Keith Devens .com

Do you agree that the main reason for invading Iraq was to "set up a secure base of operations for the eventual attack on Saudi [Arabia]"?

Not Saudi Arabia in particular, but I believe having a secure base of operations and military presence right smack in the middle of Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran is important. That itself may even serve to prevent war because we can threaten convincingly from a position of strength. At least as important, but probably more, is establishing a successful democratic capitalist neighbor to the surrounding totalitarian states, so the people in those states will start to say, in greater and greater numbers, "Why not me?". I believe a functioning liberal capitalist society in Iraq will help to bring about the eventual downfall of the Baathist regime in Syria, the Mullahcracy in Iran, and the "royalty" in Saudi Arabia.

The war on terror, or more properly the war on Islamic fascism, is truly "World War III". Since the "run up to war" in Iraq I've believed that the elimination of Saddam's regime in Iraq, as well as the establishment of the type of society I spoke of above, is one central objective in the prosecution of this war we find ourselves in. I knew that our strategic goals went far beyond eliminating Iraq's WMD's, though that was to be the main thrust of the "legal" justification we used to get the U.N. on board.

Furthermore, going forward in Iraq has done some other things. It has shown that we're very serious, which is terribly important for establishing our negotiating position in the future (which, again, may help serve to prevent future war), and it has had a few unintended, and very beneficial consequences, particularly Libya's capitulation, which is so important in and of itself, not to mention all the intelligence we've been able to gather both from Libya (most significantly, the history of weapons proliferation between Libya, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, and Syria) and Iraq. It has also helped to unravel the Oil for Food scandal in the U.N., and it has made Iraq a sink for terrorists to come and be destroyed. Really, al Qaeda and other terrorists are coming to face our soldiers and be destroyed, rather than coming here to attack civillians -- we couldn't have asked for a better situation! And, of course, the world has one fewer evil dictator, and we helped to free dozens of millions of people from his torture and oppression. So, do I still think the war in Iraq was a good idea? Hell yes.