The President’s motivation is perfectly plain and perfectly rational: he
doesn’t want to lose a city. Taking out SH doesn’t eliminate the
possibility of this happening, but it sure reduces it.
My personal guess is that GWB wants to roll up all these nuke and
incipient-nuke dictatorships. (I heard a story that at a Cabinet meeting
after the Taliban fell, he turned to Condi Rice and asked: “Who’s next?”)
After Iraq, massive pressure on Iran would be logical–or some sort of
ultimatum to them, followed by a pre-emptive strike. Then North Korea,
which will be tricky & involve real diplomacy, with some nonzero probability
of war (I’d say 30 percent).
We simply can’t let these nutso states get nukes, or in NK’s case keep them.
We have to stop it, or else face losing a city or two. That’s the lesson of
9/11. GWB is on the case. Of course he might fail–any human enterprise
might fail. He’d be violating his oath of office if he didn’t try, though.
I like this man and I support what he’s doing. Let’s roll.