Personally, I don't think we should be in Iraq at all. Standing up to tyrants is all fine and dandy, but it's worth remembering the Saddam was our tyrant for quite a long time and USA, Britain and all were quite happy to sell him weapons and allow him to gas Kurds and all that as long as he kept his nose clean with regard to our political interests. Nobody seems to be too interested in standing up to Robert Mugabe, probably because ther isn't a lot of oil in Zimbabwe! Unfortunately for Saddam, he overstepped the mark by invading Kuwait, which seemed to be the start of his downfall. I don't know about you guys in the USA, but in Britain we were sold Gulf War II by Tony Blair on the grounds that Saddam allegedly had weapons of mass destruction which he could deploy within 45 minutes. Now... anyone who kept their eye on the ball knew that he had no such arsenal, and the minor biological capability that he did have was sorted in the early 90s in the 1st Gulf War. Over here, that didn't really get the desired result publicly, so we got a bunch of crap told to us about Saddam's 'links with al Quaeda', which is also crap. Geopolitical issues and control of Iraqi oil are the obvious reasons for the invasion of Iraq, and personally I don't think we should be sacrificing our servicemen and women over a lie, or for a bunch of profiteering elites. But that's my own personal view and everyone's going to have theirs. Cool.
As a matter of interest how were you guys sold the idea of the war? And how party-line is your media? Is there balance in your TV and newspaper reporting or is it all in line with the government? Ours is pretty much in line with the government, but we do have our more balanced elements.
I guess we were "sold" the same basic thing, anti terrorism to boot. Here you have to realize upon the world trade center event it just opened the door. As much as Im against still being there, after the "gulf war" I was a bit pissed they did not level Bagdad and remove Saddam at that time... then just leave. You have to remember we got to see and hear about the Kurds. Some of us have been around long enough to remember the plane hyjackings in the early 70's and all the other bullshit thats been going on over there for decades.
Myself I cant stand the site of anyone from the middle east, I dont care what country, including Turkey. I had one miserable looking young Turk call me a dirty American crook because I refused to put a heavy truck on fresh blacktop to do a delivery... duh! they even had it ribboned off... WTF ! That was enough for me. Then I had a Doctor insist my wife was to return to work the day after a hysterectomy (sp?), he even gave me the "Im am de doctor" in true Talaban tone over the telephone. So I gave him the "I am the husband and I will be back down there to discuss this with you in 30 minutes and we will bring in the management of the hospitol" in true Stevie tone, I was very disappointed he caved at that point. The head nurse on her floor even told us she was not to do any heavy lifting (which is what she does) for ? I forget now, was something like 48 hours or even a week. He was refusing to give us anything in writting so she could use her sick days. I wanted his head. Ironically his last name is Irani and is the same asswipe that was paid 2000 to deliver our baby, 14 years earlier when he did nothing but show up and talk to my wife for 2 minutes, 3 hrs after the entire thing was over...... Yes I could be found drenched in blood, laughing like a lunatic over his quivering corpse. They are fucked up people and I've had enough of them, been watching their behavior for 40 years, they can all die. So while I dont support the police action of the current "war" and the rebuilding, I have no problem with dropping in for quickies just so they can feel the power, then returning home, leaving them in total chaos so they can further diminish their own population. Its called tuff love, straighten up or bare the consequences.
As for our initial support of Saddam, it was either us or Russia, that was cold war bullshit, which was total bullshit but was the reality of the situation of those times. Our reactions were the result of Russian actions.
While I dont wish any
service volunteers death, battle is ultimately what being in the service is about. Too many in this country want to sign up and then get upset if they are actually called to be soldiers. Im more concerned about the debt we have accumulated through this thing, which effect each and every person in this country and at the point they are at now, its debt our grandchildren will bare. Our job was done when we pulled Saddam, "bye bye morons, try it again and we'll be back". Theres no reason to drag it out, deal the rath and let the chips fall where they may.
As for "weapons of mass destruction", Saddam refused to comply, its now believed that he was pulling a bluff so as to convince his people that Iraq was still a powerhouse, when in reality Iraq was a disaster on his behalf.
