Now let’s imagine that three or four years from now a small nuclear device goes off in the US, or a dirty bomb, or weaponized smallpox or anthrax. Given what we know about how hard it was to pinpoint the sources of the 2001 anthrax attack how confident are we that when we retaliate we’ll hit back against the true perp?

I think the FBI will know the perp’s a lone white male in his 50′s who lives with his mother. Then they will rigorously investigate everyone with the name Oppenheimer.

One of the many justifications for taking out Saddam was his associations with a long list of terrorists (again: one of many). That he wasn’t directly involved in 9/11 was a feature, not a bug. Taking him down established the primacy of what used to be every good mother’s advice: “Don’t be friends with that bunch of sociopaths, they will get you in trouble.” Of course now it might get you elected President.

Speaking of Sen. Obama, if he had his way Saddam would still be in power twisting our nose and stomping our toes — as much as he could get away with and he would know he could get away with a lot. He and his two Mass Murdering Spawn would dance away from the Sanctions and into sweetheart oil deals with Chirac and Putin. We would have the Dancing Husseins on the World Stage — and Certainly Saddam would not be choosy about his partners. After all, he would still be openly financing, encouraging, and praising Suicide bombings against civilians in a nation he considered an enemy. And he would assume it was the threat of Terror that staid the hand of the US in 2003. By now the UN’s favorite megalomaniac would be in a nuclear arms race with Iran — and probably Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Sudan, Yemen — how many nations in the UN again?

Now find your suspect — with nuclear powers by the dozen. In such a case, we would need someone with “Judgement” indeed.

Fortunately, instead of the Dancing Husseins we had the Dangling Saddam and the world is a better place for it.