On the ground in Iraq

[indianasmith]

Interesting.  It does become clear that Saddam fully intended to start making the things again, as soon as he could.  I still hold that the war in Iraq was just and necessary.  Saddam signed an armistice in 1991, knowing that if he violated its terms, it would mean a resumption of hostilities.  He then violated all 11 provisions. 

He was an active force for terrorism in general, if not Al Qaeda specifically.  I think a linkage of some sort was inevitable had he been allowed to remain in power.  All things considered, taking him out was still the right option.  We should have fought the war differently, however.

[Killer Bees]

Thanks to everyone for the info.  We sent troops over there too and there was a huge protest about it.  The mood at the time was that our then PM, John Howard, was just trying to suck up to Bush so he could be the US's best friend.  I always had the feeling that Howard was a little boy trying to play with the big boys.  If our new PM Kevin Rudd had been in power at the time, you can bet your bottom dollar we would never have been involved.

I only know what happend through the media and you know how biased they are.  But I never understood why the US and others just didn't do tactical strikes as one poster said.  I guess that's why I'm not leader of the free world.

[lester1/2jr]

In this country we are the government, all 300 million of us, so this is our war.

I disagree entirely.  i have no moral responsiblity to the iraqi people or any people other than to my self my family and my community.  the nation state can go hang itself.  let them go and fight and die over there if it's so important for humanity. 

[Andrew]

In this country we are the government, all 300 million of us, so this is our war.

I disagree entirely.  i have no moral responsiblity to the iraqi people or any people other than to my self my family and my community.  the nation state can go hang itself.  let them go and fight and die over there if it's so important for humanity. 

If pulling out right now will mean more suffering and death than if we stay until the society is stable - then we should stay (and from what I know, that is the case).  I say that even if it means I go back to Iraq and get killed.  Even if you told me that making that choice would definitely get me killed.  There are lots of people in Iraq who just want to live their lives, raise children, build something, do something besides be killed.

One of the biggest challenges for Iraq is people saying, "This is important enough for me to die for."  I mean that about the military there, the police, the citizens, and also for the us.  Right now, my sister and brother Marines have that resolution.  Some of the Iraqis do too, but not enough.

[Captain Tars Tarkas]

In this country we are the government, all 300 million of us, so this is our war.

I disagree entirely.  i have no moral responsiblity to the iraqi people or any people other than to my self my family and my community.  the nation state can go hang itself.  let them go and fight and die over there if it's so important for humanity. 

I'm going to disagree here and say Iraq is our moral responsibility since we caused this mess in the first place.  I personally was against the war and even participated in marches before it happened.  But it went on anyway thanks to the arrogance of the Bush administration and now we are stuck with a quagmire and the repeated assurance to "wait just six months" that has been said since 2003.  The major problems are the current powers that be never bothered to think about what they would do when they got control of Iraq beyond filling the coffers of their businessmen friends.  The country continued to get screwed over left and right from corporate greed, lack of oversight, and pushover Democrats.  Now we have a gigantic mess that has cost thousands of lives and has no easy answers.  Whatever choice we do now is the wrong one, as the only correct choice was not to play (hey, I'm going all Wargames on you!)  My biggest beef with Bush is he made this such a mess that the only thing I can support is leaving, because staying there with the current administration is accomplishing nothing.  I don't want to be put in the position to support leaving, but considering just how much of a screw up the Bush administration made this, I don't see another outcome that doesn't leave us there for a decade and cost $20 trillion and thousands more lives.  It is not an easy choice, and I think even after we get out we'll still have a small force in the nation and periodically make strikes.  I hate having to support withdrawal, and I hate the Bush Administration for causing this mess and making me support leaving it as one.  History will not be kind to that man.

[lester1/2jr]

Iraq is our moral responsibility since we caused this mess in the first place.

I didn't cause any mess!!  our country is america, our government is not.


More to the point,  how can we "help" them.  that's what we've been trying to do thusfar and haven't done an especially great job of it.  I think they would do alot better without our so called help, which is really just helping ourselves either feel less guilty or make more money.