War in Iraq, is there a point?

I think the larger motive for the war in Iraq is to change the Middle East. Iraq was the easiest target. Iran probably is more important, but I think we felt Iran might change on it's own.Many claim Iraq is a huge mistake, and if all Ben Laden and the Islamo-fascists have up their sleeve is 911-type of attacks, they could have a point.If Islamo-fascists really are working and have a good chance of obtaining WMDs and can launch them, such as nukes, then it probably is worth the risk.Without knowing the risks, it's a judgment call on the president's part. If Al Qaeda has nukes, then we may well not be aggressive enough.In some respects, I think Bush's mistake was to take so long to attack Iraq. Had he moved against Saddam right after 911, it would have gone over better politically around the world.I also think we have moved too slow to call elections and did not have a quick enough plan. In general, I think our problem is we are too slow. For example, we could have had a plan for an interim Iraq already drawn up to be implemented for 2-5 years, and let the new Iraqi Congress sort things out, and not provide so much of the security needs. If civil war erupted, we could then have a situation where one side asks for our help and so we agree to assist if they accept certain conditions.Basically, I sort of think we don't play hardball enough with this area of the world.I also probably would have advocated targetting Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the rest after 911, and cleaned out Lebanon and toppled Syria first.Maybe what we should have done is told Syria, Iran, and Iraq that they must cease all terror activities within 48 hours or we'll bomb the heck out of them until they do, and never send in large ground troops and don't help them rebuild and take a more punitive approach to ending their WMDs programs.

Good point. One explanation is he was in Pakistan, and to go into Pakistan would have entailed Pakistan falling to the terrorists or better terms Islamocists.I'd say it was either that, or the conspiracy folks on the far left are right.We also don't know yet exactly where all the nukes are in the world. Pakistan's top nuclear scientists was assisting North Korea and other states in their nuclear ambitions and seemed to have an alliance with hard-core communist nations against us.Keep in mind the Taliban was the creation of the Pakistani's version of the CIA.So we in the public don't know what's going on. My concern is neither does the administration. As hard as this is to swallow, the real trouble is with our so-called allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. They seem to be front and center in the war against the US.I also think we are underestimating the nuclear and other secret weapons of WMD's likelihood of being able to cripple the US.Our nation, for example, is depandant on the power grid which can easily be knocked out, and maybe kept off-line, and it's not clear we could recover easily.I think we are more vulnerable than people realize, and we could be facing a war on our own soil with WMDs deployed here in the States, and a lot of them, not just nukes but some more exotic weapons systems of the type Sec of Defense Cohen warned against in the 90s.

Certainly, there are lots of complex issues at stake. I suspect we felt going after the Saudi regime would destabalize world oil prices, and result in an economic, global recession which may have been Ben Laden's goal all along.

That was a response to why we did not put more forces in Afghanistan to get Ben Laden. If he was across the border, those forces would do no good.

In general I agree that we spend too much on the military and should cut spending.In time of war though, I am not so sure how that works.I do think we should think of ways to project force more cheaply, such as punitive action without nation-building to coerce Islamic nations with high numbers of terrorists into not developing WMD.

Faith, Mick's sort of thinking is what led leftists to give our military secrets to Stalin, thinking helping to balance the power was a good thing.He seems to think America is the enemy.

It doesn't even seem to occur to some that whereas maybe the Iraq war is not worth it for us, getting rid of Saddam could be a good thing for Iraq.Of course, if Iraqis vote in an Islamic type of government, they are just hurting themselves, and it will have been somewhat in vain, but in some ways that's not our fault. The people have to want freedom bad enough to get rid of the mullahs and their extremist rhetoric.