have to pursue nuclear weapons development?
Do they need to fire a couple of test weapons?
Do they need to point them at major cities?

The information that we, the American public, have has changed since the months leading up to the Iraq war.

Could it not be argued that North Korea was farther along in their WMD development than Iraq was at the start of this conflict? If my memory servers me, the media coverage in the US was saturated with Iraq-centered stories leading up to the beginning of the war while N.K. was just kinda swept under the carpet.

So, if WMDs were not in Iraq, were not even being actively pursued (sp?), telling me that, "Hey, even though there never were any WMD we still got Sadam, no foul right?" isn't enough .

The case for war was essentially this guy has weapons already or the ability to develop/acquire weapons and he can pass those weapons to any number of these guys (terrorists) and he's going to come and use them against your home towns.

I just feel that based on those qualifications, our money, effort, and blood would have been better spent elsewhere. That's why I couldn't vote for Bush (among numerous other things).

Dubya did get at least one thing right? For good or bad, we as a country got ourselves into the mess that is Iraq, and we owe it to ourselves, the world, and especiially the Iraqi people to get out of this mess ASAP. If Bush can successfully (sp?) withdraw US forces from Iraq in the next 4 years then I will be satisfied with his performance provided he doesn't screw up everything else.

Guess the will of the people has been done.

Smithy

P.S. Sorry if that went off on a little tangent. Post just seemed to keep on growing. :)