@erick24,
Quote:]Liz -
The first thing you said - "before we invaded Iraq there were no terrorists in Iraq." - Really. And just how is it that you know that?
Well First of all, the ISG report claims that there is no evidence whatsoever to support any claims the administration made regarding Saddam or Iraq having any connection to terrorist groups or Bin Laden or the 9/11 attack.
Also, I thought it was a well known fact that dictators and terrorist groups aren't exactly friendly with each other since they both are power mongers.
That is also demonstrated with Saddam's history with the Taliban - Remember Russia and the USA - the Taliban and Saddam - back when the Taliban tried to overthrow Saddam - and the US - trained and equipped the Taliban to assist in that venture?
Quote:I think you need to be careful when you present something as fact that cannot possibly be known. I mean, before the war began, out of every single person in Iraq at that time - not 1 terrorist? Wow!
You are right. How can anyone be sure there is not 1 terrorist anywhere? One can not. I didn't mean it so literally - but since we are obviously very literal I will be more careful when trying to make a point - the point being that Iraq is not a country which is known for terrorist activity or for supporting terrorism - a tyrant dictator usually likes to do that himself.
Quote:The second thing that you said, "When you take a man - and destroy his towns, torture his innocent friends and neighbors, kill his family, bomb his place of worship - leave him unemployed and homeless - and take everything that he has ever known and love...." - Sounds a lot like what Saddam and his buddies did to the Iraqi people for decades, don't you think
?
Well Saddam is known for torture and jailing and killing innocent people - but bombing his own towns and places of worship - and keeping the masses unemployed and homeless is not something I would assume one would do to the people of one's country - it's not exactly beneficial for the leader.
Quote:But in saying this, are you trying to tell me that the U.S. military is doing this to the Iraqi people?
Well I am not the one saying it - but yes, that is what is being said and proven by many different accounts from torture cases being heard by tribunals - photographs being spread around the world's media outlets including a few of our own - from international red cross reports - to various unembedded alternative media outlets as well as foreign media outlets and our own congressional committees and members as well as our Senators from both sides of the fence have all commented on the infrastructure being destroyed and the reconstruction efforts being pretty much nil (except for that billion dollar embassy - saddam's old castle now claimed and occupied by the americans - with the number one biggest embassy ever built in the world - the billion dollar one and the only project that is right on time - on budget and actually in progress. Meanwhile the hospitals are missing, the schools are gone, the unemployment rate in Iraq is at an all time high - the famine rate has nearly doubled in infants alone since the American forces have invaded. And it sings loud and clear that every Iraqi official whether democratically elected or just a voice of the people - have all clearly stated that they want US forces out of their country pronto - which can be read in the Iraq Study Group Report - which I read all 186 pages of - and you?
Quote:Do you think our military is over there to destroy innocent people's towns, torture them, etc.... just because? Is that what you think?
I have no such thought - our military is over there doing their job - and their job is to follow orders and be the cannon fodder for our war profiteering leaders - all of them - from both sides of the fence - They are following orders nothing more or nothing less. But our Government, on the other hand has now officially implemented torture policies - which effectively release those few"bad apples" the President accussed our military of having who got caught torturing innocent iraqis - of their responsibility (somewhat) - torture is wrong - and every compassionate, pro-life Christian should realize that since Jesus was tortured - in fact tortured to death - after he got accussed of being a radical or a terrorist of sorts - don't ya think? Plus it has been stated over and over again, it doesn't work.
Quote:I feel sorry for you that the liberal media has indoctrinated and brainwashed you to such a point that you actaully think WE are the ones causing the pain and suffering of these innocent people.
First of all - LIBERAL MEDIA????? The entire MAINSTREAM media outlets are owned by 3 corporations - count them 1 - 2 - 3 - That is the FCC's doing - well Bush's appointments of the chair to the FCC - it's called ownership deregulation and the thing that everybody's hands were thrown up over shortly after Bush took office - remember??? Republicans and dems alike were all up in arms over it - but obviously that was an act because they did nothing to change it. Everyone of these so called liberal corporations are munitions invested and/or war contracted or defense contractors - here is just one example. GE. The biggest War Contract (we think - since the amount is undisclosed in Iraq and quite high in Afghanastan) there is - GE is also OIL related - they also happen to own MSNBC and NBC and numerous cable stations and quite a few of the nations leading newspapers - And that is not to mention their biggest form of income would be their weapon manufacturing and sales - what in the hell do you think they are saying about the war? HIGHLY censored while trying to look authentic they are hardly anti-war - follow the money - and you will find the truth - watch what they do and not what they say - (the politicians) with the press - listen to nothing of what they say unless there are at least a few other foreign (but english speaking unless you speak another language) which say the same thing - you won't find it -
And it's not me who thinks we are causing the pain over there - it's the Iraqis who say that the American occupation has caused them immense grief, widespread suffering, death and destruction - orphaned children - mammed civillians and homeless and joblessness like they have never seen before - they have been tortured and detained for no reason and held without charges for years - only to be released after years of torture - and that is not just a few isolated incidents either that is quite a lot of stories - even from our own citizens. Additionally, the insurgency is a key in assuming that the iraqis are quite opposed to the occupation - otherwise there wouldn't be so many insurgents (which are nationals rising up against occupiers) They are the ones that think the Americans are causing them so much pain and suffering and who in the hell am I or you to say it's not so - they are the ones in pain and suffering and I think they would know who in the hell is causing it -
Quote:You seem to think, like so many Bush haters out there that we went to Iraq to start a war just beacuse. No real reason. Just because Bush is a warmonger, a Saddam hater, etc...etc...etc....
