This is a good conversation. Sorry I'm a little late getting back into it. Red, you were a little ahead early in the argument, but you've started to fall behind. In all, I think everyone here is making good arguments & has reason to believe as they do.
Well, then . . . let me reinvigorate. The leader of Iran is a revolutionary islamist who was actually one of the "students" that took Americans hostage for over a year in 1979. He has called for Israel to be exterminated. He is openly attempting to manufacture nuclear weapons. He has rejected European calls for nuclear disarmament. He is overturning 15 years of steadily progressing Iranian secular moderate advances. The US has had no diplomatic ties with Iran for 26 years. America is still vilified as the Great Satan. Iran seeks to replace Iraq as the main regional power in the Persian Gulf. Iran is a war waiting to happen. North Korea has developed nuclear weapons in violation of treaties and the place is run by a certifiable madman. They have developed long-range missles and are exporting the technology. Kim regularly makes outrageous charges against the US and threatens Japan, South Korea, and Okinawa. He is developing a missile which can hit the US in Alaska and Hawaii, and possibly the northwest continental US. North Korea is a war waiting to happen. Pakistan already posses the Islamic Bomb and the missiles to deliver them. Pakistan is the home of the Taliban who still openly operate there. Osama bin Ladin and the remaining Al Qaida leadership hide in Pakistan. The military dictator who runs the place is pro-American but is barely capable of controlling his own army, much less the population, which is vehemently anti-US. This is the next Iran, where we support an unpopular government which will be over thrown and replaced by an islamofascist, anti-American state. Pakistan is a war waiting to happen. And Osama still runs free. I maintain that all four of these problems are serious and should be the top military priorities in the next few years. Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan must be contained and preparations made to defeat them quickly and overwhemingly if war breaks out. Osama must be hunted down and killed, even if it means going into Pakistan to do it. But we can't do all three at once, and we can do nothing as long as we are militarily maxed out in Iraq. Iraq is a noisy and expensive distraction for our military. The Bush administration is not looking to the future, they are just mired in their own blunder. Whoever is elected in 2008 will have a difficult task to be militarily prepared if we are still in Iraq, especially with no money to work with since Bush raised government spending while cutting taxes during wartime. And she may have a hard time succeeding. :grin:
OK, now my opinion: The removing of Saddam from power in Iraq was a necessity that will make the region and our country more safe in the future. By taking the reigns from a murderous tyrant, 50 million Iraqi's are now free and voting and their country will serve as a constant beacon of democracy and freedom for the region. As well as that, we have a new ally in the heart of the middle east which also serves as an example to all of the hardline Islamic countries, like Iran, that the US will wage war, dispose of any leaders there who serve as a threat to our country's security or the security of our allies. And in doing so, we will help give their people the freedom that all people's seek and need to reach their full potential. We will deal with N. Korea and Iran in time once we have allowed every diplomatic option to run it's course. We will have out troops out of Iraq once commanders on the ground have determined that the training of Iraqi forces is complete, and then we will focus our attention to the murderous tyrant in Iran. If none of the other free countries of the world, other than Britain and Australia want to help, so be it. But if the war on terrorism, which was started by crazed peopel from these very countries we speak of, won't be won by their countries of origin, then we will do it ourselves so as to protect our own interests. And yes, if that means attacking and occupying the entire more every country in the middle east, then so be it. Reinstitute the draft whatever it takes.
