Please give me your views on the war in the middle east?

Before we went into Iraq, I would have given you a different answer than the one I will give you today. I thought going into Iraq was a mistake, and that America didn't need to be any more involved in the Middle East than it already was as Israel's defender. I'm not going to say that I predicted the insurgency, but I remember saying that we were letting the genie out of the bottle.

We let more than the genie out of the bottle. We openned Pandora's Box revealling the unvarnished world of the Middle East to people who never had a clue what went on there. The war drew attention to the dictatorial oppression of Islam in its various forms, and the barbaric practices that still exist there. (Beheadings,stonings, whippings and impalings)

Saddam was among the evils of the Middle East, and I don't want to say that he was a lesser evil, because he wasn't, but Saddam did not belong to the ideology that started the GWOT. Osama and the Taliban were part of that ideology, but where not centrally located like Iraq. Iraq has the distinction of being the "Cradle of Civilization" as well as the center of the Middle East. Change there could change everything.

The dangers posed by Saddam was that he was capable of supporting terrorists by giving them funding, weapons and training, but more importantly is that he was openly defying the UN and truce signed after the Gulf War. Saddam regularly shot at American and British survellience planes, and to do nothing would have been seen as weakness to the cultures of the Middle East who respect only strength and force.

The insurgency showed the barbaric face of radical Islam to the world, and made clear that it could not be bargained with. It also showed the kind of fear the average person in the Middle east must live with, and the desire of people like Ahmadinejad who want to see Islam blanket the Earth. And we are seeing it before it tries to come here, and I believe it would.

Say what you will about the war, our military is the strongest, and the most capable military ever, and they are making a difference in a country that has known only oppression. Even under the insurgency, there is a chance to imagine real freedom and progress.

There is a point and its beyond the claims of just going for oil ( although the US government may have a hidden agenda, who knows ) and terrorists but it has to be the modernisation of the middle east. Some of the areas there are so far behind the west why would any scientist want to invent the time machine? Think about all countries have been in the same position but because of one thing ahead of any other has forced evolution on the areas affected and thats war. Some may think im mad but when you think of any war and the after effects its almost certain that the country is forced into moving forward, whether its protecting itself from further attack or developing new ideas and industries after the old ones we damaged of destroyed.

Surely someone at the top, be it Britain or the US realises this often good outcome of war.

I would like to add that nothing is good about war ( while its happening ) but good can be found after ( a now peaceful germany, japan, italy for example )

I have a very definite opinion on all of the issues in the Middle East, but the only one that I feel the need to pass on is that since we are there, we need to all be behind our troops 100%. Why we got there, how we got there is all completely irrelevant.

This is not about us, it's about how the world looks at us in the future, and we don't want our enemies to see us as weak and unreliable. Vietnam and Somalia have been portrayed as weaknesses, and our enemie have learned that if you freak out the American public enough, their will to win will disolve into cries of "Bring our troops home now"!

The men and women who have volunteered to stand between the US and her allies and those who would do us harm, deserve better than for the American public to offer such weak-kneed support.

And if we leave Iraq before the job is done, and there is a stabilized buffer between the fanatics in the ME and the rest of the world, all of our troops who have lost lives, friends, and limbs, will have done so in vain.

America is founded on the belief that all men are created equal and deserving of equal liberty - that includes Iraqis. When did we decide that we could offer up hope of having such freedom, only to say the cost is too high? Every free country that exists makes universal liberty and peace a better likelyhood. Every nation that falls to totolatarian rule, is another strike against that hope.

We need to stand fast and united back home, and let the greatest military in the world do their job.

I support the war, our President and our troops. I do not like all the bad things I see and here, but I know we do not hearing a lot of the good. So I keep praying that it will resolve soon and lives will be spared. -ALL LIVES, not just our men and women. I pray for the leadership of our country and our troops. I do want it to be over. I don't believe anyone WANTS this war to continue, but I do want the problems solved and if there is any way we can help, I believe we should. Just Keep Praying!!! God Speed to our Troops! Secondly-WHY? Because I think every human should have the chance for freedom and happiness no matter where they live or who they are. And although I know world peace is not possible, lets try to do all we can. I thank GOD I was born in the USA!

I believe we would have been at war in that part of the world eventually, one way or another. It was now or later, and better now before those who want to impose their beliefs on the rest of the world get any stronger.

It isn't a coincidence that Hezbollah is funded by Iran, and has been consistently attacking Israel. It isn't a coincidence that iran has been funding both the Shiites and the Sunnis to keep Iraq at war with itself. Iran wants a world Caliphate, but is willing to start with the entire ME.

I hate to mention oil, because all the anti-war zealots start harping on the "it's all about oil" thing, but consder that if an enemy of the West controlled the world's energy... Venezuala, also a big supplier of oil to the West, has been cozying up with Iran. - The West could be in a world of hurt, because we have not been planning how to keep things going without oil from the ME and Venezuala.

Most of the extremists originate in Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, and Iran and Iraq openly supported terror organizations, and Iran still does. Even if it's just conventional weapons being handed to extremists, that becomes weapons of mass destruction.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I came to this point of view as someone who obsessively reads world news -and I mean that literally. I read internet news from lots of different countries and points of view, - because I am the wife of a 20-some year career Soldier. I try to keep up with things he is and may in the future end up dealing with.

The best word I can come up with at the present time is UNNECESSARY.

In 2003 I (like many Americans I'm sure) believed what our Government was telling us: Sadaam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction, he was lying about it, Iraq was a threat to the entire world, and Hussain needed to be killed or at least removed from power.

Whether or not our Government lied, stretched the truth a little, acted under intelligence that was false, or did the right thing at the time is really irrelevant now (1/4/07). Saddam Hussain is dead, Iraq has had elections and WMD's have not been found for whatever reason. I do not understand what we have to gain by remaining there NOW. Yes, I want to fight the terrorists. We were attacked on 9/11 by AL-QAIDA AND OSAMA BIN LADEN. Our armed forces could be better utilized to find, fight and capture THEM. But in my mind the 10% left (or whatever it is) who support the war will just never get it.

Its a war, it sucks, but sometimes bad things are necessary. I have been an army wife for years. My husband has spent 3 of the last 4 yrs in Iraq. He has done more good there, then Americans will ever understand. He has saved more lives there, and helped more people than you and I will ever know. I could give you a list of people he has helped or saved, but there isn't enough space. People complain, and spread rumors and tales. The news only shows the bad, but if the American people had the whole truth they would all have a different point of view.

Well first I believe there was no reason to go back to Iraq at all. As far as the USA is concerned we left Saddam a toothless tiger after '91. There were never any WMD or terrorist links between him and Osama. Second if we insisted on going back a years warning was stupid. There is a military advantage to surprise. We had and have total air superiority. I would have just launched air raids on military bases and tank parks with no warning. If your going to war kill your enemy as quick and efficiently as possible. And last, I would have spent all this wasted effort in Iraq, half as much in Afastigain in 2001-02. It would have been Osama who swung or lay on a table. And we would have gone on with the American way of life.

It's a war to defeat global terrorism, and Pres. Bush is doing a hell of a great job at it.

But, the US cannot do it alone. She needs the support, both military and political, of her allies and friends, and of the free nations in the world.

I came by this opinion through personal research and Pres. Bush's statements.

We're screwed!

Without an all out world war against these Islamist countries, there is no way for an outside force to conquer a people who think dying is better than living.

Our government screwed this one up big time!