aplusmnt said:
Did not realize the President could just declare war on a whim. Seems like Bush had to go through the same channels as did the Presidents of all the other wars. Congress was involved if I remember correctly.
No other president has been so callous as to create a war, hundreds of thousands dead just because he wanted it. Bush is an original.
Also you can not say it was a whim when we had already fought Saddam a few years before that under another President. If it was not for the Treaty Saddam signed we would have went to Baghdad years before. Then he broke it so all Bush really did was finish the war that was started by Previous administrations.
The world fought Saddam when he invaded Kuwait. He invaded Kuwait for no reason, except he wanted to. That's exactly the reason George W. Bush invaded Iraq. Jim Baker took all kinds of heat because the US and their friends didn't go on into Iraq in the first Gulf War. Today no one with a brain questions that decision. It's obvious that we would have the same problems then that we have now.
You want to act like all was peaceful in the world and then Bush woke up one day and says he I am bored, I think I will start a war.
From the day Bush took office he was looking for a reason to get Saddam.
His own Sec of Treasury said at the first cabinet meeting, Saddam was an important topic of discussion! He was eager to pin 9/11 on Saddam, but couldn't make that happen. So he used 9/11 as an excuse. He stoked the fears of many Americans, he misused intelligence, to make a case for war against Saddam. You can't get around that.
The war started with 911 against us and Countries with Radical and dangerous Muslims sponsored nations. At the very least you could only argue that he picked the wrong one at the wrong time, or could have did it differently. But it was not a whim, All Wars have mistakes, the ups and downs strategically.
The "war" was declared by George W. Bush, not by any nation. When the Towers were attacked under the previous Administration, people were caught, tried and are now in jail. Where is Osama? Not in jail. You can't get around that one either.
Bush is on record as saying he's not very concerned about Bin Ladin. He's also on record as having a grudge against Saddam.
You live in this Now time also. You can not see how in 5 or 20 years going to Iraq might prove to be smart, seeing how Iran is probably the biggest threat to World Peace at the moment. And guess what? We now have a stronghold with weapons sitting right on the border of Iran. If not for Iraq it would have taken months to prepare to fight Iran when the time arise.
I do live in the NOW time. I see that in five or ten years, Iraq is likely to go to the world court and ask for restitution from the US for the devestation we've done to that country. That's assuming, of course, that there is such a country left. Right now it looks like it's coming apart at the seams,
thanks to George Bush. Did you know that Iran was an ally in the invasion of Afghanistan? That they furnished important intelligence for that invasion? And what did Bush do a few weeks later? He called them part of the "Axis of Evil." Thanks, Iran. If you ever thought you could be a friend of the US, that showed you where you stood. That probably nothing you could do would ever make this country accept you. We're not going to have a large number of troops in Iraq in five or ten years. They may be there through the Bush Administration (two more years) only because he had rather have several thousand more dead Americans than to admit he messed up.
\As I have always said, I believe the Iraq war is about building forces in an area that will be the battle grounds for WWIII. Saddam was just stupid enough to give us a crack in the door to get into that area.
You can believe whatever you want, but the record is clear that George W. Bush took us into war with Iraq because Saddam had WMDs and would give them to terrorists to bring to the US. That was his excuse, that was the mantra of the Administration, mushroom clouds and all.
Nothing Bush did was a Whim, right or wrong it was no Whim, Maybe you should think a little or use Google like Kolan. :wink:
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I have thought. War on a whim is my belief. He, Rumsfeld, Cheney, thought they could have a nice little war, get in and out. The Iraqis would love us, throw roses at our feet, the oil would be contracted out to American oil companies, and everyone would be happy. They
ignored professional military recommendations that told them otherwise. There's no excuse for the mess we're in. There's no simple answer for rebuilding Iraq. There is a civil war that must fight itself out. There's nothing 140,000 American soldiers can do to make Sunnis love Shiites and that's the problem right now. The latest Pentegon report says the greatest threat to the country is not Al Quaida; it's secterian violence (civil war).
We cannot stop a civil war.
