Was it a bad idea to send soldiers to Iraq?

Yes, it was as now the region is more destabilized than ever before as now terrorists have gained more power than they ever had before the invasion. It did not reduce the price of oil for Americans at home as some had though, it just made the price of oil higher.

@Adam, you F*cking idiot, you're the reason why we Americans have to be hated over the world. Grouping a large number of people into one group. You idiotic bigot.

No it was a good idea. Saddam and bin Laden are both psychos. However Saddam was stronger because of his government influence. So we did the right thing with taking him down first. Bin Laden was less of a threat. Now Bin Laden is hiding in a cave. Also do not forget that when senior George Bush was in office he wanted to go after Saddam but Colin Powell (retard) advised him not to for some damned reason. Iraq was the country we should have invaded because it was like the center of all these other terrorist countries. Saddam was our problem because he was limiting freedom and torturing his own people. Taliban were everywhere also back then so Iraq was under some Talibann influence. If you ask any soldiers out there, they would gladly go in to Iraq again to protect their country. They think the people over here are wackos. I believe it is time to slowly pull our boys out of Iraq thougth. But remember, they know better. Most liberals hate the soldiers (vietnam= BABY KILLERS; We actually were winning because we had prevented communism from spreading and we made peace, no that they made us run away. This is what the liberal media does) A slow pulling of troops. Another point however. We should keep guantanamo. I saw soldiers and they said they were distant with their family because their family was chanting and holding signs saying "Close Gauntanamo, the people are innocent) The soldiers were guarding the prison and said that the people there were terrorists and should not be let go. hope this helps. this is the truth.

Yes. Mostly because of the international ramifications. I would have to disagree with some of the previous answers about America staying out of international affairs. That is very unrealistic in this modern globalized world. Following WWII and the course of the Cold War America's influence spread all across the world and we emerged as the sole superpower. This position has its problems and benefits but the fact is that is the position we are in, and it comes with obvious responsibilities.

We shirked these responsibilities when we invaded Iraq and took the position that might makes right. We expected to have the rest of the world to be behind us, as many other nations were behind us when we invaded Afghanistan, but we were wrong. They saw this war as a war of aggression, and unlike Afghanistan, we did not enter the country for a legitimate reason.

Because of this the largest problems that will come from this war will be the crises in international relations. Not only do we lose key government allies in Europe and Asia, but also more directly in the region. To be clear Iraq was not intended to be a major part in the war on terror. The Bush Administration had some vague ties they made between Hussein and terrorist organizations, which were not legitimate because Saddam saw terrorism and religious extremism as forms of civil disobedience and cracked down on them tightly. To be clear, terrorists did not use Iraq as a safe haven. Far from it, they feared Iraq and did not enter the country until after we invaded. This war was criticized globally, not just by radicals, as a war of aggression and terrorist organizations found it very easy to galvanize their forces around a jihad against an aggressor. The effect of this was immediate, terrorists streamed in from all parts of the middle east to fight their holy war against the U.S.

This jihad will also become a long term consequence. The reason for this is simple. Half of the Middle Eastern population is under the age of 25. The next generation that was on the fence between radicalism and closer relations with the west was pushed over the edge towards the side of religious extremism because the war gave them an adequate reason to distrust the west and also turn towards radicalism. This was a crippling blow to our chances of success in the war on terrorism. We can make many gains militarily in the middle east, attacking and destroying terrorist strongholds, but as long as the most of the population is against us and continues to allow terrorism to thrive, the war on terror is an "unwinable" war.

This goes on top of the all the moral and economic concerns that were brought up previously. The bottom line is that our only hope of fixing this mess is yes pulling out our troops (not too hastily) and reaching out to the region. This will replace our foothold in the region from one of aggression to one of diplomacy, showing that America still holds true to its values of freedom and self determination.

I say now, and I said then, that going into Iraq was a bad idea. For a number of reasons, and not just because we lost focus in Afghanistan. It is still a bad idea.

Honestly, it was a good idea... granted some things were not right about it, however, it was smart. Plus Bin Laden could have been hiding anywhere... and Saddam was a major pain in the but that the Iraqi people said they wanted removed from power, they asked for our help. Even most military people believe that is good that we are over there. Terrorist groups were over there, and even if they were located in Afganistan... they still came over to Iraq. That's why we went to both countries. We went over there to obliterate the terrorist group that attacked us... which are located everywhere... and while we were over there we thought we might as well get rid of Saddam. He was a HUGE problem for 20 years... actually alot longer. The guy's time was coming sooner later. Plus, ever since we've gone over there, we haven't had one more attack on U.S. soil! Cause the "nice" little terrorists are scared of us. Or now should I say were scared of us now that Obama is running office?

Don't worry Obama said the troops are going to be completely removed from Iraq in 2010. But not Afganistan. Then again has Obama kept any of his promises?

Was it a good idea to go to vietnam either? We didn't want to go into iraq when we liberated kuwait but we ended up going anyway. We didn't handle a lot of things very well but we didn't attack iraq either.. We attacked terrorism. Several other countries have been attacked by terrorists and did nothing. We were attacked and technically invaded by a group of terrorists, they hijacked OUR planes and flew them into OUR airspace. We shouldn't be there anymore for the most part but we are the police over there right now.

PS: Bush didn't finish the job his dad couldn't, Clinton pulled the troops out of the middle east long after he had been elected, it wasn't an immediate thing. But you know what people? Let's just forget about the .001 percent of the american population that died right?

-PFC Green

US Army

Bush Jr wanted to impress Daddy and go finish the job that Daddy couldn't. If you paid attention to the news from August 2002 to April 2003, you will see the lies and rhetoric build up till we invade. The problem is that even though the lies were plain to see, the American public was still mad and out for blood from 9-11. Saddam was an old enemy and an easy target to focus our anger on. So everyone supported the war and if you didn't, like I wasn't, then you were called unpatriotic and a traitor.

So America went in and made a heck of a mess. Unfortunately, we now have to clean it up. So I think our troops should have to stay until we clean up the mess that our leaders voted to make.

You bet. The Holy Father warned that the war on Irak would not be a just war. The top advisors to former President George Bush, Sr. warned Sonny Bush, the dumb one, not to do Irak. Like all men who never saw combat, Bush Jr.

was real happy to send other men's boys to die in an unnecessary war overseas.

This will continue until enough Americans stand up to them who have usurped the power of the people.

MANUFACTURING CONSENT, Noam Chomsky

Anything by Patrick Buchanan, Patriot

I remember a famous general he said this quote "The Military does not start the war, the politicians they start the war". Something like that he said & I agree with him & I believe is wrong that we send our U.S.troops to the wrong battle field. There where never was weapons of mass destruction & only Bush he only wanted to be like his daddy. We should have capture or killed Saddam long time ago & I totally blame the Bush Regime.

The Neighborhood model theory. Say the world is your neighborhood and a thug moved into it. Soon houses start to get robbed and neighbors get shot and killed. Are you going to let your neighborhood go to **** and let people get killed or are you going to cowboy up and do the right thing and take out the bad guys and make your neighborhood a better place. HOOAH!