I'm thoroughly confused...what does 9/11 have to with the war in iraq?

Question

torskie--dont hate...why must you point out something that I already expressed, and such a rude something too....any constructive response?

I know I sound completely ignorant...on my behalf, i'm 22 years old and was just in high school when 9/11 happened. when I was younger I avoided history/politics like the plague...it just went in one ear and out the other (even tho I got good grades in "history" and am now a senior in college at a University of California)....I'm trying to become more informed, and I'm just very overwhelmed because I hear sooooooo many DIFFERENT stories. It's somethign that's bugging me because I can't form an opinion on this huge "war on terror" deal, because I just don't understand everything! that's why I'm asking this question (and I have asked others about the topic). I know that initially the culprit of 9/11 was osama bin laden and his al-quaeda network, in AFGHANISTAN. how in the hell did iraq come into the picture?

Answer 1

nothing,its a scam

Answer 2

NOTHING.

It really disturbs me the number of responses that say "9/11".

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The Pentagon said so, the Bush Administration said so, everyone said so. The alleged ties to Al Quada have been repeatedly refuted. The only ties to terrorism that Hussein had was the so called "suicide bomber" fund that Saudia Arabia, Egypt, and Syria among others also contributed to. If that was such a threat, why have we not attacked the other countries as well?

Also, if the US was so concerned about Saddam gassing his own people, why was nothing done in the 80s when it ACTUALLY HAPPENED? Strawman arguements.

Bush and Co. obviously were quite successful in tieing the two in peoples minds. In the State of the Union address prior to the war, read the transcipt and count how many times "9/11" and "Iraq" are used in the same sentence through never in relation to each other. It's an old propaganda trick and it obviously worked.

Answer 3

Alright.A constructive answer from someone in Iraq!

9/11 was not the beginning of the war on terror.That just made it go public.Iraq is a safe haven for terrorists.YOu see what most people don't know or choose to ignore.Is the fact that we are here fighting terrorists.Not the Iraqi people.I would say only about 10% of the extremists we kill are from Iraq.We are also in A-stan you just don't hear about it as much.What we do here is a good thing.Sure there a few americans who commit acts of barbarism but the only one I despise is the rapist.I hope this helps in your opinions.
Also,keep in mind.The people who call us animals and say we are here illegally,have never even been to Iraq.

Answer 4

9/11 was carried out by Muslim terrorists. After the attack, there was a sense of great urgency to prevent other such attacks.

Because the attacks were carried out by terrorists, and not by an established state, we could not declare war on any particular country. However, we had to do something to prevent more attacks from occurring.

To prevent these attacks, we needed information about terrorist groups and their leaders. Nobody has more information about Muslim terrorists than the governments of Muslim countries in the Middle East.

The problem is that they do not particularly like us. The citizens in those countries celebrated when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed. Furthermore, many of these governments secretly sponsor terrorist groups, providing money, weapons and training for operations against US and Israeli interests.

In order to obtain the cooperation of Middle Eastern governments, America needed to show three things: (1) That we had the ability to destroy the government of any country that opposed us, and (2) that we had the will to do so, and (3) that we had enough military men and machines in the area to do it quickly. In short, we had to scare Middle Eastern leaders into complying with our demands.

Naturally, the US government cannot say this openly. If we openly declare our intention to scare foreign leaders into cooperating, they would be unable to cooperate because they would appear weak to their people. It is in both America's interest, and the Middle East's interest, that the above arrangement remain officially unspoken.

Iraq was an ideal country for us to target. We were justified in invading because of Saddam's repeated defiance of UN resolutions. And it is an ideal location to base an army that might have to deal with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia or other countries with known ties to terrorism.

Initially, the plan worked brilliantly. The defeat of the Iraqi Army succeeded beyond anyone's wildest hopes. And the overall plan worked well...for a while.

Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan and others changed their diplomatic stance from belligerence to compliance. They gave us intelligence on Al Quaeda and other terrorist groups. They handed over wanted terrorist leaders. Several terrorist plots to attack targets in America were foiled.

The reason people are sick of the Iraq war today is two-fold. First, the Army suffered what is called "mission creep." The Army is good at killing people and breaking things. They demonstrated this during Operation Iraqi Freedom. But once the major fighting was over, they were tasked with additional duties--building schools, hospitals, power plants, sewage treatment plants; acting as policemen in Iraqi cities; training Iraqi policement; assembling and training an Iraqi army; providing security for an election, and a million other tasks. Pretty soon, our Army was bogged down.

Our second problem was Iran. Iran recognized that there was an opportunity to increase its land, its prestige and its power in the Middle East, and immediately began actively undermining US efforts in the region.

