1 Don't forget about the 600,000 dead Iraqi civilians.

2 Yeah because that has what to do with this? And who killed the 6 billion civilians? I want a count showing how many Saddam killed, how many other Iraqis killed, how many Al-Queda killed, and how many Americans killed.

3 Well let's just go invade Darfur and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Kazikstan and China ... and clean up the whole world while we're at it.

As long as we're spilling other people's blood and spending other people's money we might as well use military force everywhere!

4 You still see this as an invasion, don't you? Have you heard that the duly elected government of Iraq WANTS US THERE? I'm not quite sure how you can consider this an invasion when we've been invited by the ruling government.

5 Oh, my point is that military force doesn't scale very well at all.

China is buying influence in resource-rich Africa for pennies on the dollar compared with the blood and treasure that the U.S. is spending in Iraq.

China is winning friends and peaceful security while the U.S. is gaining enemies worldwide.

6 I wouldn't go so far as to say that China is winning friends. Sure, they might be BUYING friends -- because if they tried to use military force against a country, the UN might complain. But again, the US is only there now because they want us there. The only people who enemies of the US were enemies of the US long before US troops set foot in the Gulf (back in the first Gulf war).

7 Ohmygosh! Set me up as Prime Minister of Iraq and give me a comfy, well-protected life of luxury inside the Green Zone and even I might want all the U.S. troops Bush would send to protect me & my cronies. I'd invite you to be one of my Vice Presidents, for sure!

Surely you must see the self-interests of the Iraqi politicians who gained power by the Bush administration. Of course THEY (ie, the government) want U.S. troops in Iraq.

I understand China doesn't use military force because it's not been part of their history. Like Iraq, they were the victims of colonial military power for centuries. Iraq, you may know, was created in 1922 by Winston Churchill who was dividing up the Middle East map with France as the "spoils of war" after WW I. China only gained its independence from the U.K. in 1947.

When China saw the massive amounts of military weapons and troops transported to Kuwait before Gulf War I they concluded it would be far cheaper to buy Iraq's oil than to steal it :-)

8 Well, at least you admit that they actually WANT us there. Thanks for inviting me to be VP!