I blame it on the FRENCH !

I think this whole mess could have been averted if the French and to some extent the Germans had shown a unfired front to the Iraqis. I believe ,had the French not been playing back door politics, assuring Saddam that the coalition would not attack without a mandate from the UN , he might have complied fully with the weapons inspectors. and given the UN more time to get rid of him in a less costly manner ?

Gadaffi averted an attack by the US , He realised he was in trouble and did a lot of back peddling , he's still around oppressing his own people, but more importantly no longer advocating violence towards the west, openly !

 

I blame canada too! They harbor the french! And when you harbor somthing, that means you can bomb it! So lets bomb canada!

 

Never mind that the French helped us win the American Revolution. Never mind that to a large degree American society is based upon French society. Never mind the millions of Americans of French ancestry. Never mind the Statue of Liberty. Never mind Louisiana.

The bastards didn't help us fight an unjust war. Forget "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," the new American credo is: "He who isn't my enemy's enemy is my enemy."

 

i was gonna say that i bet canada's glad we're not blaming anything on them now, but someone found a way. that rocks.

but to be honest, stuff that happened a hundred years ago doesn't really register on the friend radar. if yor best friend sets you up with the love of your life, then you find her fucking your best friend, it kinda doesn't mean anything anymore.

 

From what I remember, Saddam WAS allowing weapons inspections.....the inspectors just weren't coming up with the proper answer, so they were rushed out of there just ahead of the bombs.


I don't even see how the war has anymore to do with the French than say.....the greeks, russians, or whoever else isn't really involved,
the war has everything to do with the US, and thats about it really.

 

Yeh the more I think about it the less I can find about the French that I like !

Oh ! they do know something about cheese and wine !! good cheese and wine !

Maybe we shouldn't have bothered asking them if liberating Iraq was a good idea, we should only have asked them which wine goes best with that !

My friend just told me that Canadians are just like Mexicans with ski jackets on, ( that is not my opinion ) I love Canada !!!!!

 

Canadians just like Mexicans?! I'd be hard pressed to find two more different countries.....

 

Yes !!! What a memory !!! do you also remember him winning the Nobel peace prize for his contribution to the Iraqis freedom of expression campaigned .....

 

Get a sense of humour !

 

start saying something funny then.....it just sound like a stupid comment a dumbass would make rather than a joke.

 

I am glad that France, Germany, and Russia in particular oppossed our war. It shows that the world cannot be dictated to by the US. Bush oppossed true diplomacy, lied (via Collin Powell) to the UN about Iraqi weapons programs, rushed in w/out a UN mandate, and waged an illegal war.

What upsets me is that virtually all US Senators/Representives fully backed the President and gave him full powers to go to war. They knew well in advance that the "facts" should have been investigated fully by an independent commission. Important people in the CIA resigning, commenting against immediate action in public (RARE FOR THE CIA!), Dr. Kelly's death in the UK, etc., etc., etc. should have raised at least some eyebrows BEFORE we went.
Now that the election is over I can say this. I couldn't stand the fact that Kerry had voted for the war and then went against it. Sure he said that we were all lied to, like he didn't know. Like his isn't a bright intellectual, former District Attorney, lawyer. He didn't know we were being "misled"? He didn't even question?

I feel like now that our "representatives" voted confidence in the President and his decision to go to war, that we should support it and our troops more wholeheartedly and finish the job with resolve. The time for debate/action is way over. We could have done much more, but we did not. Let's PROMISE the Iraqi people FULL sovereignty, FULL control over their resources, fiscal backing to rebuild with IRAQI contractors, and help when THEY ask for it.
We should be doing sooooooooooooo much more to win the hearts and minds of people, not just in the middle east, but all over the world, as a matter of national security. Build up the economies of third world countries so they can have some sense of security and perhaps even purchase US products. I doubt many would give up their lives if they had a good job, a well-fed family, a three bedroom home, in other words, something to live for. Its a matter of national security.
Who knows the total amount spent and est. for the operation in Iraq?

 

sol, I'll just point out to you that when it came to the PEOPLE (not the puppet governments) of the world, the Iraq invasion was almost universally opposed. Further, perhaps the US should have joined with France and Germany to create a "united front" - since there was almost no support for illegally invading Iraq. Why should the rest of the world simply give in to the United States when it wants to carry out actions that are WRONG?

 

Great point LaughinWillow! What should be done now?

 

Please don't mistake unwilling to contribute to the liberation ,with not wanting Saddam dealt with ! All but a few of the governments supported the decision , except France who had a lot ridding on keeping the regime in power ! who then promised Germany a nice big piece of the pie if they opposed it as well !... I only hope when Iraq is back on it's feet they remember these small details .....

Could it be that " virtually all US Senators/Reprehensive fully backed the President and gave him full powers to go to war. " because they knew something we don't ? Could it be they were privy to some interesting facts, like Saddams attempts to obtain components to a nuclear device, which he intended to use ? or exactly how close he was to achieving his aim ?

You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time .... But you can't fool all of the people all of the time ........

There will come a time of reckoning, I hope we did it for the right reasons, but not as much as you hope we didn't !

That ! I feel is how we differ .......

 

Look, while I agree that Saddam was a menace, he definately was not an "eminent threat". EVERY frightful senario presented to the US public and the world turned out to be false. That he tried to secure uranium in Nigera, that he had the capability to launch scuds armed with a nuke or biological weapons able to hit Israel in 45 min, his relations with Al-Queda, etc. turned out to be false.

Sure he hated the US, but he had neither the military nor the gaul to launch even a covert attack. He was a secular national-socialist, who dispised Islamists and persecuted them in his own state.

We can't just go around and wage war with everyone who we think might attack us at some point in the future. If this precedent were followed by the foreign policies of all governments, we would find ourselves in an all out total war. Pakistan, India; China, Taiwan, Japan; S.Korea, N.Korea; etc. etc. The fragile balance and peace that we have achieved in these areas through diplomacy could all be lost based on the doctrine of preemption.
We should have waited for inspection teams to finish their job. Even Hans Blix, Cheif UN WMD inspector felt like we rushed into war.

The fact that almost every US congress person voted for confidence in the president has little to do with the actual danger posed by Saddam and more to do with fear on the part of our reps of a public in love with our commander and chief after 9-11. This is verified by the number of US reps that now question our reasons for war.

My point is that this is too late. They should have done this questioning before we went.

 

I think there is a fallacy that has to be explored .... We have never had a fragile balance and peace through democracy in this world, we had it through strength in arms....
Pakistan, India; China, Taiwan ?, Japan; S.Korea?, N.Korea;
Had The US not been so powerful four of the seven countries would have expanded their borders by now, and one of the seven has (china ) !

I admire you staunch commitment to a better world, but be careful you don't throw the baby out with the bath water .. the platform you're standing on is based on the system you're trying to bring down,,, If the system comes down , so does your platform !

 

I agree that for now, peace has to be acheived through strength, and the willingness to use it if attacked. Its called National Defense, not National Aggression!

 

If you could go back in time and kill Hitler before the umpteen millions of people died would you ? straight question ....

If the answer is yes , some would say you're a hypocrite ...

If you say no, some would call you evil ........

hindsight is something that sits on the same shelf as wishes . When you look back and wonder, with hindsight should i have done that ? you always end up wishing you could change something .....

 

I blame God. For everything.

 

Everybody knows that its only a matter of time before those sneaky canadians come down here on their snowmobiles and take all our fuckin' cheese! if we're not careful they are gonna steal all our mexicans too! then who would we have to work at MCdonalds in California?