As a mild supporter of the action in Iraq (I have some serious reservations about the odds of success due to factors outside Iraq), I have to say that Lothar seems to be responding quite politely compared to the level of invective directed at him.
Are there illegal actions happening in the military activity in Iraq? Well, I can just about guarantee it. However, that is due to my belief that the only way to ensure that there is no illegal activity is to have no human present (I have yet to meet a human who hasn't committed an illegal activity). The more people you get involved, the more likely you are to have some yahoo do something really bad such as killing innocent civilians or such. Does that condemn the whole action? No. Very good efforts are being made to keep human suffering to a minimum by the coalition forces all in the attempt to help stabilize a country and provide a better (more representative of the locals and providing more peace and prosperity) government.
Humans are a twisted race when taken as a statistical whole, and only slowly do we improve. Unfortunately, I believe that progress is only made by application of force. People do not generally respect anything but force. Sometimes you can get away with diplomatic means, but generally, diplomatic successes come from prior uses of more naked force.
BTW, force can be economic, military or informational. But I always mean an externally imposed force that is always resented by those receiving it (even if it helps them).
I believe that the US as a whole is dedicated to fair and legal actions, in spite of the actions of the few. It is not a question of whether horrible things will happen in a war; war is the ideal breeding ground for horror. The better question is whether the US should try to save Iraq from itself and from others all too eager to feed on its economic flesh (read about the profusion of corruption present in "Food for Oil" program run by France and Germany).
Are we doing it for economic reason? The US is losing money in this "deal".
Are we doing it for power? I don't know anyone who wants to annex Iraq or even stay near it any longer than it takes to get them stable.
Oh, I forget. We just want to enrich Halliburton and related companies while killing innocent civilians and spouting false propaganda.
Sheeze. All the evil neocons that I know of support prosecution of anything that is wrong while still continuing the effort to help Iraq.
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