There are many against President Bush's solution to a problem nation that defied the UN for 10 years and he perceived as a threat to the United States. It is debatable whether or not Iraq was a threat to the U.S. but I am curious to know from President Bush's bashers what their solution would have been. It is easy to criticize an action taken when no alternative is offered.

Great question. Don't expect an answer though. Expect an attack on Fox news.

I'm not sure what the question is, but here it goes?
I can tell you that I wouldn't have sat in a classroom reading to children for 7 minutes while we are under attack! His own admin. said that Iraq had WMD that could reach here in about 45 minutes (which turned out to be bs!) IMO, war is not the answer, unless the other person started it! (T.H. White) Too bad Osama is from, and was working out of, Saudi Arabia, not Iraq. The Bush family has too many ties to S/A to heavily attack them. I would not have flown every Bin Ladden out of the country on 9/11, not questioning any of them! I would not have given him a 2 month head start. I would not have ignored evidence that an attack was coming.
My solution, let them (Iraq) deal with it, and if Bush wants oil profits, he can go and fight for them, himself! We have no reason to be there. Turmoil has errupted thousands of years ago, regarding religion. Here's the way I see the war. Us on terror, and the same civil war that's been going on for hundreds of years in the middle east. The war was made on fabrications, sadly.

Chief, Six months before the invasion our government put out a report of ten nations that posed the biggest threat to the United States. I remember reading it and my son did a report on it. I remember N.Korea,Iran, Burma various african nations . Iraq was not on the list. I will tell you what i would have done. i would have kept a close watch over Iraqs aging dictator that posed no threat to us and sanctions were affecting adversely and I would not have cherry picked intelligence to lead our congress and nation to support a pointless war that would only increase jihadist. I think the invasion of Afghanistan was necessary to overthrow the taliban that were housing al quaida. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or al quaida.
They were dior enemies although now they have had some insurgents who are forming alliances due to our invasion of Iraq. I would have used special forces to hunt down Bin Laden and terrorist cells worldwide instead of distracting myself and our military with Iraq. I would have been especially tough on Iran who has been threatening for years to bring on nuclear weapons and may need invaded. Bush helped Iran by eliminating their number one enemy Saddam. i would have concentrated on tracking nuclear weapons in the hands of extremists and unreliable nations and threatening nations...I would not have chosed to invade a nation that weapons inspectors over and over and over and over said THEY HAVE NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND NO CAPABILITY TO THREATEN THE USA and I would have used my military to strengthen its peacekeeeping mission in Afghanistan and I would not have driven the american people into a mounting 400 billion dollar war for a country that was not a threat. Bush aided Bin Ladens cause and now has increased numbers of jihadists worldwide and now every American will pay for this quagmire. That being said I do not think we can pull out because of the wasteland he has created will escalate (if not already) into a civil war and breeding ground for terrorists. I would have kept working on the N.Korea issue even if it meant paying them off to have us destroy their supposed 6 nuclear missles. Bush has created such a mess that I am not sure if anyone right or left in the next election can undo his damage. I think he was never capable of decisionmaking and leadership and his cowboy mentality has put this nation in a mess. His last state of the union address where he told us the plan for Iraq"would be up to the next president" was very telling. I predict we will be ""for 3-4 years mounting trillion dollar debt probably 20,000 military dead and over 100000 maimed and we will not have changed anything except create jihadist. Then finally the american people including those who voted for bush will demonstrate and demand action. I admire the bravery of our military but they are not fighting in Iraq for our freedom because Iraq was no threat for our freedom. They are following orders and followoing a commander and chief who has made stupid decsions and now with other threats looming our military will not have what is need to protect us. I also think the results of the debt and mounting oil prices will take its toll and Bush will go out in shame. That being said I hope I am wrong and in the next year Iraq becomes a democracy and we solve thousnads of years of internal religious conflict and restore all their infrastructure and repair all the damage and the families of all the Iraqi civians we have killed forgive us.

