Walter Russell Mead destroys another of the anti-war sophistries, that we should 'contain' Saddam. The same people who make this argument also blame the U.S. for the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq through U.N. sanctions:

In this case, containment is not an alternative to war. Containment is war: a slow, grinding war in which the only certainty is that hundreds of thousands of civilians will die.

The Gulf War killed somewhere between 21,000 and 35,000 Iraqis, of whom between 1,000 and 5,000 were civilians.

Based on Iraqi government figures, UNICEF estimates that containment kills roughly 5,000 Iraqi babies (children under 5 years of age) every month, or 60,000 per year. Other estimates are lower, but by any reasonable estimate containment kills about as many people every year as the Gulf War -- and almost all the victims of containment are civilian, and two-thirds are children under 5. (emphasis added)

I don't know how true these figures are. We've allowed oil sales to pay for humanitarian efforts, but it's doubtful that they have been applied effectively. Saddam has an interest in keeping the death toll high so that he can use it as a propaganda tool. The U.N. bureaucrats who control the sales of oil and distribute the money, have an interest in keeping this approach going, as well. One thing is certain, if we continue sanctions or launch Shock and Awe, or the Terrible Swift Sword, as I like to call it, the blame for the deaths and suffering will still be at the feet of Saddam and his cronies.