Jim from C-Town:
that was in essence a civil war. There are tons of inter-country battles going on over ethnic rivalries or religion. If history is a lesson, getting involved in a civil war of another country is never a good thing. The first Iraq War was legitimate as Saddam attacked another country and probably would not have stopped. This last war was FUBAR, never supported it, never thought it was a good idea.
What is going on now with ISIS is a cancer that is growing, they are not going to stop with taking parts of Syria and Iraq. They are already moving into parts of Lebanon and Jordan. Saddam was no different than the idiot in North Korea, who has killed many of his own people, yet nobody is calling for an invasion of North Korea.
Saddam was targeting individuals because of religion [Christians were never targeted for simply being Christian], he killed political rivals to his power. He was a brutal dictator yes, but no different than the other dictators over the years who repressed and killed political rivals, yet we did not invade those countries either, Cambodia in the early 70’s is another example.
What is going on in Iraq may be sectarian violence and Civil War, but the cause of that war is the lack of an American force of occupation. As most of the bad actors are actually jihadists imported from around the globe, just like those we fought during the hot war in Iraq.
A force of less than 15,000 would have been sufficient to maintain peace just as it has done so in Germany, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. World War II and the Korean Conflict have been over for more than a half century, yet we maintain tens of thousands of troops in Germany, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Okinawa and DOZENS of other countries as a stabilizing force for good. None of these countries are the possessors of the second largest KNOWN supply of easily retrievable crude oil. Yet we beet feet as soon as the idiot Obama could from the most geopolitically important regions in the World. Even after the hostilities where less than that of an average weekend in Chicago!
BTW our presence on in Korea is what is keeping the Kim Regime in check. The lunatics in Pyongyang would have over run the South decades ago had we ever pulled out. They would try if we left today.
The Iraq War was every bit as justified as the Afghanistan War and a damn site better run. Since the surge was complete the War was won. We simply had to maintain the peace, a much easier and less costly affair than what we are soon to be involved in in Iraq. I assure you WE WILL BE INVOLVED. No matter what the Mulatto Morons’ desire to stay aloof.
You don't win wars only to abandon the field to the conquered enemy!
Regardless if Saddam held weapons of mass destruction. He had the knowledge, means and history of their use. He harbored known international terrorists. He had practiced genocide against the Kurdish people. He was also in violation of International Law and dozens of U.N. Resolutions. HE was a cancer in the Middle East that had already inflicted millions of deaths on his own populous as well as to those of his neighbors.
He proved he was not going to stop his desire for expansion by launching two wars of conquest within fifteen years. He also threatened repeatedly to use military force including gas and chemical weapons against his neighbors including Israel a treaty bound Democratic ally of the United States.
As for Cambodia, that analogy is laughable as we abandoned Cambodia, the same as we abandoned the South Vietnamese, Laos & the ethnic Montagnards in Southeast Asia, much to our great shame.
WE caused the death of at least five millions by turning our back on South Vietnam and Ted Kennedy is very much to blame as he rammed through a resolution in the Senate to deny support to the South Vietnamese and act contrary to our legally binding treaty with that government.
Once we allowed the Communists to over run and murder their opponents in South Vietnam it was open season for the North Vietnamese, Viet Cong and Pathet Lao backed Khmer Rouge. We through the Veto proof Democrat House and Senate are directly responsible for the humanitarian disaster in Southeast Asia throughout the decades of the Seventies and Eighties. There feckless, cowardly actions still adversely effect the people of Southeast Asia today. To deny so is to deny reality of History!
Once again the entire affair, all the death and destruction can be laid directly at the feet of America and in particular the Democrat Party. Had we followed our treaty obligations,established a support force of Americans like we have in South Korea, South Vietnam would be making our cars, televisions and consumer goods just like the South Koreans, while the backward Communists in the North would be as advanced as the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea. Unable to feed, cloth or even light the streets at night.
All Obama’s Iraq policy has done is confirm the fact that America is the World best enemy and its’ worst ally!