US laws apply to French banks that are in the USA
That's not what the article says. And I think you'll find that most of the under the table oil for food stuff was taking places in places like Geneva, which last time I checked was firmly outside of US juristiction.
What we didn't do and Saddam did is pay families for suicide bombers
Yes, as have regimes allied with the US such as the Saudis. No comment?
And how exactly does Ba'athist Iraq paying pensions to Palestinian families constitute a threat to the US?
ONLY the logically challenged would consider action after 12 years of UN resolutions and diplomacy as being "a rush to war"
A straw man argument that evades the point that Iraq didn't constitute a threat to the US. Next!
Just what, or how long I should say isn't a rush to war?
There was no threat to you. Take a deep breath and accept it. A rush to war wasn't justified under the rationalisations that your adminstration provided, irrespective of the time frame.
Despite the best efforts of your ruling clique to prove a threat, the best they could come up with was a half baked and easily disproved WMD thesis made more palatable to you by a large dose of post 9/11 paranoia.