[q=Kilika]Please don't forget that it isn't just the President's decision. [/q]While the president alone can't order a declaration of war, he can order airstrikes and "reinforcements" to be sent in without legislative approval. That's how the Vietnam war and Operation Desert Fox took place. The soldiers sent to Vietnam were officially reinforcements for the local troops, and the action in Desert Fox was entirely air or sea-based, with no troops landing in Iraq itself.
It's possible that no further attacks will be launched; any further “liberations” of Arabic nations would just be too obviously part of a trend. The world’s considerable criticism of the recent rogue action by the US, UK and others would increase. I think that the coalition nations will realise that they need to act with their old allies, rather than waging illegal campaigns and condemning those who don’t help them, then demanding that those other states help to clean up the mess that’s left behind. “One law for all” is supposed to be the basis of international relations, rather than “one power exempt from the rules while it summarily judges any it disagrees with”. It might, just might become apparent that it’s just a tad hypocritical for the nations with the world’s biggest WMD stockpiles to demand that other countries declare and destroy their own; that it’s similarly hypocritical to breach international law and UN conventions to punish countries that do not comply with international law and UN resolutions.
One thing is pretty certain, though: invading one country after another, killing politicians and destroying governments, replacing them with a system based on America’s model, is not going help in the fight against terrorism, nor is it truly bringing self-determination to any nations where it might be lacking.
I have high hopes that the next US president and British PM will realise that “diplomacy” does not mean telling your enemies, “do exactly what we say, when we say, and how we say to do it or else we’ll kill you and possibly your families and a few of your people as well.”
Change can happen without military intervention; forcibly re-shaping other countries into our own image is not the way to go.
Having said all that, I'd also guess that Syria and Iran would be the next logical targets, based on their policies and systems of government, not to mention their recent histories.
Originally Posted by War Angel
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