Here's the deal. The US is going to be in Iraq for a long, long time. The reason is obvious. IRAN. Iran is the largest power broker in the Mid East. Their president is a complete lunatic, and that country is trying to develop nuclear arms. Anyone who actually believes that Iran wants nuclear power for any reason other than building weapons is an idiot.
So will a nuclear armed Iran in the Mid East be a threat to our national security here at home. YES IT WILL!!!!! Again, anyone who thinks that it's not a national security issue is an idiot.
With US forces already in Iraq, if Iran gets squirly we already have a base of operations to move in quickly and take care of things. We NEED to have troops over there full time to protect our interests here at home.
All those Islamic terrorist groups have ALL stated that the destruction of the US is a top priority for them after Israel (which also happens to be an ally of ours and we have treaty commitments to protect that country).
Considering that we have already been attacked here at home on several occasions by these extreamists, doesn't it make sense to take the fight to their backyard?
Now as far as comparing Afganistan to Iraq, those are two totaly seperate issues when it comes to our national security. We did the right thing going into Afganistan and removing the Taliban from power and going after Al-Quadia there but looking at the big picture Afganistan is a side issue. That country doesn't have any real natural resorces we want or need. It never has been nor will it ever be a large player in the world. Iraq on the other hand is very important. It's geographic location and the resorces it has are very important to our national security. It has been a world player since oil was discovered there. When an important country like Iraq is lead by a dictator like Saddam, well steps need to be taken to insure that country is as stable as possible.
The UN tried for over 10 years to get Saddam to "play nice with others" but it didn't work. Enter the US. Now we are there and granted things are bad but it is a mission we need to be performing. If we were to just pull out of there, Iran would take over in a matter of days. If you think people are dieing in large numbers over there now, what do you think would happen if Iran moved in? It would be a blood bath. Who would be able to stop it?? The UN???
I know people are tired of "stay the course" but that's what we need to do. Too many people in this country of ours get fired up by their emotions about the war and they fail to look at the larger picture of what is happening in the world. Iran, Iraq, Israel.....they all tie in together over there. It's a volitile reagion filled with volitile people and the US is the only country, with the help of the British and few other allies of ours, that has the balls to go in and try to keep some semblance of order. If we weren't there the entire region would soon self destruct and if you think that wouldn't cause us harm here at home....well your an idiot.
