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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Orcastraiter who wrote (24580)	1/3/2005 2:22:00 PM
From: WWWWWWWWWW	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

That there "isn't a plan" or "exit strategy" is just a liberal myth. After 9/11 it became apparent we can no longer kick problems down the road, like Clinton did with Osama bin Laden. For 12 years, Saddam Hussein was supposed to comply with the UN resolutions. He didn't. He had used WMDs in the past, and wasn't providing proof of their destruction as he was required to. The "plan" was to get him to comply, for the safety of ourselves, Israel, and that part of the world. He didn't comply. During our military build-up, he was given several more ultimatums and chances to prevent war... he never availed himself of that. As soon as we and our coalition decided to invade, the "plan" then became to remove him from power, destroy his military capability, remove his government, and put a new, democratic government in place and maintain our presence there for YEARS until stability is achieved. Similar to what we did in Germany and Japan. So, as you can see, the "plan" is progressing just fine. Hussein is gone, his henchmen gone, his government gone, the Republican Guard killed or disbanded, and the timeline leading up to the elections is proceeding. Police forces are being trained and we're doing other things to help the country on the path to stability. "No plan?" Come on. There's always been a bizarre liberal myth that Bush invaded and went, Gee, what do we do now? Poppycock. As the new government gets control, we start to leave. That's our exit strategy.

To: Orcastraiter who wrote (24580)	1/3/2005 2:32:35 PM
From: Augustus Gloop	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90947

I think you're missing my point....I'm not arguing about the strategic stuff or the advice because A) I don't know what all went on B) I'm not an expert in war I'm sure after this experience I will have some questions BUT I maintain that from an historical perspective the number of lives lost has been low compared to other wars. Now if this war fails the number of questions and criticism by me will rise. Until then I'm going to reserve judgement. On the surface I didn't and don't disagree with going into Iraq on the premise of them being willing to give weapons advice to terrorist groups. I never thought they had nukes but I did expect to find more bio stuff than we've found. It could still be there buried in the ground but as of now we have no proof. I think intelligence was wrong so I don't feel as if Bush lied to us. Do I think he had an interest in going into Iraq before 9/11 - yeah. Although I don't think it was oil based as other people do. I believe that he had watched the situation in the ME deteriorate over the course of time and that 9/11 was the final straw for him. I also think he viewed the ME as a problem and saw Iraq as a central location that we could use for quick strikes around the region if other events took place that required a response. Every president that I can remember (nixon to current) has spent a great deal of time on the middle east and trying to make peace. I think Bush is the first president in my life to say f**k it and basically decide to negotiate with force because nothing else has worked. If it fails he's going to look bad but if it works it could be the start of better days to come. Nothing good comes easy. But before I pass judgement I want to see this thing through. If it fails I will have supported a bad idea because I was all for going into Iraq shortly after 9/11. I didn't care if they had WMD or not. I felt like we needed to be proactive in that region rather than reactive. Time will tell but I admit I was screaming to go into Iraq well before it was even on the table publicly.