If Saddam had the means, he would gladly destroy the U.S., yes. However, he doesn't. Invading Iraq would result only in civilian casualties and Saddam himself would most likely get away.

The sad thing is, we could've helped turn his own people against him after the Gulf War. He was vulnerable then. But after 10 years of sanctions, all we've done is strengthen their support of him because he is all they have. There was an interesting comparison of living in Iraq versus other middle eastern countries, and, sadly, Iraq has better conditions/more freedom (specifically in regards to women) as long as you stay out of Saddam's/the Baath Party's way. I'm not saying it's all sunshine and happiness living there, nor am I saying innocent people don't find themselves on his bad side, they do. It's a shithole and I'd never want to live under conditions like that, nor do I think anyone else should.

In summary, I'm saying that we ****ed up with Iraq/Hussein and that any attempt to topple Hussein would only result in people getting caught in between dying. Al Qaeda does not support Iraq due to its secular status. However, invading Iraq might be the thing that causes Iraq and Bin Laden to put aside their differences and join forces. Also, I do not believe Hussein as any weapons of mass destruction at this point, because not only have we not given him any, but over the past 10 years we've bombed anything that resembled a possible weapons plant.

I think we as a country have a lot to worry about and a lot of places threatening us, but Iraq is really the least of our worries compared to Al Qaeda and North Korea. Our military and our resources (i.e. money) are limited, even if that limit is higher than most of our enemies, but it seems just plain unstrategic and wasteful to attack Iraq at this point when we may have to gear up for war with North Korea in addition to covert operations to contain Al Qaeda. Right now, what we really need to do is make peace with other Middle Eastern countries and China. Too bad Bush had to classify Iran as "evil," because before he said that, the democratically elected Iranian reform party was making great strides in US/Iran relations. Unfortuneatly, due to his ignorant choice of words, he has turned the Iranian people against us, and since it is a democracy, no politician there can appear in anyway pro-U.S. This phenomen has happened in a lot of countries since Bush became president, even European allies. Politicians cannot be blatantly pro-US in a lot of places because our current administration has alienated/upset the people of other democratic countries with its "screw you, we'll do what we want" attitude. And no, I'm not talking about just France.