Iraq War

This war in Iraq has to go down in history as one of the worse blunders in military history. There was a reason why President Bush #1 didn't go into Bagdad during Gulf War 1. He knew how difficult it would be to occupy Iraq, deal with the sectarian violence and creat a democracy. If George Bush would have listened to the person most qualified miliatary person in his cabinet, Colin Powell, we wouldn't be spending 10 to 12 billion dollars per month, bankrupting our country. We wouldn't have lost over 4000 soldiers and we wouldn't have had over 30,000 wounded troops returning to our shores. In a press statement on February 24, 2001 he had said that sanctions against Iraq had prevented the development of any weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein. As was the case in the days leading up to the Persian Gulf War, Powell was initially opposed to a forcible overthrow of Hussein, preferring to continue a policy of containment. However, Powell eventually agreed to go along with the Bush administration's determination to remove Hussein. I know that he will regret that decision to go along with Bush's policies for the rest of his life. He should have resigned immediately instead of doing it later. The government of Iraq is sitting on over 80 billion dollars of windfall oil profits. It is now their responsibility for their own welfare. The American taxpayer can know longer finance this debacle. Lloyd

I certainly hope there will be a finish some day, but when who knows, it is not finished in afghanistan either, who knows when these countries will be stable enough to be on their own.

I don't think that a war is ever justified. I believe that the pen is mightier than the sword. I believe that discussions and negotiations will be more beneficial than force. Lots of lives have been lost due to a war whether justified or not.

Hello Raydene. Thank you very much for the Best Response. Isn't it amazing that this reply I wrote some 6 months ago remains relevant today? It's almost as if President Obama listened to me and has now decided to finally end this debacle in Iraq. To paraphrase the President, it's now the responsibility of the Iraqi people to take responsibility for their own welfare. Once again, thanks. Your friend. Lloyd http://www.gather.com/viewComments.jsp?memberId=535886&nav=MyGather

Just what are we going to finish? These people have been fighting for centuries. Believe it or not our way of government is not the only way to sucessfully run a country. It seems to take a very strong heaaad to run a government tthat the people will allow. We have been wrong from the start on this and now we can only fix it so much then the people themselves have to take over. Good luck with that. Iran is just waiting and all for oil. I think the only thing thta will save them is for the world to stop using oil, fat chance of that. What a mess.