Your opinions please?

Question

Things that make you think a little:

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January.
In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the
month of January. That's just one American city,
about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq ...

When some claim that President Bush shouldn't
have started this war, state the following:

a. FDR led us into World War II.

b. Germany never attacked us ; Japan did.
>From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost ...
an average of 112,500 per year.

c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea
North Korea never attacked us.
>From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ...
an average of 18,334 per year.

d John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962.
Vietnam never attacked us .

e. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire.
>From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost ..
an average of 5,800 per year.

. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.
Bosnia never attacked us.
He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three
times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on
multiple occasions.

g. In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush
has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled
al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya , Iran , and, North
Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who
slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.

The Democrats are complaining
about how long the war is taking.
But
It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno
to take the Branch Davidian compound. (that's the compound in Waco Tx with the firearms and explosives we raided due to threats run by a very unstable man named David Koresh)
That was a 51-day operation.

Answer 1

YOU ROCK!!!! Keep it comin! I love the truth, but so rarely see it online, lol. Thank you for doing some research and sharing your results with us.

Answer 2

It is very easy to make facts fit a certain point of view; sift through the ones you have mentioned, and look at the counterpoints:

Japan deliberately attacked us, hoping to cripple our fleet before we became a player in the Pacific; what else were we supposed to do? After we declared War on Japan, Germany declared war on us; look it up. So then what?

The Korean and Vietnamese conflicts were born from the incredibly high level of communism paranoia sweeping the nation; we truly believed that the spread of communism, if left unchecked, would dominate the world, and it well may have. Should we have been in those places, probably not, in retrospect, because we acheived little.

To say FDR, Kennedy, Truman, or even Bush are solely responsible for wars is silly; war is declared by an act of congress, and would not happen before there was a tremendous support for it; FDR polled assiduously to gauge public opinion on going to war; the nation only responded after Pearl Harbor.

Don't look at the war from a Democrat/Republican POV; look at it with common sense-was this war really necessary? Should we have taken out Osama when we had the chance? Sure! But that doesn't make Bush a hero by invading Iraq. The fact is that the war in Iraq is a drain on the economy and our national spirit; do you really feel proud that we went into an underdeveloped country, bombed the hell out of it, and now stay there while maniacs blow up our sons and daughters? World War II, if such a thing can be said, was a just war, because Hitler had truly tried to dominate the world; if he had been spanked after invading Czechoslovakia, perhaps he would've pulled back, and the war would not have been necessary...but we'll never know. After Iraq invaded Kuwait, we went in, kicked tail, and all was well...why go back?

I argue that all wars should be avoided, because of the loss of life, and the burdens it puts on our economy; we must remain vigilant to threats and dangerous forces, but we must temper that vigilance with common sense and honor.

Answer 3

Wow, good points.

And to Fobroxy - way to research your facts. The people who attacked us in 9/11 were mostly from Saudi Arabia. And in case you haven't noticed, the Taliban have been taken out of power. What more is there to do in Afghanistan? There is less crime there then there is in most of our major cities.

And to Joe M - what if it was your Mom, Dad, brother/sister that was killed in 9/11 and we didn't do anything? What if there was another attack after that and we didn't do anything? Which is the lesser of two evils. (Lets see, we could do what President Clinton did after the attack on the USS COLE, the bombing of our embassies, and the first attack on the World Trade Center - send Tomohawks into Afghanistan and call it a day. Hey, no loss of American lives. I guess in your book that was a win. Or maybe you would like it better if Bush pulled us out like Clinton did after 17 American casualties in Mogadishu, insuring we would be fighting the same type of people using the same dirty tactics in the future.) What were you expecting when you joined the military - to fight a pretty/humane war?

And to Taishar - so you are saying that the war against Communism did nothing. You are so right, after all communism is still a major threat to our and the worlds freedom - oh wait, that's right - its not because most of the communist nations in the world collapsed. Maybe our fighting did do something after all.

Answer 4

First off, I did a google search, and it seems that there were 62 military deaths in Iraq in Jan. 06.
(From http://icasualties.org/oif/US_chart.aspx )

A. FDR led us into WWII, a war that was already started and we had already been attacked by Japan, who were allied with Germany. And we had been supplying war aid to England since the start of the war.

B. I checked 3 websites. One said there were only 250,000 US deaths, one said 300,000. And Wikipedia says 407,000.

C. After WWII, Korea was divided (like Germany was) into 2 parts along the 38th parallel. The US would control the south and the USSR would control the north. In 1950, with much help from the USSR, the North invaded South Korea. I would say prior U.S. involvement in South Korea justified this war.

