Attacking Iraq, Has it helped or hurt the U.S.?

Question

The objectives of the war were to
(1) eliminate WMD,
(2) break the Iraq-terrorist link, and
(3) win over much of the Arab world by installing a market-oriented democracy in Iraq.
There were no WMD.
Terrorists are now vastly stronger in Iraq, and the US has further antagonized much of the Arab world.
The whole operation will cost us over $1 trillion.

Answer 1

There is no question about it, everything the US has done in the name of peace since their independence has slowly but surely hurt them. More and more people around the world are now seeing the US for what they are, paranoid terrorists. They knew about the pearl harbour attack long before it happened, they needed it to happen so they could get into the war and have Hitler declare war on the US, worked like a treat, and in Iraq they used the threat of WMD to fool the people of the world into war and get this, you had GW Bush and Blair on world media stating that they are going for the "Hearts and Minds" of the Iraqi people to help win the war, and at the same time you have Rumsfeld shouting "Shock and Awe" as a stratagy. Who the **** are they fooling, I'll tell you, US, no not the United Status US but us, we the majority. And ye know they are still doing it and we are aware but have too much on our minds to concern ourselves with World Peace and criminal governments. We can no longer see the forest through the trees. But why are we are so afraid of speaking out ? because we feel small, and fearful of the consequences.
Sam

Answer 2

You're painting a 2-dimensional picture...

1) WMD weren't "found", and a large percentage of the intelligence community was wrong to assume he had stockpiles ready for use. You can blame the U.K., Russia, Israel, etc. for getting this one wrong so far - not just the USA. Keep in mind, however, that the ability to produce and proliferate WMD was the main concern, and we knew for a fact that he had pre-1991 stockpiles (which have been found by the way).

2) Do you know for a fact that terrorists are more prevalent in the world as a result of the war in Iraq? I don't believe you do. What you are witnessing is a war on terror. The word "war" shouldn't be taken so lightly, as the Hollywood movie-style culture here in the U.S. can sometimes confuse. Perhaps there are more terrorists in Iraq than before, but at the same time that likely means they've allocated more of their resources to fighting there as opposed to planning future attacks around the globe. We're taking the fight to them, and forcing them to fight our military as opposed to our civilians.

3) "market"-oriented democracy? I think that's your spin on the objective. The fact is that millions of Iraqis voted for their representatives. Iraq has moved closer to being a republic. Other nations and terrorist organizations in that region see a successfully democratic Iraq as the first domino that must be kept from falling forward. What you are witnessing over there is almost at its peak (aside from an all-out civil war breaking out, which has little to do with terrorism). Al Qaeda is all for it though, as anything that can buy them more time will be helpful. It doesn't matter if it directly benefits their cause or not.

Answer 3

The war in Iraq was not meant to help ordinary Americans and the objectives you listed above have nothing to do with the real agenda. WMD has been proven to be a big lie. The terrorist link was no more real than Santa Claus. Installing democracy in MD and NA is not a top priority on US agenda. In fact, America has cultivated this nice reputation of supporting dictators, despots and authocrats in the region. What is at stake here is the financial interests of moneygrubbers in America and elsewhere. A gang of criminal-minded capitalists saw in the situation in Iraq a golden opportunity to earn a quick bucks and they shamelessly used politics to achieve that aim. What is particularly sad about this war is that some naive ignorant American citizens have swallowed the bait

Answer 4

America was in pain because of 9/11 The attack on Iraq has only made America hurt way more! The death toll of American service men and woman is greater now than the death toll of 9/11 and like you say, it is easily costing 1 trillion and probably allot more. Iraq is in turmoil and remains in destruction. It can't be rebuilt because of all the "insurgencies". All the death and damages done to American service men and woman coming back from Iraq. The list goes on and on. Mr. Bush want stay the course? What was the course to begin with? It wasn't to instill a democracy or remove a evil dictator although Mr. Bush wants everyone to buy this after the fact? Does Mr. Bush really believe that Americans and citizens of the world are that out of touch with reality?

Answer 5

Your question and presumptions are flawed from the outset.

YOU don't know what the US objectives were (you are attempting to paraphrase and doing poorly).

There was and is WMD in Iraq. In case you haven't heard they have found caches of chemical and biological weapons buried all over Iraq since 2003 and are still finding them as time goes on.

How did you take a measure that terrorists are stronger (vastly at that in your humble opinion) in Iraq? What was your baseline compared to your current data? Seems to me there have never been so many terrorists dying in Iraq before we showed up.

Antagonizing the Arab world???!! They have always hated our guts and our Infidel western ways.

They messed up by hating us so much to begin with. We end up having no good will lost by having to go over there and slap them around a little.

