If we had only done the same ...

[szh]

... after the Russians left Afghanistan, then we would likely be in a much better world! No Taliban, no Osama bin Laden ... and no 911!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26525962/

We spent $1 billion arming the Mujahedeen, but would not allocate a $1 million to help rebuild the place. After 10 years of Russian occupation of Afghanistan and massive torture and killing of civilians. Here, we have a few weeks of Russian occupation of Georgia and we rush in with money!

P.S. I still highly recommend watching Charlie Wilson's War ...

Z

[Eikon]

On your recommendation I did rent and watch Charlie Wilson's War.

It was a very very good movie. Not only for the acting and writing, but mostly for the education of it. I assume most of what was presented was factual? I know that movies are not always factual, but this one seemed to follow legit factual history...

I enjoyed the analogy of the village wise man who's response to seemingly good and bad turns of fortune by saying "we'll see" - implying that what seems to be good or bad today could very well turn out to be opposite afterwards.

Though we see the rebuilding of Iraq as a huge negative today, perhaps it will turn out to be a great benefit to our country and our security in the future.. unlike what occured in Afghanistan from the movie.

Thanks Z!

[Soravia]

Iraq is turning out good. Thanks to the men and women who sacrificed their lives for the American people and Iraqis to have a better life.

Or we could just drop everthing and have them come back like Mr. Obama wants. He sees the war as a SHAME.

[telcoman]

Iraq is turning out good. Thanks to the men and women who sacrificed their lives for the American people and Iraqis to have a better life.

Or we could just drop everthing and have them come back like Mr. Obama wants. He sees the war as a SHAME.

Turning out good for who?

What a disaster Bush has mismanaged. Try telling that to the families who lost members in that useless war.

You are lucky there is no draft or your *** would probably have ended up there?

If there was a draft the RNC would be a do over from 1968 with a lot more demonstrations in the streets. Thats why there is none and service members have been on third and fourth tours.

All that wasted money so Iraq has a 80 billion surplus.

Telcoman

[smockers83]

I really do not understand this argument about soldiers going on multiple tours and that they shouldn't or something. Most of them want to go back. Plus, before, if there was a war (up to WWII) and you were in the service, you didn't come home until the war was over unless you were discharged.

[Jimefam]

It was an absolutely senseless war and it is shameful that we made such a large mistake. NOW its to late and our only alternative is to keep pumping more money and more blood into this and hope that we can make something positive out something extremely negative. Give me one good reason for this war having happened??

[szh]

It was an absolutely senseless war and it is shameful that we made such a large mistake. NOW its to late and our only alternative is to keep pumping more money and more blood into this and hope that we can make something positive out something extremely negative. Give me one good reason for this war having happened??

Ummm ... which one are you talking about? My original post was about the Russian invasion of Afghanistan back in the eighties.

Z

[Jimefam]

Iraq is turning out good. Thanks to the men and women who sacrificed their lives for the American people and Iraqis to have a better life.

Or we could just drop everthing and have them come back like Mr. Obama wants. He sees the war as a SHAME.

That one. I agree wholeheartedly with what the op said.

[szh]

That one. I agree wholeheartedly with what the op said.

Okay.

FWIW, I am not happy that we went into Iraq either.

First, we were an aggressor rather than defending ourselves. We chose to put aside our previously held moral stengths on this issue. Not a good thing.

Second, the WMD's were not really there. Were we misled by intelligence failures? Were they moved? Did they ever exist? I don't know the answers.

The problem is that hindsight is always 20/20. Sure there were some experts who counseled otherwise, but the outcome was not that clear at the time.

Regardless, I don't think we can call it shameful ... so that we should tuck our tails in and slink away.

We did remove a horrific dictator from power - whether we should or shouldn't have been the world's policeman to do this, is a different issue.

We took preemptive action - I am simply not sure that this was necessarily justifiable, but it was a decision that our POTUS chose to make. At the time, I simply did not think I had enough information to question the decision one way or another.

And, as always, I believe very strongly that the military is not to blame for this political decision, by the way. A tough call ...

Z

[Jimefam]

Absolutely, the military is not ever at fault for the decision nor has their performance been anything short of brilliant. But there were not "some" experts who counseled otherwise. The majority of the world agreed in the UN before any action that this was a flawed decision and decided not to partake. True the bloodlust here after 9/11 blinded many people into thinking that every muslim was our enemy( a view still held by many) and that we needed to kick some ***. But testosterone aside this war has cost us twice the amount of lives lost in 9/11 and several trillions of our nations wealth. At this point the best we can do is hope to come out with friendly iraqi government which really means nothing. The Saudis have been friendly for fifty years and look what that has gotten us. We are in a much weaker position to fight our real enemies, our moral superiority has been lost we have fewer allies in the world and those that remain are lukewarm at best. So all in all I think the word shameful is warranted when discussing this decision. As far as removing a horrific dictator from power wellllllllll the world is full of them and most were worse then him so dont see the validity of that argument. I do agree with most of what you said though.