D. Well, I won't defend the Vietnam War, that one was a mistake.

E. Ditto

For moral arguments about the war in Iraq, I suggest you read: http://www.godspy.com/reviews/The-Sudan-Iraq-and-the-Morality-of-Intervention-by-Ian-Williams.cfm

But if you are too lazy, this quote I think is the best of the article:
"While military intervention represents a genuine moral quandary, it is surely wrong to sacrifice human lives so we can congratulate ourselves for our ethical stance."

Edit: Because the entire question doesn't show up over the text box where I type my answers.

F. The conflict in Kosovo was NATO military action, not U.S.

F (still). http://www.infowars.com/saved%20pages/Prior_Knowledge/Clinton_let_bin_laden.htm
Yep, Clinton screwed up. But stating our past mistakes doesn't justify our present.

G. "This is the reality of the Afghanistan campaign; a nation on the brink of anarchy because it fit nicely into the global designs of a handful of fanatics in Washington." (From http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/May/31o/The%20Afghanistan%20Failure%20By%20Mike%20Whitney.htm ) The fight in Afghanistan is not a success.

The International Zone (formally the Green Zone) comprises 10 square kilometers and is the only place in Iraq where the U.S. government guarantees safety.
(From http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/07/d4f024a5-3d93-46ee-ab60-19bd0903962d.html )

U.N. nuclear inspectors, if they are in fact there (I didn't bother to fact check you on this) are from the U.N. U.S. talks with North Korea have taken a back seat to Russian talks with North Korea. And, I think it is safe to say North Korea has taken great strides to achieve nuclear weapons capable of striking the U.S. during Bush's term of office.

Branch Davidian ended because the building burned down killing everyone inside, why would you make any comparison to this?

Answer 5

Attacking Japan for attacking us meant war with Germany, as they were allies. China and the Korean Communists they backed invaded our ally. Vietnam was a feature of the on-going Cold War and we were anti-communist so Kenneday sent some troops to our ally. Johnson's war was highly unpopular, it forced his withdrawal from running for President and Nixon continued its prosecution until the protests forced him to quit.

Neither Iraq nor Afganistan are liberated, they were not our allies, al Qaida and the Taliban are still in both places, among others, we and the government we engineered are holed up in a massive fortress in Bagdad or being picked off constantly, Iraq is awash in insugents and their weapons and explosives.

There never were inspectors in Lybia, there are no inspectors in Iran nor in North Korea, which counterfeits our money expertly to boot.

That we kill ourselves in Detroit at the rate we get killed in Iraq is not an excuse to add to our dead.

And maybe we are tired of uselessly sending Americans to war and maybe we don't like the way it was done.

And if I put a gun to your head and stole your wallet, telling you that a lot of people do this everyday would not seem like an excuse to you, now would it?

Answer 6

On December 8th 1941 Germany declared war on us honoring a pact with Japan.The war in Korea was supported by the UN.And we are repeating the mistakes we made in Vietnam too bad our current leaders didn't get to go see it first hand.Where was the clear and present danger in Iraq that was worth giving up American lives spending our nations treasure?
Go get on the next plane to Bahgdad and join the cause.

Answer 7

You shouldn't get flamed like crazy! You are absolutely right. I cannot understand how everyone can criticize President Bush for doing what he feels in his heart to be the best thing for our country. That is more than you can say for other Presidents. He is not afraid of doing what he feels is right. In the long run, I believe you have said what has needed to be said. The discrimination between democrats and republicans are killing me. At least the republicans are willing to go the extra mile to keep the citizens of this country safe and to protect our freedoms.

Answer 8

and? war's not a good thing. sometimes are justified. vietnam wasn't. the war in iraq is very similar. i think we should be focusing on afghanistan since the ppl that caused 9/11 r from there. they attacked us

Answer 9

YOU ASKED FOR AN OPINION AND HERE IT IS. YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT ALL OF THE THINGS YOU STATED. BUT NOW LET'S LOOK AT THE HUMAN SIDE OF ALL OF THOSE FACTS. HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED ALL OF THOSE THINGS WITH LESS DEATHS THAN THE OTHER PRESIDENTS. BUT WHAT IF JUST ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WAS YOUR DAD OR MOM OR BROTHER OR SISTER? SOMEONE YOU LOVED DEARLY? WHAT IF IT WAS YOU? WOULDN'T YOUR FAMILY BE DEVASTATED BY YOUR DEATH? IT'S EASY TO SAY THOSE THINGS AND MAKE IT SOUND SOMEWHAT LESS DAMAGING THAN IT IS, BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT IF IT WERE CLOSE TO YOU, YOU'D FEEL ALOT DIFFERENTLY ABOUT IT. IT WOULDN'T BE SO EASY TO TRIVIALIZE WAR AND DEATH. BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN THERE AND IT IS NOT TRIVIAL IN ANY WAY.

Answer 10

USA is a good country because it fights for freedom and welfare of another state even if it is not attacked.