[Jamo]

I think you make some valid points on many issues, Steve, just not with regard to national security.

An annoyance? Besides the United States, Sadaam's Iraq is the only other nation to have actually used an WMD which killed thousands since WWI. He gassed his own folks. He had Scuds which could reach Israel and other nations of interest to us from the western deserts. He attacked Kuwait. He attacked Iran. He continued to violate international law (preventing inspections and the no-fly zone).

Annoyance?

Look what a stateless Osama did with a couple of crop duster pilots.

Where in the he!! did you come up with your rules of engagement, and what makes you think they are the law?

Waltz believes that international anarchy causes nations to act without regard to the international community's interests. The UN does not (cannot) police the world. Unless somebody fills that gap, rouge nations will act upon the existing anarchy. Given that the UN is worthless, and the USSR is gone, we're it.

Snyder explains that rouge nations act because they believe 1) nobody's going to stop them because the other nations are afraid and 2) expansion provides security. That led to Japan's blunder in WWII, and can even be seen as the cause for the fall of most of the great expansionist empires (Persia, Alexander's domain, the Mongols, Rome, Germany and even the USSR...the bigger and more diverse the empire, the more one has to control and defend). America has never based its decisions on those two misconceptions...we got a bit out of hand with the Monroe Doctrine, but we controlled ourselves (Canada and Mexico are safe for now, and the oceans help), and we now have learned (unfortunately the hard way) that others have to believe we won't sit by and take it.

Liberal international thought dismiss both Waltz and Snyder. They believe that nations will always work for the common good and always act in a logical fashion when nobody pushes back. Chamberlain thought that way...many others that we consider complete and utter dumbasses did as well.