Let’s talk about something other than Trump and Russia for a day.
Iraq.
We’ve been many years past the Iraq war. Looking back, do you think the invasion was justified? Justified or not, are we better off because of it - either by consequence or intention?
I believe we have seen the post war consequences over the last 4-6 years.
What are your thoughts on this very historically impactful war?
My opinion is that the Iraq war strengthened Iran, ultimately, and Iraq is now an Iranian proxy. The invasion was not justified. I cant make up my mind whether or not we are better off, especially taking into account the 100,000s of lives lost and the vacuum of power it created, in the absence of the need for a multi decade US occupation.
I wonder what the middle east would be with Sadam still around? I’ve always trusted that Bush knew what he was doing. Although 15 years later…i can’t say he did or didn’t.
One thing is certain, America is always right. Even if Saddam would have been better off being left in power, America made a choice, so we’re going to deal with it. We have the best people making these decisions, so nobody gets to judge whether they were the right decisions.
I strongly supported the invasion and taking out saddam as a teenager.
Now that I’m older… I mean the world is a better place without that cretin from a moral standpoint but I dunno if it’s actually better off. As bad as that piece of trash acted he was, for better or worse, a counter to Iran.
His dad did not want to go in. He helped him get there and figured he was better than the religious nutters. Jr seemed more pissed about the assassination attempt on dad and was surrounded by people with a goal of having more control in the ME.
I had a buddy in Naval Intel…in Baghdad. One night over scotch and a campfire he told me that the issue was putting a wedge between Syria, iran, and the kingdom. Because the fear was Iran takes Iraq, Syria, Lebanon fall right in and you now have a Muslim State. The Muslim State takes the Saudi Kingdom…you now have a wildly rich all controlling Muslim State. And what does it control…oil flow to Russia and Europe and parts of Asia.
It’s my opinion that the US was not about to let that happen. Not after 9-11. The panic that would have ensued here would have destabilized the US population in my opinion.
I agree, looking back I can see why the first one was justified when Saddam invaded Kuwait, but since their forces were pretty much devastated it seems the 2nd Iraq war was perhaps a big mistake. I also rank the removal of Qaddafi in Libya as a huge mistake. Both wars seemed to do nothing but bring in radicals to fill in the void that was left opened.
Plus in Iraq the new leader was one of the ones we had so much problems with in the second Iraq war.
P.S. kudos to the op for a non Trump/Russia thread it gets quiet dull when the front page is full of the same threads every day. While it might be an important issue there is a lot of other things going on in the world today.
Anyone in this thread serve in Iraq? I thought it was a disaster from the beginning. I did 3 tours in Iraq, 3 and 1/2 years turning a stable ■■■■■■■■ into an unstable ■■■■■■■■■ Our foreign policy sucks and has sucked for generations.
