Step 1: Terrorists get pissed off because we build military bases in their country.
Step 2: Terrorists attack US.
Step 3: US sends a few hundred thousand more troops over there.
Sounds pretty airtight to me. The fact that TSA catches about 20% of bombs smuggled past security whereas the figure for private contractors (who used to be in charge) was in the vicinity of 90%, coupled with the fact htat the 9/11 hijackers were not carrying anything not allowed into the cabin, most definitely means that the policies of this administration have made us safer. Wake up people. The War On Terror cannot be won because there is absolutely no way to make people stop hating you by killing them. When's it going to be "won", when the entire world agrees that there are no terrorists left alive and never will be? Please. For those of you who still think they attack us because they "hate our freedom", please explain to me why they haven't attacked other countries where citizens enjoy many more civil liberties than we do.
Our bases are there because the governments of those countries wanted them there. After Saddam invaded Kuwait, other neighbouring countries requested them as a deterant to the madman. Were we supposed to confer with Osama Bin Laden et al before agreeing to those requests?
The last time I checked the United States isn't known to abandon it's allies because an asshole terrorist doesn't like the arrangement.
I'm a Republican, but as Emerald Sword pointed out, it was always the Democrats who were the warmongers. This is the first time I've ever heard of the (presumptive) Republican nominee for President running on promises to expand wars to other countries, and needless to say, I won't be voting for him.
Promising to expand which wars to which other contries? Obama is the one who stated he would
bomb and send troops into Pakistan, which happens to be a friendly country. Brilliant.
"Obama said if elected in November 2008 he would be willing to attack inside Pakistan with or without approval from the Pakistani government, a move that would likely cause anxiety in the already troubled region."
The dude is frikkin' clueless.
Oh my god you have to be kidding. You can't for a minute blame being in either of those wars on a President. It was a fucking WORLD WAR. I mean, except maybe Roosevelt for POSSIBLY sitting on information regarding the Pearl Harbor strike. And as I remember it, we not only fucking ENDED the Japanese, we also mopped up for the French. World War I wasn't exactly started by us either, though my knowledge of how exactly we got suckered into that one is nil.
edit: Also I don't see republicans as warmongers, just a certain family who seems to carry vendettas.
We didn't have to be in WW I. Wilson used an excuse of Germany sinking a British ship with about 100 Americans on board to get involved. His Secretary of State resigned in protest.
WW II was an inevitability. And the US didn't mop up for the French. We saved their asses, again!
Technically we got into the cold war for the same reason (Regan? Republican? Or am I missing the timeline here, though I'm sure Nixon or some other republican was in office 1976-80). Communism.
Got into the cold war? Regan? WTF are you talking about? The cold war was a term for the miltary buildup and political tensions between NATO lead by the USA and Warsaw Pact countries led by the USSR. It was not a military conflict like Korea.
The cold war started immediately after the conclusion of WWII... that would be in the mid 1940's. Forty years before Regan was President.
Regan won the cold war and and the USSR crumbled, and the Warsaw Pact countries regained their independance from the Communists.
Korea and Viet Nam on the other hand started for much the same reason Afganistan and Iraq. They were started to stop the spread of Communism instead of Islamofacism, but the basic premis was the same: Stop the spread of a preceived threat/evil.
Interesting that this family is carrying out a vendetta, while two Democrats get a pass.
The President of the United States of America from 1976 to 1980 was one James Earl Carter. A Democrat who dismantled the military, ruined the economy, allowed Communism to spread unchecked throughout the world, and more importantly, the Americas.
Also, Kennedy diffused the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Yeah and JFK is probably spinning in his grave to see what the Democrats have become. The liberal socialist welfare state the Democrats tout is much the brainchild of Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy's VP. The two men hated each other passionately, and Johnson was only VP at the insistance of the DNC. If you believe in conspiricy theories, well... that's another story.
Nevertheless, it's been a long time since any Democrat said "Ask not what your country can do for you..."
My knowledge of these are very lacking. However, I'm pretty sure the whole Kosovo conflict thing started back in World War 2 w/ the Nazi's.
Again, WTF? Nazi's? Serbs and Albanians have been at each others' throats since the 16th or 17th century. They had to play nice while they were under the iron fist of the USSR, but when the Soviets released them they went right back to killing each other.
Democrat Bill Clinton involved the US in that war, but there were absolutely no US interests at stake. The US involvment in a war did, however, distract the American people's attention away from the Lewinski scandal for a while. The movie "Wag The Dog" was about a American President who concocted a war to distract from a sex scandal. Sound familiar?
It's true that the world would be a much different place than it is if history hadn't happened the way it did. However, the bottom line is that of all the wars that Democrats got the US involved in only WW II was truly justifiable and necessary at the time.
