Recent Study showing GB and America popularity dropping!

[Corporal Hicks]

His decisions in the new term thus far indicate what you are talking about is the furthest thing from his mind.

Attempting to constitutionally ban gay marriage, appointing religious fanatics as the head of women's health departments, privatizing social security (thus disenfranchising the lower and most of the middle classes even more), appointing a clearly biased "true believer" as head of the CIA, and appointing Condoleeza Rice (who failed appalingly as our National Security Advisor) as Secretary of State does not indicate a calm, rational thinker concerned with any kind of far-off "legacy" or "future of the state"...

This is the part where those of us who didn't vote for Bush can say "I told you so".

God Help us! :idunno:

America and Americans are being given an all over body wash that they are just like George Bush in their views and motives. Its not fair. George Bush seems to be too idealistic and has too many flaws (Michael Moore enters here).

Only time will tell.........

 

[Erik]

I don't think Bush is soo stupid that imagined he would catch terrorists by invading Iraq, nor that he really cares about the Iraqi people sooo much that he would send in tens of thousands of troops/and spend billions to save them from Saddam. As for being a threat to America, just how was Saddam going to get the weapons there assuming he had WsMD? I doubt his long range missile capability expanded a lot after Kuwait and even then he couldn't hit anything.

My speculation for the "real" reason we invaded Iraq is the following. Keep in mind it's only speculation. Maybe I'm wrong (I don't think so, but I'm open to it).

1) Bush had a very weak hold over his presidency (1st term) and desparately needed to do something to get people behind him. A war would shift public media attention.

2) After 9/11 he needed to be seen doing something. Otherwise, he would become a target himself as the media would accuse him of weakness and he already had some serious PR problems.

3) Iraq was already a Hitler/Mao/Stalin type pitbull of a country and we had been pissing them off for a decade by supporting a Kurdish uprising in the North (near Turkey) and Shia independence in the South. My old roommate was an Air Force PJ and had been in Iraq before. This was a shooting war, make no mistake. Were Iraq to be so enabled, they would certainly like a bigger piece of the US. I believe this to be true.

4) Iraq had used chemical weapons before (remember Chemical Ali?) This showed that they had (at least at one point) had them and had been willing to use them. That is not a trivial detail.

5) 9/11 showed the public what the military and intel world already knew - that it doesn't take high-tech to attack someone. In the modern world it is easy to cause harm.

It is really, really easy to get some nasty gas or disease and put it in a public area. This is really scary. Nukes pale in significance.

This has been true for quite some time. Now, after 9/11, the voting public is learning about it and the administration believes that they want to see some action.

6) The US was suffering from an energy shortage caused by a variety of reasons including consumption, corporate scandals, handling damage from 9/11, rough weather, CA's energy problems, and actually a significant increase in oil use by China, enough that we see the change in gas price at the pump still (this is a big part of the reason that we are still paying more - there's a blossoming economy on the other side of the Pacific).

Also, significantly, Saudi Arabia is in bigger and bigger trouble. The Wahabis and the royal family are butting heads in a big way. We cannot continue to rely upon that country for oil. The zit is coming to a head. It's going to pop soon, regardless of what we do here.

Remember, the guys who did 9/11 were largely Saudi Arabians, so they could easily strike next in that country.

Oil is more than just energy - it's all the plastic we use. Our plastic water bottles are made of oil. Strange, huh? Liquid holding liquid. Much fertalizer is also oil-based. The entire economy relies upon this stuff.

Given all this, it became imperative to "secure" (euphamism intended) oil supplies for the medium term. One more crisis could easily have ended the USA.

7) Given the rise in anti-western pseudo-Muslim militarism (I write pseudo because these psychos are no more Muslim than those who blow up doctors are really Christians), it made sense to keep the Muslim world divided, especially after the US just ate the first big strike from this movement.

Invading Iraq would drive a wedge between Iran and Syria. Let's not forget that for about 1,300+ years they were one giant empire, under the Bagdad Caliphate, the Syrian, and Ottoman Turks. They were only split up after WWI by the Sykes-Picot treaty which was designed to (and has succesfully) keep the Muslim world divided and weak. The US backs Israel to the tune of $3-$5 billion per year (plus $13 billion for a Berlin Wall to keep the natives out) specifically because they are the West's big military base in the region. This helps keep the Muslim world divided and weak.

Iraq is a great example of this - three completely different nations shoved into one country. No wonder the country is so unstable. They are no more one nation than was Yugoslavia (comprised of Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Bosnians, Macedonians, etc.)

So, it made sense to keep them from uniting against us.

So, in summary (phew!), this is why I think we actually went to war. Lots of reasons that make sense in the short term but will look profoundly cruel when looked back upon as time goes by.