[mhh__]

And how would the Arab spring have gone with Saddam still in power? It's too simple to boil the situation down to one sentence; that also ignores that Hussein was a brutal Tyrant who had used Weapons of Mass destruction (Chemical Weapons including Mustard Gas and Nerve Agents) as part of a genocide against the Kurds.

The invasion wasn't the hamfisted part - the problem was being reckless after the invasion and not really thinking properly about how to manage the country.

[pazimzadeh]

The same way the Green Movement went for the Iranians. That doesn't mean that we should be toppling governments.

Note how the USSR dissolved without intervention.

Dropping bombs is like taking antibiotics, sometimes necessary but always creates resistance.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

> Dropping bombs is like taking antibiotics, sometimes necessary but always creates resistance.

Does taking antibiotics always result in antibiotic resistant bacteria?

I wasn't aware of that, and at first glance it seems implausible as otherwise all antibiotics would have been ineffective before we even discovered them?

[pazimzadeh]

Ok, not always. Depends on whether any bacteria survived and whether the immune system was able to handle it.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

And whether any of the bacteria that survived developed resistance to the antibiotic used.

Your wider point still stands though, various parts of nature have been putting chemical warfare against each other for a very long time.

We'd best be careful we don't suddenly find ourselves on the wrong side of that battle.

[pazimzadeh]

>And whether any of the bacteria that survived developed resistance to the antibiotic used.

Not really. Antibiotic treatment selects for existing variation within bacteria.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Of course, yes, sorry that's what I mean.

Some bacteria may already be weakly tolerant. Using antibiotics will likely lead to that trait being selected for, and the tolerance becomes stronger.

What have you been studying to get to PhD level as per your prolife info?

You obviously know what you're talking about, and I only have a fairly lay level understand :)

[disown]

> that also ignores that Hussein was a brutal Tyrant who had used Weapons of Mass destruction (Chemical Weapons including Mustard Gas and Nerve Agents) as part of a genocide against the Kurds.

And who supplied those weapons of mass destruction to saddam? I wonder...

[free_rms]

Technically, he probably made the mustard gas himself with our money while getting billions of dollars from us for a decade of the Iran-Iraq war.