It's all good. Had we not intervened Iraq would be another al qaeda hotbed. I don't have a source, link or proof so don't bother asking. It's my opinion and I will not entertain silly questions or anti-Bush rants thrown out in a feeble effort to prove me wrong.
Like Saddam was going to share power with Bin Ladin? They didn't even get along. Al Qaida was never in Iraq until we went there and provided targets that were easy for them to get to. Oh, I understand your style by now. The "stick your head in the sand" strategy will not keep me from poking holes in your arguments.
Get real. Saddam may have been a meglomaniac dictator, but he was all about making Iraq into a mideast regional power. Iraq was NOT a base for terrorism under Saddam who ruled with an iron fist. All these Sunni and Shiite insurgents were around under Saddam and what did they do? Nothing. Allowing foreign terrorists to use Iraq for a base to attack the United states of America is the last thing in the world that Saddam needed. Saddam did not sponsor foreigh terrorists as Libya did. He did not sponsor Al Qaida. Iran is financing both Hamas and Hezbollah, but Saddam did not. Al Qaida would have never been in Iraq as long as Saddam was in power. War with America was not his fight, he's already lost one and managed to survive. All his bluster was misplaced logic in trying to convince America to leave him the hell alone.
Has this been discredited? I also have video tape from the war with the plane that was used to train terrorists or maybe, possibly used to train to rescue hostages? I am not trying to tie Saddam to 9/11 but I know what I've seen on my video tape from coverage of the war! The article refers to the PLF here which makes perfect sense because of the arabs vs Israel. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,84291,00.html http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/salman_pak.htm http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=14156&archive=true
I think he was to say that my statement wa so obviously idiotic that no response was necessary. :hihi:
You know I am against peace keeping...but, what would the rest of the world have said about us if we had left their country the way it was right after the war? Bush is compassionate. He felt obligated by his convictions to try and help the iraqis have a better life. Personally..I don't give rat's ass,..but I'm not the compassionate type. Bush is a United Methodist. I married a United Methodist. Sometimes I think they are guided by their heart more than their head. Bush's actions on securing our southern boarder, or lack thereof, and his humanitarian policies in Iraq are exactly what I would expect from a devout United Methodist. I truly believe that Bush is guided by his religious convictions. To me, it's obvious. I'm not bashing him on being religious...I'm thankful that he is. I just wish he was raised Southern Baptist instead of UM. It could be worse though...he could be Roman Catholic! :grin:
I can understand this and never advocated pulling out instantly after the blitzkrieg. But what Bush/Rumsfeld did hurt the Iraqi people very badly anyway, probably far worse than if he had followed the standing military plan for invading Iraq (and Colin Powells advice) that called for almost 500,000 troops to absolutely never let the situation get out of control. The blundered occupation plan notwithstanding, what is most responsible for the improvements in the Iraq situation right now is General Petraeus. I'll give Bush rare credit in that he seems to have finally understood that the advice of the neo-con ideologues like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz (now gone), and Cheney (marginalized) was awful. He is now working with pragmatists like Condoleeza Rice, Robert Gates, and Stephen Hadley and allowing the military commanders to conduct a proper counter-insurgency operation. Petraeus literally wrote the book on the subject. The Rumsfeld strategy of calling in airstrikes on every sniper was not hurting the insurgents much and alienating the population. Petraeus understood that the way to win a guerrilla insurgency is to turn the population away from the enemy, driving factions apart and against each other instead of together against us. So now the Sunni tribal chiefs are working with us, the Kurd are working with us, and even Muqtada al Sadr has maintained a Shiite ceasefire. Bush failed to listen to his early military commanders, allowed Rumsfeld to sack them instead, and forced a series of meek commanders to squander some fine military forces for four years. But if he continues to allow Petraeus to do what needs to be done, it's our best way out and the Iraqis best bet, too . . . and it won't take 100 years. It won't even take 100 weeks.
