Sanctions vs. War

Abu Aardvark notes a Charles Krauthammer column in which he invokes ending sanctions as part of the justification for war in Iraq. Aside from the hypocrisy, that was actually one element of my thinking, as well. At the time, I felt that even if Saddam were contained it was only because of the sanctions, which I regarded as worse than open war. I didn't place much faith in adjusting the sanctions, either, because as Juan Cole has noted before, the Ba'ath manipulation of the sanctions was much worse than the sanctions themselves, and they probably could have manipulated whatever we did. This was part of a complex of thought in which the U.S. had botched Iraq policy long ago, and the only thing we could really do was get rid of the existing order entirely as quickly as possible and before our position in Saudi Arabia deteriorated due to a possible new government there, even if that meant a war. However, now I feel I should say that if the David Kay is right and Saddam's rule was badly frayed, then there were probably better options and I was wrong.