us and australia will eventually lose, page-16

Alan,

Wasn't the Attack on Afghanistan pre-emptive? I may have missed it but I don't think the goverment of the day,the Taliban, invited the US to invade Afghanistan.

I think that terrorism over all is being contained to a greater extent than previously by the efforts of many nations in Europe and Asia. It may be because of 911 and their own self interest but the outcome is positive.

Apart from the WMD issue I put the proposed war against Iraq as being in the "preventative maintenance" category. That is what the doctrine of pre-emption is about. The opinion of some is that it can work others have the opinion it won't. No-one really knows.

It gets down to a risk/reward ratio plus the balance between lives that will be lost through war and the lives that are already being lost under the present regime supposedly at peace.