Harsh Iraqi Reaction Expected

"Faced with a U.S. invasion of Iraq," the Washington Post reports, "President Saddam Hussein would likely launch missile and terrorist attacks against Israel and U.S. facilities abroad, preemptive strikes against the Kurds in the north, and a 'scorched-earth strategy' in Iraq 'significant enough to stop a military advance,' the Defense Department's top intelligence official said yesterday."

It's amazing that our leaders pledge to wage war for our own safety when it is generally accepted that a war on Iraq will put the world in a much more precarious position. Iraq is under massive surveillance; it has UN inspectors crawling around its territory (with more likely to come), and, basically, can't sneeze without facing massive reprisal. By any measure, Hussein is being properly contained, even if you think he represents some larger threat to the region (most of his neighbors do not).