I just posted this in an other forum:
Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator who shouldn't be allowed to continue oppressing his own people. Is he a danger to international security, though? No, or at least not a serious threat in my opinion. If he committed an act of aggression against any of Iraq's neighboring countries the UN security council would probably be unanimous against him. Before he invaded Kuwait he even asked if US were OK with it and was told that US wouldn't care if he did. He knows that he was lucky to survive the war back in '91 and isn't stupid enough to willingly start another one.
So, shouldn't the international community do everything it can to put an end to Saddam's dictatorship? What would this require? Saddam is one of the most difficult persons in the world to assassinate since he knows a lot of people would like to see him dead so he is guarded extremely well and his daily scedule is kept top-secret. A war is probably the only way to force a change of government in Iraq. A war would / will cause the loss of thousands of lives and cause suffering to hundreds of thousands, even millions of Iraqis. In my opinion the war would cause more suffering to the Iraqis than it would help them.
The only reason why a war against Iraq can be justified is that Saddam doesn't respect the UN resolution 1441. If he can't be forced to destroy his weapons of mass destruction by diplomatic means a war is acceptable. The reason I could support a war in this case is that UN must have even some kind of authority if it wants to solve things peacefully and if Saddam is allowed to disobey the resolution UN loses much of the authority it still has left. Has the diplomacy yet ultimately failed in the current crisis, then? No, no and no. Saddam has now seen that the current US government doesn't hesitate to use force and has made some nominal concession in the matter. Under the circumstances it may be possible to get him to obey the resolution voluntarily and the need to start a war may yet be avoided. It's been 12 years since the resolution, what would a few months more matter even if the war was ultimately unavoidable?
As to why Bush & the Hawks are so eager to go to war... just see Ford's post in the other serious thread about the war. Also, this site pretty much describes why people have such ambitions as they seem to have: http://www.newamericancentury.org/