ALL governments desire power over the populace. If a government cannot control the populace by force, it is not a government.

I somehow doubt that I would stand for having my personal rights taken away; if such a thing happened in America, widespread revolt would ensue, even in the military, because military personnel are not obligated to follow orders that are not in accordance with the Constitution. But the Constitution extends its protections to American citizens ONLY.

Saddam did likely have the WMDs. I'm of the opinion that he carted them off to Syria or one of those other moronic terrorist countries or groups. His ties to al-Qaeda were virtually nonexistent; he and Osama differed substantially in their religious stances. However, considering that both have an open disdain for the U.S., that isn't particularly relevant.

Two thousand American soldier deaths is nowhere near disastrous. It's a drop in the bucket.

And Islam is indeed a violent, combative religion. There exist no other ways to interpret those particular verses. A is A; a thing either is or it isn't. A verse in a holy book either advocates violence or it does not. There is no in-between; contradictions do not exist. Christianity is also a violent, combative religion. Their behavior is not different than that of, say, the Crusaders. Their behavior is different from ours, in that we endeavor not to kill civilians randomly. I don't particularly care if we do or not, at least not because of any humanitarian reason; wanton civilian slaughter wastes resources that could be appropriated to better subdue and destroy the enemy.

5000 warheads is more than enough to basically nuke the crap out of everything.

The 9/11 terrorists' target was both the buildings and as many civilians as they could kill in the process of destroying them.

And, as I stated earlier, upholding the Geneva Convention's anti-cruelty laws and other similar statutes is completely irrational, because terrorists aren't going to be doing it; practical concerns should weigh heavier than all else. Humanitarian concerns should be at the bottom of our list of worries. You've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette.