Quote Originally Posted by manfrommaine View Post
I am disappointed in the relatively minor successes in social engineering programs.... I, too, agree that national security is priority number one. I do not think that the Iraq war has done squat to improve our national security.

I am 100% behind fighting islamic extremism. I volunteered to go BACK on active duty eight years after retiring for the purpose of helping president Bush fight the islamic extremists that attacked us. I am no dove on the issue of defense.
Good for you!
I am simply opposed to the Iraq misadventure because I truly believe it is counterproductive to our overarching goal of making ourselves safe from islamic extremism for the long term. I believe that my party has a more focused view of our real enemies and is not held hostage by the PNAC neocon vision for American dominance in the middle east which drove the Iraq invasion and which has been proven to be fatally flawed, IMHO.
Why do you think we involved ourselves in the Gulf War? My guess was it was because one of the ME bullies was pushing his weight around and that could screw up the free flow of ME oil that we're so dependant upon every day 24-7-365... Following the Gulf War nothing changed the bully was still talking shit and had failed to live up to his ceasefire agreement... How do you associate this conflict with PNAC? We didn't react to the hostilities in Lebanon and Israel... we don't go after Syria for supplying Hezbollah that waged the war with Israel... Iraq wasn't a threat to Israel outside of its funding of suicide bombers... During the Clinton administration congress determined Saddam's government should be overthrown regardless if Saddam complied with the UN or not and it had nothing to do with Israel... If you were honest with yourself, like all of congress you would admit that the current conflict was out of concern of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".