- I think no such thing - I don't hate Bush, I don't even know him. I am not the hater. I don't approve of torture policies - I don't believe in unecessary wars which cause untold hundreds of thousands of deaths. I don't believe in leaving others hold the bag for my own policies like the soldiers who followed orders to torture detainees. I am not the one who vacationed while an entire city in my country drowned and thousands with it. I am not the one who calls myself a pro-life compassionate christian conservative while promoting torture - wars - profitting off the blood of our fallen soldiers and innocent civillians - nor am I the leader who vacations more than any other leader but has yet to attend the funeral of one fallen soldier - who died in his war - that is a first for any president let alone a war time president. So don't assume I am the hater - I have no signs of a hater - I just have a distaste for Bush - the administration - and both sides of the fence in our congress and our senate - as far as I am concerned the politicians in this country are not on our side - they are all liars, and profiteerers as their financial records PROVE!
Quote: Let me try to make this clear, because the plain and simple facts about what happened leading up to the war in Iraq get so overshadowed by so much Bush hating rhetoric that it just blows me away.
Let me make this CLEAR - because this is always blowing me away - ACCORDING to the US Government our hijackers on that dreadful morning were all Saudis except two - none of them were Iraqis - so why are we in Iraq? Bin Laden was in Afghanastan - and we almost caught him until we outsourced the job to the Turkish - so why are we in Iraq? The 9/11 commission clearly stated that there is no evidence WHATSOEVER which connects saddam or Iraq to terrorism, 9/11 or Bin Laden - so why are we in Iraq?
Quote:The U.S. was attacked, not unlike what happened at Pearl Harbour years ago. US intelligence kicked into overdrive to try to find out all who were behind it, supported it, funded it, etc.... Shortly thereafter, you have a known US hating regime with Saddam Hussein at it's head who is thumbing his nose at the U.N., the U.S., and the world, saying you cannot come into my country to see if we are plotting terror. You cannot come into our country to see if we have weapons of mass destruction. Saddam violated 17 U.N. resolutions. 17! At the same time, you have the head of the CIA saying - "without a doubt, Saddam has weapons of mass destruction."
Wrong - Saddam did not violate 17 UN resolutions - that is why it is considered an illegal war and why we did not have NATO supporting the venture - The UN was not supportive of this and Saddam was cooperating with UN inspectors as well as US inspectors - That is not what the US press says but the UN site and other international but english speaking media outlets says differently - and I think we already established that he had no wmd - And lets talk about that Tenant thing. I saw the Senate testimony with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears - when tenant laughed at the accusation that the Administration accused the intellegence for the bad information when Tenant initially said that there was no evidence to suppoort any claims that Saddam had WMD - remember the forged documents that were easily revealed by the UN as forgeries - in the US 's effort to gain support for their pre-emptive and pre-mediated war (the downingstreeet memos were no conspiracy theory - they were one major reasons Blair stepped down ) Then when the 9/11 commission came around Tenant, being the good soldier he was - took the blame for the bad intelligence - only to step down during an incumbents election year and war time (big slap in the face to the administration) and then the president awarded him the nations biggest award for civillians the freedom award - why do you think that was? because he awards incompetance or because he took the wrap for him? YOU TELL ME.
The rest of your post will have to be anwswered latter - I have to get back to work. Think about it then get back to me.
The challenge that our country faced at this time, having recently been attacked, The Iraqi leader not comlying with the U.N., intelligence indicating they had weapons that could potentially be used against us - we attacked. We had no choice.
It is so easy to say now, 5 years removed from that time that it was so wrong to invade Iraq, to be a Bush hater and jump on the "the U.S. is creating more terrorists by fighting them" bandwagon.
You say, "A war on terror can not be fought with force - and shouldn't be fought with force." That is so completely wrong. All terrorists know is force. All they know is killing. That must to be met with force. If not, they will not stop killing until the people or nation they hate is "wiped off the map". - Sound familiar? Our buddy in Iran likes to say that a lot.
Listen, I understand the war in Iraq is hard. It's hard to see innocent people caught in the middle of a conflict like this. But if we back down, you will be seeing the same thing on your street someday. The Islamic fascist terrorist movement has 1 goal - Kill Americans and Israelis until there are no more to kill. If we don't fight them there, we will be fighting them here. Which would you prefer? We didn't start this fight. We were attacked on an unprecedented level on 9-11. The terrorists upped the game, and thankfully we responded. The battle ground for this war right now is in Iraq. The terrorists know this. I feel bad for the innocent Iraqi people. I do. War is hard. Hard to watch. Hard to conduct. Hard to be a part of, and hard to be caught in the middle of - but when freedom is attacked, when democracy is attempted to be torn down, and when cowards hide in jet planes filled with innocent people and slammed into buildings just to kill as many people as possible - innocent people - war is justified and necessary, and that is the ONLY way to defeat this horrible problem that we call terrorism. You may not like it. I may not like it. But it must be done. And all Americans should look past the stupid partisan hatred that is so out of control right now and unite together as one nation, and stand up to those whow want to kill us and do us harm. Do you not want to defend your freedom? Do you not want to defend your family, your friends, your loved ones from harm? Because these terrorists would not hesitate to take you or your loved ones out of this world in an instant. I don't know about you, but that fact alone gives me the strength and steadfast determination that I am willing to do whatever it takes to defend my freedom, my home, my country, my family and those that I love from the despicable terrorists that want to strike me and my family down, just because of who I am and the freedom that I stand for. If we would all just stand together, we could defeat this threat to our freedom. I wish we could. I really wish we could.[/QUOTE]