Why Are We Still Waiting?

So Tony Blair has won support from Commons to take the British into war with us. It's been a long hard fought battle to get the proper approvals for the British to be on board with us, but it's over. Now we can turn our full and complete attention to Iraq, where it should have been for a while now.

It has been interesting watching the debate in Britain. The MPs and Cabinet members seem to have much more conviction than do our members of Congress. They also seem to better understand the idea of there being a time for debate and a time for untiy, something our folks could learn better.

So where do we go from here? Right now, we have about 25 hours left on the 48 hour deadline from last night. I still believe that 25 hours is too long to wait. I mentioned this morning (see the update) that Tony Blair had earned the right to ask for more time. He has made the most of that time and has gotten the political cover he needed. The Korean wargames would be a nice deterrent, but I don't think it is worth waiting 20+ more hours to let them start. The risk is still too high.

I believe that we have the legal justification for going in. WindsofChange.net mentioned the loophole (and Bush's exact wording) in his WindsofWar post for today. I believe that that little loophole is just big enough to fit the entire US military through. Saddam has already refused our generous offer. We could commence military activity now, take back the initiative, put the Iraqi Army on the defensive from the word "GO"and most importantly, we could disperse our troops and reduce the effectiveness of Saddam's WMD.

It's currently 3 am in Iraq, give or take. If, we are already in the air, we can get this party started a little earlier than Saddam thinks. If we haven't gotten it going yet, we will have wasted 24 more hours and will have taken escalated our risks even more. Every minute makes an pre-emptive attack more likely. Every minute means a greater chance that we lose many more of our men than we need to. We're going to go in. We offered 48 hours; he refused. Let's go already.