OK lets pretend that Saddam and Osama weren't almost neighbors, and lets assume that even though they both share the same enemy, they never shared ideas or intelligence.
You may remember that Saddam gave in to U.N. demands that he allow inspectors to roam Iraq, looking for banned weapons.----- What rock were you living under for the past twelve years? Saddam NEVER allowed unfettered access to UNSCOM! He always tried to get advance notice of where they were going, why? There was a report, I don't remember the source, that ran a story back shortly after the fall of Baghdad. It stated that under a nuclear research facility, located in an area with a high water table that made it very difficult and unlikely that anyone would build anything underground, was another facility, built underground, with great difficulty and at great expense. It had not been fully explored at that time, because those who abandoned it spread nuclear waste about the place to poison those who came to investigate! The inspectors had been to the surface site, but never had a clue about the subterranian part. Further, many of the employees were told to stay home on the days the inspectors were about, to prevent the question "Where do ALL these people work around here?". There was an Iraqi Army base south of Baghdad that had a derilict airliner fusilage in a compound that was seldom frequented by regular army troops. Defectors, and those who were questioned about it said that most of the people who went into that compound for training, were not of military appearance, and were kept separate from the troops. Who do you think that might have been? OK, I guess Saddam used up all his GB, and VX nerve gas on the Kurds, since he never had ANY contact with Bin Laden, he would NEVER have smuggled that stuff out of Iraq! We're still trying to settle the country down, and haven't had time to comb the place with a fine toothed comb looking for what could have been buried, so it obviously never existed!
And as to the economy, we are at war. How much did WWII cost? We knew exactly where the enemy was in that one, and had most of the world on our side. We have to hunt these animals down, one by one, worldwide, and most of the world is on the sidelines. Why should they get excited? They are used to terrorists setting bombs off in their countries. The Algierian Separtists were bombing French targets since WWII, the Red Brigades operated in Germany, The Spanish have dealt with the Basque for decades, why should we start getting upset over a terrorist threat? Wars cost money, and this on was said to be a long one at the start! I already hear people saying "How long is this going to go on? Let's bring our boys home!" Guess what? It's going to be another 10-15 YEARS before we can even begin to see the end, because we've let things go too far! We have to root out these people, and make sure that those who would follow see the futility of terrorist actions. I can't understand people who don't know why we had to wage this despicable war (it's all about oil!) and can't understand why the economy is tanking It's all because Bush "talked it down" during the election!) Go ahead, throw in the towel, make the lives sacrificed so far be lost in vain. But don't expect anyone to answer the call the next time someone kills another 2000-3000 of you!