Answer 6

I feel attacking Iraq has definitely hurt the US. It has raised the level of resentment felt by the Arab population. It has done nothing to help Iraq. They now have some form of democracy but absolutely no personal safety. They are slipping into a civil war that the US is unable, or unwilling, to prevent.

Any goodwill felt towards the US after 9/11 is long gone thanks to Iraq. I am an American living in Europe and I can sense the change in attitude towards Americans.

Answer 7

Since the Arabian community don't accept the Christians intervention in Iraq, they will never assume this supposed democracy, so it was no win in the war against the Iraq.
From the other hand, afther 11 September a moral reparation was needed.
Only the history will let us know the benefits or the looses provoked by this war.

Answer 8

First of all, the link between the Iraqi government and Islamic terrorism was very limited, Saddam did pay the families of suicide bombers in Israel, but was considered a bad Muslim by Al- Quada and had actually survived attempts on his life by Al- Quada. The Iraqi government was probably one of the most secular governments in the region before the invasion, this is a fact that is not paid any attention by most people, let alone suporters of this war, now that the government is gone, women are forced to adopt more Islamic clothing, and people are resorting to old Islamic traditions full of hate and discrimination.
Keep in mind that during Saddams rein, he never even allowed religous gatherings for fear of revolution, Saddam is not a religous nut as people make him out to be, unlike many other dictators in the region, he was a power hungry ruthless dictator to whom all that mattered was how he was going to retain his power. The wmds in my opinion were either destroyed a long time ago or destroyed soon before the war, if he had any intention at all of using them he would have against our troops or maintained stockpiles in order to be used at a later time such as now, when massive parts of his military have blended back in to their society. Some people bring up the debunked theory that they were some how moved to Syria, before the war, if that is the case somehow, then that would mean that we have still failed our objective, because those weapons are now in a country which has a way closer relation to Islamic terrorism than Iraq ever did. However this theory has no credible basis, and has now been disproven. Also recently, our soldiers have found 500 artillery shells filled with old inert,non- operational mustard gas, along with some shells of sarin gas still working. A report called the Duelfer Report, which many cite as proof that wmds have been found, states repeatedly that these weapons are from pre1992 and do not indicate a reconstituted weapons program and are not the weapons that we are looking or. Some people in the government may have actually believed that this war would be seen by Arabs across the world as America trying to free muslims from the clutches of an evil dictator, but instead,during a time when Ossama had stated that the US is evil and anti - muslim, we decide to go to Iraq, on what seems to the rest of the world as false and self serving reasons, has turned into the greatest example of American "anti- Islamic" behavior and has become a rallying call for terrorists everywhere. When at one time even some muslims saw Bin Laden's statements of the US being anti- Muslim as false, now after starting the war in Iraq based on bad intelligence, it seems to the rest of the world as if Bin Laden was actually correct. It may very well be what Ossama was planning, and nobody seems to be able to figure that out. Now with our forces tied up in Iraq, in the middle of what is slowly escalating to a civil religous war, we are unable to properly respond against a real military action, and cannot wage a full scale ground war if need be, we are unable to take action against Iran, because they would move troops into Iraq and cause a two front war for our soldiers, we are unable to occupy N. Korea if need be, because we do not have a large enough troop force available. Also the oil that was supposed to be flowin out of Iraq like honey, never started flowing, and without proper international support, the taxpayers of America have to shoulder the huge cost of this war for the next generation or two. Al- Quada is still free to roam in places like, Syria, Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, Egypt, Libya, so are we safer from terrorism because we got rid of Saddam, unfortuanately no, God help us all, for we are in some deep shitttt

Answer 9

It has seriously damaged the credibility of the U.S. administration.

Under the U.N. arms inspection Saddam's rockets were publicly being surrendered and destroyed.

It is conveniently forgotten that under the U.N. Charter it is illegal to invade another country simply to bring about a change in regime.

The indigenous population always has the fundamental right to rebel against oppressive rulers.

The U.S. Civil War had its rebels. The U.S. rebelled against British rule.

The Civil war in Iraq is no place for outside forces of another country to interfere with.

Answer 10

at least we got rid of saddam, I suppose thats a bonus...what a shame it had to cost one trillion dollars, that amount of money could have brought in some universal health care services for the US, or funded millions of scholarships, or ended homelessness in the US, it could have fed all of Africa, we could have gone to Mars or built a Moon base, imagine if we had invested that trillion dollars into developing Mexico, it would have been money better spent, its alot of money, but ah well, at least Saddam is not in power anymore, and Iraq hopefully has a chance of a future,(though I doubt it, my bet is that once the US leaves, Iraq will break apart following a massive civil war).