socal57,
very well written reply.
the only thing i disagree with you is the falsehood of 'fight them there so we don't have to fight them here'. they ARE here. They CAN get into the us with no problem through holes in the borderand ports. look how we foiled the millenium plot. a canadian border gaurd was alert and a terrorist was stopped only because she had a gut feeling.
with our first responders in iraq, we are thin protecting ourselves here. our government is not giving them the money they need. we are putting all of our money into iraq and what are we getting? more terrorists, perpetual war, cuts in domestic programs to help the poor and elderly, deficits that our children and our children's children will pay the price, losing respect in the world community, and much more problems.
also, if we're to send our troops to war, the least we can do is give them the proper equipment to fight it, and the proper medical care for those who've been injured. if our government supports the war, why did they try to cut their medical benefits, why did they try to cut their combat pay, why would they even think of putting into the bill for credit card slavery (bankrupcy reform bill) that families with spouses over there don't get any break even though their income has been cut in half?
i would have no problem fighting to keep our children safe, but this is a war of choice, not iminent threat. saddam was hated by the other mid east leaders and by osama. he was a toothless leader. his country was bankrupt, sanctions worked. talk to the us companies who were still holding business with iraq during the sanctions like Haliburton.
to reefraff,
when you start calling your advisary names, you lose the debate.
stop watching fox news. she never said it was a pleasant meeting. she never said that the us is not worth fighting for. you may have heard something that, in your state of mind, that's how you interpreted it. the un placed sanctions because saddam refused to allow the inspecters to complete their job, not because saddam had weapons, but because saddam has always underestimated the us resolve. if you broke the law, would you be happy if strangers came into your house to verify that you can't break it again? not me. besides, they were kicked out because saddam caught them spying.
sanctions worked. the other nations did not say that they do have wmd's like rumsfeld did. they said that they were not sure. all bush had to do was to let the inspectors finish their job, then he would have had the world community on his side. or maybe, just maybe it would have been found that there were no weapons.
our intelligence in the mid east, especially in countries like iraq, iran, and somalia are, at best spotty, and at worst, non-existent. we relied on an iraqi whose only goal was to return to the country and replace saddam, which, by the way was the administration's first choice before they found the truth about him.
we gave osama what he wanted. he goaded us into this.