Obama: Taliban and al-Qaida must be stopped

[PostmodernProphet]

it was not the focus of the people who attacked us.

And Saddam was extreme only in his meanness.... ba'athists are pretty left of center moderate pan-arabists historically speaking. He was not a real and present danger to the United States.

he was a real and present danger to the Middle East and therefore to the entire world......which, we used to be a part of.....

[PostmodernProphet]

except it had nothing to do with confronting the forces who attacked us.

and even if he HAD rebuilt his military operation at some point in the future, we would have been capable of mowing it down in short order whenever we confronted it.

you're right....we should have waited until he had a nuclear bomb....then we could have mowed him down like we're doing with North Korea.....

[PostmodernProphet]

Some Dems certainly blustered about Saddam, but NONE of them advocated invading, conquering and occupying Iraq as a solution to the annoyance.

perhaps, but they voted for what we actually DID......which has nothing to do with your bullshit characterization of it.....

[moderate democrat]

perhaps, but they voted for what we actually DID......which has nothing to do with your bullshit characterization of it.....

a minority of congressional democrats did vote for the use of force.

the majority did not.

[moderate democrat]

you're right....we should have waited until he had a nuclear bomb....then we could have mowed him down like we're doing with North Korea.....

Iran was always closer to getting a nuke than Iraq was...and so was NKorea.

Iraq was a bad strategic decision, imo.

[moderate democrat]

he was a real and present danger to the Middle East and therefore to the entire world......which, we used to be a part of.....

he was NOT a real and present danger to the middle east...certainly no more so that Syria or Iran....

the point is: we had been attacked. Americans were supportive of efforts to find and defeat our attackers...they were NOT supportive of the invasion of Iraq until team Bush LIED about the existence of an ongoing operational connection between Saddam and AQ, and LIED about the certainty of the existence of WMD stockpiles... and conflated those two lies to make the case for immediate war against Iraq.

[Yurt]

he was NOT a real and present danger to the middle east...certainly no more so that Syria or Iran....

the point is: we had been attacked. Americans were supportive of efforts to find and defeat our attackers...they were NOT supportive of the invasion of Iraq until team Bush LIED about the existence of an ongoing operational connection between Saddam and AQ, and LIED about the certainty of the existence of WMD stockpiles... and conflated those two lies to make the case for immediate war against Iraq.

if bush lied, then so did your shitlist of dems and virtually every world leader. this blame game on bush lying is old and boring. you guys act like it was only bush who claimed saddam had wmds...you know full well that is not true.

[Yurt]

every dem who spoke about Saddam's WMD's was on my shitlist. NONE of them who voted FOR the use of force resolution have ever gotten my vote for anything and won't until they apologize for that vote - which many have.

Some Dems certainly blustered about Saddam, but NONE of them advocated invading, conquering and occupying Iraq as a solution to the annoyance.

this has been argued ad nauseum and you have been provided with proof that there were in fact dems who wanted saddam gone, conquered and regime change....and we have also discussed that dems really didn't say boo about iraq until 2004....they waited until iraq became unpopular, that is cowardly and absolutely shows they supported the invasion by their silence.

[Kathianne]

I don't know if invading Iraq was the right thing or not. I know it was handled badly by the end of 2003. I also know that it had been turned around by the time Obama received the finish up. That should have been accomplished by Spring of 2004 at the latest, but wasn't. Can't blame anyone by the administration for that.

Now that the tactics are finished, what did it accomplish? Well it certainly was the 'flypaper' that many thought it would be. Certainly we defeated more al-Queda and wannabee jihadis in Iraq than in Afghanistan. The Anbar Awakening didn't just 'happen', it was a planned effort by the military, the newly trained Iraqis, and the Iraqi government. It involved the leaders, especially the religious leaders of the area:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...bar_rising.php

It may have been the wrong war, but it helped to keep the leadership and jihadis busy, time they couldn't spend waging their acts here or elsewhere.

[moderate democrat]

this has been argued ad nauseum and you have been provided with proof that there were in fact dems who wanted saddam gone, conquered and regime change....and we have also discussed that dems really didn't say boo about iraq until 2004....they waited until iraq became unpopular, that is cowardly and absolutely shows they supported the invasion by their silence.

I do not dispute that there were dems who wanted Saddam gone...I DO dispute that many - if any - were calling for invasion and conquest by American forces as a means to accomplish that. I know many democrats who have ALWAYS spoken out about Iraq since the very day we invaded, myself being one. I NEVER supported this war and am proud of that.

[Yurt]

I do not dispute that there were dems who wanted Saddam gone...I DO dispute that many - if any - were calling for invasion and conquest by American forces as a means to accomplish that. I know many democrats who have ALWAYS spoken out about Iraq since the very day we invaded, myself being one. I NEVER supported this war and am proud of that.

i know that very well, using your logic, that is why you wanted it to fail, the same you say for people who do not support obama's plans, you accuse them of wanting obama and this country to fail. you wanted the US to fail.

[PostmodernProphet]

a minority of congressional democrats did vote for the use of force.

the majority did not.

29 Democratic Senators voted yes, 21 Democratic Senators voted no....

81 Democratic Representatives voted yes, 126 Democratic Representatives voted no....

[PostmodernProphet]

Iran was always closer to getting a nuke than Iraq was...and so was NKorea.

Iran was not under UN sanctions and orders to cooperate with weapons inspections programs that were not being complied with......

[PostmodernProphet]

he was NOT a real and present danger to the middle east...

really?....though he had already started two wars in the Middle East and was purchasing arms even while under UN sanctions to disarm?......

[moderate democrat]

really?....though he had already started two wars in the Middle East and was purchasing arms even while under UN sanctions to disarm?......

he was certainly NOT a present danger.... go read what Bush's own Secretary of State had to say about Saddam in a press conference in Cairo back before 9/11. Powell clearly stated that Saddam was incapable of projecting military power outside his own borders.