__________________
BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM

Chief, Six months before the invasion our government put out a report of ten nations that posed the biggest threat to the United States. I remember reading it and my son did a report on it. I remember N.Korea,Iran, Burma various african nations . Iraq was not on the list. I will tell you what i would have done. i would have kept a close watch over Iraqs aging dictator that posed no threat to us and sanctions were affecting adversely and I would not have cherry picked intelligence to lead our congress and nation to support a pointless war that would only increase jihadist. I think the invasion of Afghanistan was necessary to overthrow the taliban that were housing al quaida. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or al quaida.
They were dior enemies although now they have had some insurgents who are forming alliances due to our invasion of Iraq. I would have used special forces to hunt down Bin Laden and terrorist cells worldwide instead of distracting myself and our military with Iraq. I would have been especially tough on Iran who has been threatening for years to bring on nuclear weapons and may need invaded. Bush helped Iran by eliminating their number one enemy Saddam. i would have concentrated on tracking nuclear weapons in the hands of extremists and unreliable nations and threatening nations...I would not have chosed to invade a nation that weapons inspectors over and over and over and over said THEY HAVE NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND NO CAPABILITY TO THREATEN THE USA and I would have used my military to strengthen its peacekeeeping mission in Afghanistan and I would not have driven the american people into a mounting 400 billion dollar war for a country that was not a threat. Bush aided Bin Ladens cause and now has increased numbers of jihadists worldwide and now every American will pay for this quagmire. That being said I do not think we can pull out because of the wasteland he has created will escalate (if not already) into a civil war and breeding ground for terrorists. I would have kept working on the N.Korea issue even if it meant paying them off to have us destroy their supposed 6 nuclear missles. Bush has created such a mess that I am not sure if anyone right or left in the next election can undo his damage. I think he was never capable of decisionmaking and leadership and his cowboy mentality has put this nation in a mess. His last state of the union address where he told us the plan for Iraq"would be up to the next president" was very telling. I predict we will be ""for 3-4 years mounting trillion dollar debt probably 20,000 military dead and over 100000 maimed and we will not have changed anything except create jihadist. Then finally the american people including those who voted for bush will demonstrate and demand action. I admire the bravery of our military but they are not fighting in Iraq for our freedom because Iraq was no threat for our freedom. They are following orders and followoing a commander and chief who has made stupid decsions and now with other threats looming our military will not have what is need to protect us. I also think the results of the debt and mounting oil prices will take its toll and Bush will go out in shame. That being said I hope I am wrong and in the next year Iraq becomes a democracy and we solve thousnads of years of internal religious conflict and restore all their infrastructure and repair all the damage and the families of all the Iraqi civians we have killed forgive us.

__________________
BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM

Wow! very well said Well done ididnotvote4him. If we had sent half the resources, hell... a quarter, to Afghanistan as we did to Iraq, we would have achieved order in at least one country. So far we're 0 for 2. And just maybe, we could have caught the right bad guy. You remember that guy don't ya? The one that actually attacked our country and killed thousands of people... what's, his name again? The guy who attacked the very heart of our nation... ohh yes... bin Laden. The most powerful country on earth, in history, couldn't avenge, failed to avenge the people that died that day.

I agree wholeheartedly, we should have retrained our military to operate as search and destroy units to weed out the hundreds of terrorist cells worldwide. This would have required joint cooperation with those countries and their militaries, thus strengthening bonds further between our democratic allies, and perhaps made a few new ones. We missed a golden opportunity there. We've gone from being the most admired country on earth to being one of the most reviled and feared. I for one am not at all comfortable with that.

Some of you may be of the opinion that, "who cares what they think outside this country". Just remember, you may not spend a lot of time checking out the international scene, but I assure you, they are watching us, closely... and they always have.

We were the first, we are the BEST, we are the shining light of democracy for the world. And we have fought hard and worked hard to be exactly that. We don't just elect a national leader as every other democracy does, we elect the Leader of the Free World. Whatever we do sets precedence. The simple fact that we invaded a sovereign nation under wrong assumptions made with questionable intelligence at best... sets bad precedence.

