Quote:
Originally Posted by Eternal Footman
I have not examined, in depth, every historical scenario that you presented. However, war often times has little to do with "what can we do for others" as much as it does "how can we help ourselves". When you combine the fact there is a evil dictator in an area we would like to have influence over...well you get the picture.
You believe we should not have invaded Iraq, and offer these other instances to support your views. The logic suggests we are wrong on Iraq/Saddam because we failed to remain consistent, identifying and destroying oppressive regimes only when we choose rather than when they arise. The problem is they are completely different times, with different geography, under different rule, with different threats. Bottom line, there are too many variables to base an arguement according to past decision decades apart.
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What you say is a good 'think through' of what I am trying to say but I would argue compared to this current war there were
more and
less urgent needs to invade at these different times; Iraq (the 2nd time) was not nearly at the top of the list even in a post 9/11 scenario. So, if you take a long list as a whole of all evil/repressive/American hating leaders in the last, lets say, 30 years why does Saddam so quickly rocket to the top of the list at that time (again, a SECOND time through the 'spanking machine')? Seems as hypocritical as taking down Noriega in a number of ways really. You have to argue the current administration perspective too though. With that thought in mind I would truly have to have someone explain away why Ronald Reagan (Cyrus Vance, James Baker, et al) should not have invaded Libya with this logic especially after the Pan Am flight went down. In retrospect (and more will come out about this) the current administration (onus on Cheney and Rumsfeld) really made this decision in a vacuum and did not look at the other situations. OK, post 9/11, but why not pull out all the stop s to get Bin Laden and focus ont he specific problem, which he still is.
I repeat...we had ALREADY invaded Iraq once...why again?