Saddam Hussein
Committed war crimes during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s;
the genocidal Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds in 1987 and 1988;
the invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990;
the violent suppression of the 1991 uprising that led to 30,000 or more mostly civilian deaths;
the draining of the southern marshes during the 1990s, which ethnically cleansed Hussein's southern flank of thousands of Iraqi Shiites;
more ethnic cleansing of the non-Arab population of Kirkuk and other northern Iraqi areas;
and the summary executions of thousands of political opponents.
Following the invasion of Kuwait, Iraqi authorities killed more than 1,000 Kuwaiti civilians, held foreign diplomats hostage, unleashed environmental crimes on a colossal scale, looted Kuwaiti property, rained missiles down on Israeli civilians and committed war crimes against American soldiers. The fate of more than 600 missing Kuwaiti citizens remains unknown.
http://www.genocidewatch.org/TrySaddam.htm
I can envision the responses now, the US has supported dictators in the past that have done terrible things; look at all the atrocities in whatever third world country, etc. and whatever other obfuscation that directs attention from the issue at hand i.e. Saddam Hussein being in possession of weapons of mass destruction, his violations of UN resolutions, and his proclivity to provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists organizations thus participating in state sponsored terrorism. For those who doubt that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction they are in effect disputing what the USA government is stating. If the USA is wrong, which is what those that doubt Iraq has WMD's are saying in effect, either the USA is involved in a massive disinformation campaign designed to dupe the world community or the USA government is demonstrating total imcompetance in interpreting their data and in drawing their conclusions. Personally regarding Iraq I believe that the chances of either being true are very small.
Iraq's State Sponsored Terrorism
The accusations are the Iraq has provided a safe haven to many mid east terrorist groups. Also Iraq was the only Arab-Muslim nation not to condemn the 9/11 attacks against the US. The official Iraqi statement on 9/11 read the US was "reaping the fruits of (its) crimes against humanity." Of course if one believe's the USA government is not involved in a massive dinformation campaign nor totally incompetant in interpreting intelligence data, then producing weapons of mass destruction should be included as well.
Iraq's Oil and Militarily Strategic Location
Most are aware of the vast reserves of oil that Iraq has. To me one of the most overlooked aspects of this crisis is the militarily advantageous strategic position would afford the USA in the mid east. I don't support willful violations of national sovereignty. I offer these reasons not as justification for war but as reasons to be suspicious about going to war. The US position is that after 9/11 President Bush declared a "war on terrorism" and this is the next battleground in that "war." Yes he could have chosen other battlegrounds or not to pursue a "war on terrorism" but I think it's fairly clear that USA citizens basically support the efforts against terrorism. There is a saying about the presidency that applies to his decision, "the buck stops here." Iraq will certainly be one of battlegrounds eventually so I'm not convinced that the Bush administration has ulterior motives. Bush policy and Iraq oil offer up a correlation but the causation is unproved IMO. I tend to give the president of the United States the benifit of the doubt.
The Futility of Containment
I've posted on this subject previously. I just think that if you want to effect an outcome of the removal of a despot with weapons of mass destruction that is willfully violating UN regulations that resulted from that despots naked aggression against a neighboring country, you don't let the despot continually negotiate the terms of the settlement reached years ago and choose those terms that are to his liking. I have no doubt that the USA will choose to invade Iraq soon if events continue to unfold as they have. I have to believe that Hussein believes this as well and is faced with three alternatives abdicate, die, or turn over the weapons and the tools that are utilized to make them. Containment is not an effective policy IMO for affecting those ends.