Originally posted by dmf
A massive fortune on a complete failure?
Havent we done that already?
Toppleing Saddam is just the president doing what his father didn't do.
As for Iran, and that madman they have in charge, Its just a mater of time before we're in that country too.
Granted Saddam needed to be removed from power, but personally If I was in charge I'd concentrate on finding the guy that orcestrated 911, then worried about Iraq
I'd have gone after the known and suspected terrorists camps that lie in another 40-odd countries, kept chasing the terrorists fleeing Afghanistan to Indonesia and Pakistan, brought pressure against Syria who likes to play both sides, and get the most out of the post 9-11 timeframe where we had the policital capital, "right of vengence", and "rightousness" capital to spend and many smaller and quicker operations rather than blowing it all on empire building ("Texas, Far East") and destabilizing the most secular Arab nation, which the UN had more or less contained, and had no real ties to terrorists in the first place (THE most secular Arab nation at the time after all, not exactly a friend to fundamentalists).
I realize what they *thought* they were trying to do in Iraq. I can read a map and realize what a stable ally, basing rights, and access to those oil reserves could mean there....but it totally overlook the realities regarding the people and the culture on the ground. They completely read that wrong, and continue to do so.
These problems have simply been compounded over the years by refusing to admit to mistakes made, failing to deliver on promises made, and stubbornly plodding along with rose covered blinders on.
I've been unlucky enough to see the effects on the ground for over a years time spent there..... we've been screwing up by the numbers. Some of my fellow soldiers have pride in what they accomplish over there, and I have to allow them that, no one wants to feel their efforts and hard work and sacrifices have been in vain..... but I personally can't take pride in somthing like building a school if all the teachers are dragged into the street and shot in front of their students a few weeks later by insurgents. For every step forward, we end up taking two or three steps back.
A stable democracy and U.S. ally I believe is no longer in the cards..... we're either going to see another Iran rise out of Iraq's ashes, or a fragmented civil war with the potential of dragging other middle eastern nations into it, and consequently ruining western economies when oil supplies are interrupted.
What a mess.
