Iraq--the Newest Justification

On his "60 Minutes" chat with Scott Pelley Sunday night, President Bush trotted out his latest rationale for the war in Iraq:

Well, our administration took care of a source of instability in Iraq. Envision a world in which Saddam Hussein was rushing for a nuclear weapon to compete against Iran.

Pretty frightening, a nuclear arms race between Iran and Iraq. Almost as frightening, one might suggest, as a nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan. Oh, wait, we've got that. The United States slapped sanctions on Pakistan and India after that race started. But sanctions don't work. Or is that just in the Middle East? Regular listeners to le show know that I've been asking since 2003 about Pakistan; it fulfilled the three conditions the President set for attacking Iraq (attacking its neighbor, having WMD, and harboring terrorists and their sympathizers. And the India-Pakistan example--a nuclear arms race between one of the world's most populous nations and its longtime antagonist--proves that such competitions, while not exactly settling to the world's nerves, can be handled without a military invasion. So far.
Another rationale bites the big dust.