The Iraq War was right & Legitimate

[mills]

Was the United States justified when they invaded Iraq?

Absolutely. They went after Saddam in 1991 and they had the world's backing then. Nothing changed between then and 2003 except for the US's willingness to sacrifice.

Did the United States lie to its people about WMD?

Mostly no. The government 'erred on the side of caution', but it's irrelevant. We were going to go in no matter what. We had every reason to guess Saddam Hussein had them and would transport them, and of course lie about it. Hussein hated our guts, and wanted to hurt us as much as possible without it being traced back to him. If he could have sold a WMD to a capable terrorist group, he would have. In Hussein's case, having proported WMD programs was more than enough.

Did the US government lie and tell its people it would be easy?

Sure, but who wouldn't? This is the gayest question anyone could ask, and by far the worst "proof of a lie" out there. I am pretty sure the government knew it would be much harder than they were willing to admit, but again, who wouldn't give a positive spin to an answer to a question as moronic, elitist, xenophobic and racist as "how easy will this war be"? It's a WAR. It's not as predictable as everything in the traditional left's world. And while I'm sure they spun it wildly positive relative to their real estimates, I'm also sure it's because the moronic, elitist, xenophobic, racist American left would not accept anything less than that answer. I hate to sound partisan, but this is the reality, and it's the nature of the left.


Did the US go to war with Iraq for oil?

Everything ties into oil. To reiterate, every foreign policy decision made by a first world takes oil into account as part of their decision. But if you think the US made an overt "oil grab", all you have to do is look at gas prices. And if you don't think it was an "oil grab" that benefitted America but one that benefits Haliburton, just look at public documents. If you think this was a war to get construction contracts, then you think it was a labor war and you're especially retarded.

[BravoSierra]

My mind was just blown. YAAAAAAAAAAAY to the war! FUCK YEAH! :icon_eek:

[B54]

Let the bashing begin ...

[BeerBelly]

FEDERAL RESERVE (banks always profit from war) yeah I saw zeigheist on youtube

[BloodyDiaper]

Was the United States justified when they invaded Iraq?

Absolutely. They went after Saddam in 1991 and they had the world's backing then. Nothing changed between then and 2003 except for the US's willingness to sacrifice.

Wrong. They had the world's backing to force Iraq out of Kuwait. This objective was achieved and UN Security Council Resolution 687 delcared a formal cease-fire.

Did the United States lie to its people about WMD?

Mostly no. The government 'erred on the side of caution', but it's irrelevant.

In other words they did lie, but you're ok with it. The rest of your paragraph is a rationalization that doesn't directly answer the question you posed. So, wrong again.

Did the US government lie and tell its people it would be easy?

Sure, but who wouldn't? This is the gayest question anyone could ask, and by far the worst "proof of a lie" out there. I am pretty sure the government knew it would be much harder than they were willing to admit, but again, who wouldn't give a positive spin to an answer to a question as moronic, elitist, xenophobic and racist as "how easy will this war be"? It's a WAR. It's not as predictable as everything in the traditional left's world. And while I'm sure they spun it wildly positive relative to their real estimates, I'm also sure it's because the moronic, elitist, xenophobic, racist American left would not accept anything less than that answer. I hate to sound partisan, but this is the reality, and it's the nature of the left.

Wow, 0 for 3. They claimed it would be easy and that it would pay for itself for the same reason they made false claims about aluminum tubes and mobile weapons labs - it was propaganda to increase public support across the political spectrum.

Did the US go to war with Iraq for oil?

Everything ties into oil. To reiterate, every foreign policy decision made by a first world takes oil into account as part of their decision. But if you think the US made an overt "oil grab", all you have to do is look at gas prices. And if you don't think it was an "oil grab" that benefitted America but one that benefits Haliburton, just look at public documents. If you think this was a war to get construction contracts, then you think it was a labor war and you're especially retarded

Why would rising gas prices disprove the claim that oil was the reason behind the invasion? Did the invasion magically reduce the demand from India and China or domestically? Why would an economic actor that secures control over a scarce supply want to lower it's price? That's assuming said actor doesn't encounter some bumps on the road to securing said supply...Even though you get half a point for admitting the truisim that "everything ties to oil" you lose it for being demonstrably ignorant about everything else.

[Treat_Yourself]

Seems to me the whole thing has been a collosal waste of money. The billions of dollars per month spent on the Iraq war could have been used for better purposes like building nuclear plants and paying for research on alternative fuels that would have helped reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Then we could tell the countries that sponsor terrorism to go fuck themselves and bankrupt Hugo Chavez, the Saudis, and the Iranians.

[DJ Evel Ed]

We needed a military base and a puppet government to rattle sabres with Iran. We have Afghanistan and Iraq so Iran is basically surrounded. It gives us leverage to deal with the radicals now. It also takes the fight to them. Right or wrong, it is what it is.