Why should we have waited? For the same reason we are still waiting out Cuba and a laundry list of other countries. They are effectively contained. Iraq was effectively contained. Any argument beyond that point is, as JJ loves to say, "mental masturbation" That's quite possibly the first time I've ever typed that word... anyway...

There was absolutely no hurry, even if he was up to something, which he wasn't. So why begin to go after Saddam only six months after our country was attacked, not only in our homeland, but in our CAPITOL?! And failing to get the perpetrator that did it to boot? While Bush was running around his office looking for WMD, maybe he should have checked the couch cushions for Osama while he was at it.

I would have caught the SOB and HEALED THIS NATION! IN SHORT ORDER!

Gosh, it's late... maybe I'll write more later. Wish I had as much time as JJ.

By the way JJ, I have noticed and appreciate the fact that you have toned down your personal attacks and have written some ummmm... better written arguments. Cheers

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S.O.S. ------ United We Stand, Divided We Fall

Roswell,

I think you missed the question. I already know what you wouldn't have done. It's easy to be an armchair quarterback. When you did get to your solution it was more of the same... sit back and wait for others to make decisions or other events to happen that you can complain about.

You asked "What would you have done" my answer was to not go there in the first place! Do you have any idea what this war is costing us, or how other countries are looking at us as? As I said, let the middle east fight their religious war.
What have we done over there besides bring more chaos? If China were to come here and invade (or destroy in Iraqs case) the US because we have WMD (and not affraid to use them), and told us that we have to live by China's rules, would you be okay with that? We went to war mainly because of WMD, we have them, and used them, so why shouldn'T another country invade the US for the same reason? Hell, we bomb all over the world! Say we were not a super power country and got invaded for some b/s reason, your thoughts on going to war would change pretty quickly when you are being bombed everyday and are forced to live in fear, civillian or not!
We should have invaded Saudi Arabia, if anywhere, IMO. The person who was behind the 9/11 attacks was not operating in Iraq. A realistic plan should have been thought out. Unfortunately, a person with an IQ of under or around 100 made his decision that we go to war. I wonder if there is a Bush in the front lines of battle?

Ididntvote4him,

You made some good points:

1. You would have kept a close eye on Sadam.

How long is long enough? How long do we allow a rogue nation to defy UN sanctions and inspectors?

2. You would have used special forces to hunt down Bin Laden and terrorist cells worldwide.

This was being done and is still being done.

3. You would have been especially tough on Iran who has been threatening for years to bring on nuclear weapons and may need invaded.

I agree

4. You would have concentrated on tracking nuclear weapons in the hands of extremists and unreliable nations and threatening nations.

This also was being done and is still being done.

5. You would have used your military to strengthen its peacekeeeping mission in Afghanistan.

It's true that we could have sent more troops to Afghanistan but the government there now is not so unstable -- they are corrupt -- and their election process will hopefully sort that out.

6. You would have kept working on the N.Korea issue even if it meant paying them off to have us destroy their supposed 6 nuclear missiles.

I think we are working on that issue. Today the President is meeting with China, and I think that China is the key to solving the N. Korea problem.


Believe me, I don't agree with all the decisions that the President makes but I do believe that he makes them with his perception of what is best for the country. I didn't agree with much of the decisions that former President Clinton made but I think that he also made them with his perception of what was best for the country. So many of the attacks on President Bush are so vicious and I just can't understand the hatred and lack of respect.

I also appreciate that you hope for a stable Iraq soon. I am enough of an optimist to hope that in 20 or 30 years, Iraq will be a thriving democracy that will be the model for the rest of the suppressed countries. I don't see any way to eliminate terrorism without eliminating their breeding grounds and I don't see any terrorist breeding grounds in democratic countries. This is not to say that we must invade every non-democratic country but I hope that the people of those countries will see a prosperous Iraq and overthrow their own governments in an attempt to achieve the same.

Attacks on President Bush come from me cause he LIED to get us in a war (ask Tony Blair)!
Who doesn't hope for world peace? I would say that a person who authorizes a bogus war might not be thinking of peace!