Real-Time news services mean that we can find out what is going on in the rest of the world, even in countries that are physically a long way away. This was first proved in the Vietnam War, when Americans woke each morning and watched horrific images of war being shown on channels such as CNN. As President Nixon quickly found out, this globalisation turned public opinion so much against the war that the Americans had no choice but to pull out of Vietnam. "Far-Off" does not apply in the world of today, for the British public can find out exactly what is going on all over the world with the press of a button. Or as the slogan for a magazine puts it, "Their lives in your hands.".
The determination of the West to ensure that Saddam in particular doesn't acquire any weapons of mass destruction is not without reason. His history in power speaks for itself. One year after gaining power, he started a conflict with Iran; a conflict that would eventually drag out for 8 years and cost the lives of over 1 million Iraqi soldiers. He authorised one of his generals, a man known as "Chemical Ali", to use chemical weapons on his own people. Iraq's consequent invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was the reason for the Gulf War, a war that he thought the West would ignore but one that resulted in his forces being driven from Kuwait by an American-led coalition. Iraqi militia then attempted to assassinate George Bush Snr. in 1993. In 1997, he expelled weapons inspectors, and then rejected a proposal in 2000 to send the inspectors back in. In 2002, he finally accepted the weapons inspectors back in, yet Britain and America still claimed he was "playing games" with them, and not honestly admitting to the weapons the West claimed he possessed.
With a record like Saddam's, it is no wonder Britain and America were willing to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iraq in order to rid the country of any weapons, and at the same time, rid the country of a regime that has ruled by fear and terror over the last twenty years.