[thetick130]

The war was started over a dictator who defied sanctions for years, and we were under the impression that they were getting nuclear or biological capabilities. I believe that was enough to go over there, if the intellegence was right. It turns out to not be good intellegence, and so the scope of the war changed.
Bush fucked up after that by trying to say we were liberating Iraq when that was not the initial reasoning for war. That screwed up the public opinion, and he dropped WMD's from the discussion and didn't talk about it again, confusing everyone.

In my opinion, regardless of how it started or why, we need to stay over there and take the fight to those savages who want nothing but to kill us. I wish we could come home but I'd rather see them try and kill our trained troops overseas then our untrained citizens on the home front. Pulling out now will not only embolden the enemies over there, and give them a terrorist safe haven, but will show that we are not dedicated enough to fight against them longterm. Nothing good came come from pulling out early.
These people want no discussion, no treaties, no truce. They just want us to die, and we can't let that go lighly.

Attack if you want. Thats my stupid opinion and I'm sticking to it.

[asswiper]

IMO, we invaded Iraq because it is easier to wage war against the savages there than in Afghanistan.

[THE FEZ MAN]

:deadhorse

[UCFGavin]

The war was started over a dictator who defied sanctions for years,

It was UN sanctions. This is why I have a problem with the UN....it puts a governing body above the US and gives them permission to break their constitutional powers. Thats also why we're as fucked as we are right now.

[DonTheTrucker]

http://threadbombing.com/data/media/29/goingplaces.jpg

That argument almost turned me AGAINST the war, and that's saying something.

[weakside]

:deadhorse

X2

Enough.

[Its A Hemi]

Hate the war, didn't agree with the start, thought there were better targets, yadda yadda...

That being said, the only reason the U.N. and the Arab communities didn't go completely apeshit is Saddam signed a cease fire in 1991, not a peace treaty. Part of that was a no-fly zone, which was violated, and aircraft patrolling it were regularly fired upon.

When you get down to the brass tacks, that's what will keep Bush and his crew out of prison.

[mendozathejew]

It was UN sanctions. This is why I have a problem with the UN....it puts a governing body above the US and gives them permission to break their constitutional powers. Thats also why we're as fucked as we are right now.

regardless. Saddam was starving his own people. hundreds of thousands we dying. and the US got blamed for it.

Clinton completely ignored it. it was the other big foreign diplomacy disaster that Billy left us when he left office.

An Anti Iraq War position is completely rational. But it is foolish to act like this was not a massive problem that did affect us greatly.

[DonTheTrucker]

An Anti Iraq War position is completely rational. But it is foolish to act like this was not a massive problem that did affect us greatly.

Are you implying that both sides have merit? CAN'T BE! YOU MUST BE AGAINST/FOR THE WAR AND IF YOU'RE NOT YOU'RE A RIGHT/LEFT WING NUT!

[thetick130]

Are you implying that both sides have merit? CAN'T BE! YOU MUST BE AGAINST/FOR THE WAR AND IF YOU'RE NOT YOU'RE A RIGHT/LEFT WING NUT!

HAPPY 13000th POST DON!!!!!

[turdfrgsn]

the iraq so called "war" did nothing but underscore the fact that we have become an utterly pussified nation

otherwise, we'd have gone michael corleone on the entire middle east's asses on 9/12/2001

all family business is settled today

but no

as it is, line up to suck an uncircumcised cock until the creature comforts run out

enjoy

we're fucking doomed

[mendozathejew]

the iraq so called "war" did nothing but underscore the fact that we have become an utterly pussified nation

otherwise, we'd have gone michael corleone on the entire middle east's asses on 9/12/2001

all family business is settled today

but no

as it is, line up to suck an uncircumcised cock until the creature comforts run out

enjoy

we're fucking doomed

thats actually a decent point. I think when most of us envisioned a republican, hell even most democrats going to war in the 21st century, they thought we would level something like the Sunni triangle instead of getting bogged down in a several year long counter insurgency.

[DonTheTrucker]

HAPPY 13000th POST DON!!!!!

Too bad my actual 13,000th post wasn't quite as witty as that one was. :(

Thanks anyway!

[Vyce]

We needed a military base and a puppet government to rattle sabres with Iran. We have Afghanistan and Iraq so Iran is basically surrounded. It gives us leverage to deal with the radicals now. It also takes the fight to them. Right or wrong, it is what it is.

I quoted this because Ed basically cut through ALL of the bullshit and got down to the absolute core of it.

Iraq was basically designed to be an end run at Iran, keeping them in check. The execution was fucked up, but that's basically the motive there.

[DanaReevesLungs]

I quoted this because Ed basically cut through ALL of the bullshit and got down to the absolute core of it.

Iraq was basically designed to be an end run at Iran, keeping them in check. The execution was fucked up, but that's basically the motive there.

It's a fucked up and expensive motive that will likely never pay off. But, no one truly knows. I just have an opinion like everyone else. I think the main reason was Dubya wanted to get revenge for his dad first then maybe this was his hindsight, but I doubt it.