If the money spent on the Iraq war was pummped into education would we be safer?

It must be remembered that Embassies are considered to be US soil, just as American holdings, bases, and other interests are. Here are some examples.... http://factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000367.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/target/etc/cron.html http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/chronology.html You will notice several dates in the time frame that you mentioned. If you don't like my intensity, then I would remind you that we have been at war with terrorists since at least 1979... why is it that people get mad when we finally start shooting back? As life is precious, so is freedom and the protection of it. These poeple want to destroy us and hate everything that we stand for just because we do not believe the same way they do. We can't afford NOT to fight back. As to the water... countries that we have helped so far have always turned against us... I personally don't care how pissed at us any of them get.

Oh and about the drinking water, it might make people less pissed about our over consumption of the worlds resources, and create a greater sense of balance. When people have food, water, shelter, security, they are far less likely to want to go blow themselves, and others up in the name of injustice and suppression.

I am not mad that you are finally "shooting back", See this is how we further the discussion! I think it's great, but to your point..... Absolutely you are correct. U.S. Embassies are considered American soil. I had neglected to take them into account, good on you for calling me on that. My reference to feeling angered by your intensity rested on your personal accusations about liberals and pacifists. A pacifist is someone that does nothing, I have never suggested that we do nothing about the situation. To you point that we have been at war since the '79.... This furthers an aspect of what I believe. What we have been doing and are doing isn't working. We have decreased our security (on a long term level)by adding fuel to the fire. Inadvertently killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi's has given many times that number a perception that we are evil. If you consider the perception of someone that has had an air-strike kill their innocent family members, you might see how this could be possible. As I am not a pacifist, I would suggest, not ignoring the threat, but approaching it in a different manner, one that will not multiply the number of our enemies. Our foreign policies have been a disaster for years. Providing humanitarian aid in efforts to ensure safe water accross the globe is like campaigning before the primary. Set a good impression with the people. You can hardle rustle up and recruit a bunch of terrorists because America gave them safe water... that was my point.

I do understand your point mark, however it has been acknowledged that Iraq didn't have nuclear weapons, and more so that intelligence that was cited to support the idea that he was seeking them, or trying to acquire them was unreliable, and fabricated. The Niger uranium fiasco is a prime example. The document was a forgery, if a critical look had been preformed on that intelligence it would have been obvious it was a fake document. In fact it was obvious to many.

Yeah maybe now they realise they didn't have the nuclear weapon ability but at the time you didn't know and a decsion had to be made. Saddam had allready proved what a lunatic he was and the goverment could not afford to call his bluff I suppose. It's easy for me to say, yes going to war was a good idea as I don't have family/friend's over there but im glad they did go in a way as it could have/has/would save potentially more live's than what has unfortunately allready been lost.

I think you are neglecting the responsibility of the government to have decisive evidence, that is reliable. There are witnesses and pieces of evidence that are thrown out everyday in court because they are week, coming from an unreliable source, or have been planted. The reason why the we felt so strongly about the need for war is because the evidence that would have been thrown out in a court-room was fed to us by our administrative government, while the evidence and witnesses that would have held up in court were ignored. If you do some research on this you will see what I mean. I don't think you can excuse people for being wrong on such an important subject, when they haven't fully done there job in investigating it. I am giving you a plus for contribution, though I don't necessarily agree with your comments. I hate it when people minus you just because they don't agree!

You do have a great point in that we are borrowing that money. Bottom line for me is that it is being spent unwisely, I'd prefer it spent wisely, or not at all.

I started to feel bad about not replying to your post. It is right up the alley of my thinking, that is why I haven't yet. I totally agree with you, and thanks for posting so that we might further the understanding of what has gone on the last 8 years.