If Europe is better than the U.S. explain this.

1. Read above posts
2. Incorrect. A straw man argument is when you set up a phony opposition argument in the way you want in order to make your argument look better. See Obama over and over again.
3. UN pressure was abating. Much of Europe was calling for loosening sanctions against Iraq. It was just a matter of time before Saddam would have been free to do whatever he wanted.
4. Would never have happened. Our politicians would have screwed it up the same way they screwed up the stimulus last year. Also, irrelevant. You can't ignore foreign policy for the sake of domestic policy.
5. Sympathy for what, 9/11? Capitalized how? Silly statement.

LICC, sorry but columbiacounty is spot on - I'm in no way defending Saddam, nor saying that x is worse than y. I'm merely explaining the difference between declaring war on a country because it invades another and doing so for arguably dubious preemptive reasons. You may think preempting is fine, but there's no arguing that there's a stark difference.

bjw, your point is correct, however the post above said that the French kids were righteously railing on Friedman that the U.S. has no business involving itself in other countries' affairs. I haven't seen the video, but the post makes it sound like they were not intellectualizing the distinction as carefully as you.
To your point, yes there is stark difference. The world would have been better off if we had taken on Hitler well before he attacked multiple countries and killed untold millions of people.
bjw, your points are valid, but columbiacounty's are not spot on in the least.

LICC, yep, I was just pointing out how that video (which I haven't seen either) sounds a bit too smug/self-satisfied. Getting a couple French kids to shutup with such a question doesn't really prove much and tries to make a very simple answer to a very difficult question. Not buying it. As for pre-empting, I tend to disagree with it, but unfortunately, that's also not a cut-and-dry process - it's really case by case. And I do think columbiacounty made some good points - we did completely blow any sympathy we had from 9/11. That political capital (or geo-political capital, whatever those Kennedy school kids call it) could have been much better spent, IMHO.

Notes On France: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5nraknWoes

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/

Higher unemployment rates in Europe are part of the larger phenomenon that Europeans typically work fewer hours than do their American counterparts. Figure 6-5 presents some data on how many hours a typical person works in the United States, France, and Germany. In the 1960s, the number of hours worked was about the same in each of these countries. But since then, the number of hours has stayed level in the United States, while it has declined substantially in Europe. Today, the typical American works many more hours than the typical resident of these two western European countries.

The difference in hours worked reflects two facts. First, the average employed person in the United States works more hours per year than the average employed person in Europe. Europeans typically enjoy shorter workweeks and more frequent holidays. Second, more potential workers are employed in the United States. That is, the employment-to-population ratio is higher in the United States than it is in Europe. Higher unemployment is one reason for the lower employment-to-population ratio in Europe. Another reason is earlier retirement in Europe and thus lower labor-force participation among older workers.

What is the underlying cause of these differences in work patterns? Economists have proposed several hypotheses.

Edward Prescott, the 2004 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, has concluded that “virtually all of the large differences between U.S. labor supply and those of Germany and France are due to differences in tax systems.” This hypothesis is consistent with two facts: (1) Europeans face higher tax rates than Americans, and (2) European tax rates have risen significantly over the past several decades. Some economists take these facts as powerful evidence for the impact of taxes on work effort. Yet others are skeptical, arguing that to explain the difference in hours worked by tax rates alone requires an implausibly large elasticity of labor supply.

Yes, Europe is better than the US ......... but NYC is hardly the US. New Yorkers are cultural Europeans, if you will.
Onewon1's mash note to sexy heart-land babes is charming, however.

If your argument is about TAXES, then yes New Yorkers (and Californians) are indeed Europeans...