Can America ever be united again until we all admit the Iraq war was wrong?

Question

And by "wrong", I don't mean badly planned, or badly executed, or lacking focus, or being unrealistic, or lacking an exit strategy.

I mean morally wrong from the beginning.

Blue - perhaps you should take a look at a poll today, if you don't know what the American people think. Or, even better, take a look at a poll from 2003 - it is not that different from today.

Dennis - what relevance does my lack of military service have? Do you think only veterans are allowed to express an opinion about war?

Bull - Hezbollah threatening America? You are being lied to.

Briang - Persian insurgents? Nice try - I mean Nice lie. The insurgents are overwhelmingly Iraqis, fighting to free their country from foreign invaders and their puppet regime.

Answer 1

It is morally wrong to invade another country and stay there after you realize your reason for invading was wrong in the first place.
It's like having a bad neighbor that keeps saying bad things about you and you about them for years.
then one day your garage is blown up and you know your neighbor didn't do it but you think that he might blow up your kitchen so you storm over there and blow up his garage, kitchen, bedroom, living room, basement etc looking for evidence that he was planning to attack you or rather had the ability to attack you.
You find nothing and instead of apologizing you kill him and stay in his house indefinitely even though your family and other neighbors are telling you to leave.
Yes that is morally wrong


Because we think democracy is great that does not give us the right to chose it for everyone else. That in itself is counter-democratic.

I have much respect for war veterans but it your experience in service does not make you a better judge on political and social issues than anyone else who may have access to the same info you have. No one disputes your dedication to your country but consider if no one ever objected many of you will die needlessly as leaders would not feel the need to be accountable.

So those of you who attack those who object to your view are actually haters of the same democratic process you are so willing to establish in foreign nations.

Answer 2

Looking back in history it seems the only time that America is really united is during times of man-made (Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11) or natural (Katrina) disasters - and that is only while those disasters are still in the first few days of occurrence. After that we get back into our political comfort zones and begin throwing that mud at one another again. We were united for the most part during the two world wars, but those were very different times and circumstances in this country. The level of division itself goes up and down, that is true. But there is always a division of sorts when it comes to politics. In regard to the Iraq War, I think that this division will continue until long after it has been settled, much as Vietnam. Discussion of Vietnam, even after all these years, elicits very emotional and strong responses from people, though it has long been acknowledged what a mistake the whole thing was from the beginning. I don't think Iraq will be any different. There will still be people who refuse to acknowledge that Bush's War is morally wrong fifty years from now, no matter what the outcome or how widely accepted it will be that it was a tremendous mistake.

Answer 3

Just look at Vietnam. Not only are we still divided from that, but the Republican Party has attempted to take advantage of and increase this divide... they've started a huge campaign to win support of Nam vets claiming that it's the protestors' fault the war lasted so long, because they were "enheartening the enemy". Veterans who were against the war when it ended are now blaming the protestors... of course my dad didn't fall for it, but a lot of veterans did, as did a lot of people who didn't go to Vietnam, and now people are saying similar BS about Iraq, and when it turns into another fiasco, we'll be blamed for it.

America cannot be and, to an extend, doesn't need to be united politically... I mean, if you're a democrat, look how miserable you've been with republicans controlling everything, and if you're a republican, look how miserable you are just being afraid of liberal influence on society. do we really want to be united? nobody wants to be united, they just want to win. I guess sometimes you have to take sides, but you have to see it as a difference of opinions and not some kind of civil war.

Answer 4

unity isn't continually this variety of reliable element. look at all of the Republicans who do not trust Bush, yet interior the call of occasion unity went alongside with despite he wanted. Or, for that remember, look at German unity interior the 1920's which delivered approximately the election of Hitler and finally, WWII and the Holocaust. the only element individuals seem to truly be united on is retaining the charges low at Mal-Wart.

Answer 5

This question could only be asked by someone with moral fortitude like yourself.

I wonder if those that refuse to see and accept the facts of the matter sleep very well at night. Like Bush and Blair, I wonder if they have images of dead Iraqi children appear to them in their dreams.

Of course you are correct, It was morally WRONG.

Answer 6

I fail to see morality as an issue with the US involvement in Iraq, unless you plan on accusing the US of stealing Iraqi oil.

We drove a despot from office. We helped the people, with the power of the vote, to establish it's own government of the people, for the people, and by the people as the popular vote goes.

Our efforts have been circumvented at every turn by those who oppose US involvement, however those same people are foreigners themselves. Many of them are Persians who are despised more by Arabs than are the Americans. Yet they, and their fanatical leader Ahmadinejad, are determined to destroy any good that has been done for the Iraqi people, just so the Americans do not get credit for staging a successful operation.

Answer 7

that is the problem as I see it, the majority party has to respect the minority party to some degree...the problem will be that the war (created by the majority and not supported by the minority) will not keep the support it needs (but then Bush probably never had the foresight to envision ANYTHING but victory in the first month). The duty of the minority party is to show the opposition picture to the citizens....the Democrats didn't fail so much as get blown out of the water by the Republican PR machine. The real fault, to me, is the arrogance of the majority party and how they did not realize how tenuous their grip on the political pulse really was and how decisions on myriad other issues could galvanized the voters against them....the problem is short sighted, politically ideologically impaired Republicans

I think I see some movement by Republican politicians (survival instinct) creating a dialog with and being sought out in conversation by the Dem's. i hope it lasts, it is important that we have a minority party that can defend itself.

Answer 8

Iraq was very wrong for many reasons. The biggest is that Osama is still loose and leading the charge to kill Americans. If we focused on destroying Al Qaeda instead of going off on this war of vanity to get a '90s villian, our world and our country would be much safer. Now we have created two breeding grounds for extremisml instead of containing one. And George W. Bush will go down in history as one of the worst presidents in history.

Answer 9

We should be able to unite even when we disagree! That's what makes this country different than most, we have a voice and we use it. It doesn't mean your view is more right than mine, it just means that you look at it differently than me. I can get along with just about everyone as long as they respect I have my own thoughts. You should do the same!

Answer 10

I'm a soldier, and the last thing I'll ever regret is that I served my time and did my duty for my country. As far as you thinking the war is wrong; Perhaps you should reconsider your thinking.
Would you rather have 3000 of our soldiers give their lives on foreign soil, or another 50,000 plus of civilians on home soil.
Perhaps you don't realize that right now Al Quada and Hezbollah terrorist are training right now for your demise.Get off your soap box, educate yourself and figure out that we either fight over there, or on home soil.