Lostkitty, according to your link, the list of countries that have nukes is: US, UK, France, Russia, China, India, and Pakistan, with Israel listed as an undeclared nuclear power. It must be an old link, b/c the list of suspected nuclear powers has Libya and Iraq in addition to North Korea and Iran. (Iraq of course has now given up its program, as did Libya coincidentally at the time we invaded Iraq – funny, that.) Which are the fanatics? Bush is a religious man who will leave office when his term is up. He’s fanatical about his exercise program, but that’s it.

It’s a fair point to ask why we should get to decide who has nukes. The alternative is to allow nukes in the hands of those who would kill us. If our desire for safety offends others, I think that’s a price we have to pay.

Killing and quality of life are of course not worse than under Saddam. They are more widely reported. The violence, while regrettable, was inevitable. Saddam was eventually going to die; when that happened, the Islamists would move in, Iran would move in, former regime forces would try to hold on…everything that is happening now, but without Americans trying to midwife the birth of a democracy.

There is too much federal spending, though it’s not as bad as you claim (as % of GDP, which is a better way to measure it than nominal dollars). But spending money to rescue people from totalitarianism is the best use of our money from a security and moral standpoint.