Last combat brigade leaves Iraq.

[Dave Gray]

Thoughts?

What are your reflections of the war?   Did you support it originally?   Do you think you were correct or incorrect?  Was the war worth it?

Where do we go now? 

[Phishfan]

I never supported the war. I think it is still too soon to really recognize what the effects of it are. In a few years I may be able to look back and see things differently though.

[fyo]

It was always going to be a risky proposition, as I saw it, but toppling Saddam Hussein (with or without nuclear weapons at the time) seemed like it might be worth it. The enormity of the mismanagement of everything that came after the initial "toppling" boggles my mind, however.

[Sunstroke]

I'm not sure. Did we achieve any of our goals?

1) Capture Osama bin Laden  (nope)
2) Kill Allah  (nope)
3) Control more of the world's oil supply to ease our junkie fears of running out of our fossil fuel crack (nope)

May as well come home and rest up...there will be other countries to fuck with in the near future (here's lookin' at ya, North Korea).

[Dave Gray]

I never supported the war. I think it is still too soon to really recognize what the effects of it are. In a few years I may be able to look back and see things differently though.

Sounds about right.

I was against the war from the start.  My reasoning was that I thought war needed to be reserved for serious threats to our freedoms or those of our allies.  I didn't see that happening.

Things sure seem like they weren't worth it.  But, like Phish says, you can't really tell now.  I imagine we'll have to revisit this question in a year.  If the Iraqis step up and can set up their own government, perhaps it will prove justified.

[bsmooth]

I was always against for the reason that Al Qaida trained those 19 in Afghanistan and the Taliban was sheltering them from us.
We needed to secure Afghanistan before we should have ever thought about going into Iraq.
Now we have probably missed our window in Afghanistan and really accomplished anything Iraq, except remove the psuedo buffer Saddam's hatred of Iran provided.
Now Iran will control Iraq and its oil by proxy.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

If our goals were:

Piss off our allies.

Unify and embolden our adversaries.

Have those who were ambivalent about the USA join our enemies.

Squander good will and universal support in fighting the Taliban and terrorism that we enjoyed post 9/11.

Have Iran control Iraq.

Spend billions in tax dollars.

Make Haliburton wealthy.

Increase the price of petroleum.

Over stretch our military.

Destabilize the middle east.  (more so than it already was)

Expand the Al Qaeda's influence to Iraq.

Then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

[fyo]

I think it's interesting that pretty much EVERYONE now claims they were always against the war.

Sure as hell wasn't like that early on.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^^ That is true.  At first I did support the war.

While I never like George W. Bush, he was the president of the country.  He had access to intelligence reports, photos, etc.  And while I didn't voted for him, I trusted him not to lie to me and the rest of the country regarding that intelligence data. 

I even went to one support the troops rally.  The handmade poster I carried read, "Blix couldn't find an Italian restaurant on Federal Hill."  The sign was very well received by other attendees. 

When it became apparent that the President had lied to the American people regarding our reason for going to war (as opposed to lying about his personal sex life) I ceased supporting the war, and supported impeaching the president and putting him on trial for treason. 

My deepest apologies to the honorable Hans Blix for the false and derogatory comments I made about him. 
 

[Spider-Dan]

I didn't support the war for one simple reason:

I do not believe in unilateral preemptive war.

Preemptive war is a Really F*cking Bad idea to begin with... historically, we call those who start "preemptive wars" aggressors.  Any nation can justify invading another country as "preemptive;" was Iraq's invasion of Kuwait a "preemptive war"?

That being said, if you really think that the evidence for a preemptive war is THAT OBVIOUS AND COMPELLING, you should be able to get the U.N. behind it.  This is one of the major reasons for the U.N.'s existence.  The fact that American leaders were unable to convince the U.N. of the impending threat that Iraq posed was a giant flashing warning beacon, and given the actual results, the U.N. was correct not to be convinced.

[bsmooth]

I think it's interesting that pretty much EVERYONE now claims they were always against the war.

Sure as hell wasn't like that early on.

Yes the screaming mob wanted blood after 9/11. Unfortunately we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan and wasted a lot of time, resources and people in Iraq.

[StL FinFan]

We still have soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Dave Gray]

I think it's interesting that pretty much EVERYONE now claims they were always against the war.

Sure as hell wasn't like that early on.

I know.  I was thinking the same thing.  But I swear that I thought it was a bad idea at the time.  I remember watching "Shock and Awe" and being sort of invigorated with the excitement of it, but realizing that we were tearing down a historic city.

[Dave Gray]

We still have soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Yeah, but we also have troops in Germany.  We have troops everywhere.  They aren't combat troops in Iraq any longer.

[StL FinFan]

I have a friend in Afghanistan.  He is supposed to come home any day now.  I just want to make sure our troops out there in harm's way are not forgotten.  The troops in Germany are not being shot at.