For instance, did you support the initial attack on Iraq but now think it's time to withdraw, or maybe the opposite, you didn't like the idea of going to war but now you think the occupation is a good thing.
Alternatively, if you always thought it was a bad thing and still do, I'd like to hear from you too!How has your attitude to the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan changed over time?I was opposed to it from the beginning. I thought that it would be a disaster militarily, and not just morally. I thought that the USA rushed into the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91, and it never thought enough about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died as a result of the deliberate, and completely unnecessary, destruction of the infrastructure of Iraq by strategic bombing in that war (70,000 bombing missions against the Iraqi Army in Kuwait, 30,000 bombing missions against Iraqi electrical power stations and other essential infrastructure). I also thought that Americans took a dangerous sense of %26quot;Gott Mitt Uns%26quot; from the incredibly favorable (to the USA) kill ratio in that war, and that many Americans were not sober-minded in appraising their own country's military-political capabilities as a result.
Even today, you get politicians like Obama praising George Bush the Elder for the Persian Gulf War. The problem with that is, it was Bush's hasty call on the Kurds and Shiites to revolt that made the USA incapable of getting out of that war completely. The USA was messing around with no-fly zones over the Kurdish area throughout the 1990s, and it was always having to watch that the Iraqi Army didn't go back and impose Hussein's rule there. And the USA's own primary ally in the area, Turkey, wanted to crush the Kurds as much as Hussein did. What an impossible mess!
Iraq War II is MUCH more related to Iraq War I than people want to admit.
P.S. There is no need for the new linguistic construct, %26quot;war of choice%26quot;. There is an old one that works just fine:%26quot;aggressive war%26quot;. The New York Times is STILL looking for its spine in this matter, as are the Congessional Democrats.
P.S.S. There is nothing about Afghanistan here. Sorry. I was for that war. I thought it was justified because an attack on the USA was launched from there, in the sense that Osama Bin Ladin was there with his organization and the govt. of Afghanistan was unwilling or unable to act against him/it.
Over time, I have been saddened by the lack of nation-building done there. The USA should have been more thankful for Afghan heroism against their common enemy, Soviet Russia, just a historical while ago. Many, many, Afghans would have jumped at the chance for a more normal life, if the USA showed more interest in reaching into its wallet to help provide them with one. Most Afghans were not and are not enemies of the USA.
P.S.S.S. My answer is now too long, and it is still incomplete.How has your attitude to the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan changed over time?Initially I thought it was a good idea to go kick some butt over there. After all, they've been unsettled for so many years and didn't seem capable of sorting out their own problems, as well as the supposed WMD's.
Now that I see the US and its allies are no more capable of sorting out the issues either and the fact that no WMD's were found, it's become a big problem and an embarrassment. If the occupying forces retreat before solving anything, it will be seen as defeat and the middle eastern countries will never shut up about it. If they stay, it will just be more fighting and no resolution for years and years and cost the west a ton of money that could be put to better use here.
A whole new strategy and direction is called for, but I'm glad I don't have to figure out what that is.How has your attitude to the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan changed over time?I think Afghanistan was definitely the correct thing to do. There were terrorist training camps there. And Bin Ladin used to hang out in Afghanistan. And the Taliban who were in power at the time supported Al Qiada. So after 911 we had to let the world know that we aren't going to just sit by and let someone kill our citizens like that.
Iraq has obviously turned out to be a huge mistake.I did not like it from the start. Why should we send our youth over to fight for another country. We invaded them. If China or Russia does not like how our government is running the USA does that give them the right to invade us?80 % of the people wanted it. this is like the veitnam war, all for it untill there was a draft the all of a sudden the hippies were bornThis war has convinced me that the Republicans should NEVER preside in the White house again!
Attacking Afganistan was something I was not for because I felt like we were barking up the wrong tree. And thought that it wouldn't accomplish anything. I also thought it would cause more extremists.
Back just before the Iraq invasion started Bush and his cohorts had convinced everyone, with their %26quot;evidence%26quot;, that Iraq was creating WMDs. Their drawings did not convince me. What really caught my attention was how people in the administration would be so tight lipped, and also contradict themselves. I was furious when the admin published in the NYT then Rice used that as 'evidence'. Somehow the admin got the Limball and O riellys of the world to chant the admins talking points and alot of rednecks (majority of Republicans) believed the talking points in that terrorists came from IRAQ! These and other lies made me completely mistrust thier basis for war.
I wasn't sure about what Dubbya would get out of the attacks other then satisfying revenge, and I protested the invasion. And now the war. What has changed about my perspective is an ever deepening sadness for all the casualties of the war. In our sanitized news I feel like I don't get the fullness of it.
I could be wrong about this, but Bush has put 2 trillion of our dollars towards the war already. That money could have been spent towards protection for the West and not on tanks and airplanes.
