[August]

I don't see it as two separate wars at all. Since the signing of the cease fire agreement in 91 American and British troops have patrolled the borders and skies of iraq, being shot at, while we waited for the regime in Iraq to become less of a threat.

By "threat" i'm not talking about WMDs or other military hardware but rather the intentions of an extremely wealthy dictator with a serious axe to grind against us.

If we had left Saddam in power he would have taken revenge for the bloody nose we gave him eventually. While his current weapons capability may have been overestimated, (encouraged by Saddam himself), it wouldn't have been long once sanctions had been lifted before he had the means to really hurt us.