Cygnussphere wrote:
Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. He was a secular dictator, hated by Osama bin Laden and his group.If you're not with the effort to irradiate the planet of the pure evil that murdered 2000+ citizens of this planet on 911... Murdered, tortured and raped 100's of thousands in Iraq... brutally oppressed the people of Afghanistan, The list goes on and on.
The Taliban was evil. It was also funded, armed and trained by the US during the Soviet occupation. As was Osama bin Laden.
Saddam Hussein, like Manuel Noriega, like Papa Doc Duvalier and many other dictators funded by the US, was a right bastard. But, until the US also cleans up Somalia (an al Qaida stronghold), Nigeria, Pakistan, Cambodia, Columbia, Zimbabwe and other countries suffering under brutal dictators, I don't buy the argument that the US is in Iraq and Afghanistan for strictly humanitarian and anti-terrorist reasons.
Cygnussphere, I wore the uniform (in an MI unit, actually). I was willing to go and to fight at the command of my commander in chief. And I am very glad that I'm not in that uniform today, because the commander in chief is using the blood of our troops to help his business buddies. I am reminded of Gen. Smedley Butler's comments on why war is a racket. (Gen. Butler was the only Marine to win the Congressional Medal of Honour twice. He is well worth looking up.)
Unlike Dyryyath, I do believe the administration intensionally lied to get it's way in Iraq, although I will admit to the possibility that they were criminally stupid in how they interpreted raw intellegence data (which is the job of highly trained experts, not political hacks).
I mourn what we have become, and what is being done in the name of the American people.