Iran would like nothing better than to give America a black eye, and then take over Iraq's northern oil fields. Were America to withdraw from Iraq, it is entirely possible that Iraq would be split in two, and devoured by Iran in the North, and Saudi Arabia in the South. This is NOT in the best interests of the US. Iran's government hates America, funds, arms and trains terrorists, and is working on nuclear weapons that it can launch onto American soil. Saudi Arabia is the world's premier exporter of Jihadist doctrine, sponsoring Wahhabi schools in nearly every Western country.

Anyway, that's pretty much the history and summary of the situation in Iraq. It's a pretty convoluted mess, but I hope I was able to make it understandable.

Answer 5

Nothing, but like Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein's former regime was a sponsor of terrorism. Also, even though Osama and Saddam weren't the best of friends, Osama used our efforts to kick Saddam out of Kuwauit and keep him out as an excuse for 9/11 and other attacks on the west before and after. He also had a non-aggression pact with Saddam back in the 1990's so he could expand his terrorism network, which is how he installed a branch of Al-Qaida in Iraq.

Answer 6

It doesn't.

There are a ton of links if you google...Iraq oil.
I believe it is about the oil.

Saddam was not behind 911.
In fact bin Laden would have liked nothing better than to chop Saddams head off himself.
So scrap the idea that bin Laden and Saddam were in cahoots.

Saddams brutality.
He was brutal when he was our PAL.
We gave him material and financial support during Iran/Iraq war.
Which Iraq started by the way.
So is it any wonder that Iran is wary of us.
And they should be.
We installed a dictator there also...the Shah.
So how does the United States have problems with Brutal dictatorships.?
We have been installing brutal dictatorships to serve Business Interests for years.
Sponsored death squads also.

WMD's.....weren't any.
And those orphaned mustard gas shells don't count.
That is WW1 technology.
If the government wants to stop anybody who is capable of producing THOSE kind of weapons they are going to have to round up every semi bright chemistry student in the U.S.A.

For nerve agents/sarin.
They round up the brighter chemistry students.

911 was a gift from God to the Neocons.

But Iraq didn't do it.

The Government deliberately fabricated false intelligence data based on the word of Shady Character and wanted in Jordan bank embezzler....Chalabi.

They want the oil.

Answer 7

a lot of people thought G bush aka douche bag, went to Iraq because he believed that Osama and so one were behind the attacks on 9/11. He went there to find from what he believed were 'Weapons of mass destruction' that they were suppose to have. My belief is that he used 9/11 as an excuse to wage a war on oil. . .. . . Here is a very interesting video that really makes you think, they suggest my theory in there and explain it to more extent, sorry I could go on and on for days about this bullshit, and sorry I admire and have the greatest respect for anyone that has put there life on the line to support and protect america. But the war is bullshit, and the one thing it boils down to is MONEY

Answer 8

The Govt, most notably GWB, mislead our country. They keep on insisting that Iraq had helped Al Queda, but now the FBI, CIA said that there info was wrong. Saddam knew if he had connections with terrorists then the USA had a reason to get him. Osama came to him and asked for help,(money, supplies, etc.) and he refused. Now we know that it was Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan who were helping Al Queda. They told us that they had WMD's, we haven't found any, wonder why??? They said they had Al Queda connections, they are weak connections, wonder why???? They had no hard evidenced that Iraq did anything in 9/11.

Also the USA help train Al Queda back in the 70's. Osama got trained by the CIA, and were giving hundreds of millions of dollars and weapons. And don't forget that Dick and George Jr. have stock in all the companies out in Iraq "rebuilding" it. And the most important......OIL. Oh yeah watch FAHRENHEIT 9/11 it will help.

Answer 9

Nothing, and nobody ever claimed it did. the only claim that was made was that Saddam may give WMD's to terrorists, which was a real problem because he was the only leader on the face of the earth who had used chemical weapons. Every other leader who did is dead. He also sent an assasin to kill George H.W. Bush, which showed that he was out to get revenge for the gulf war.
Iraq had ties to hesbolah, the second most deadly terrorist group next to al qaeda, and there were two al qaeda training camps in Iraq, which Saddam left alone.
During the fight for bagdad, US forces came across a compound being defended by hundreds of al qaeda and hesbolah fighters from outside Iraq. It is well documented by several cameramen who were there, but the media doesnt mention it often, If at all.

Answer 10

Nothing. George just wanted to finish what daddy started.

Oh and ddey65 your wrong. Saddam in fact despised terrorist and in particualr Osama. Oh and bye the way Saddam was put there and equiped by your government. The good old US of A .

Answer 11

The invasion of Iraq was long desired by members of Bush's cabinet that were part of Bush Sr's cabinet during the first gulf war. Wolfowitz, Cheney, Pearle...wanted to invade then but got slapped down by Bush Sr.
9/11 gave them a focus for drumming up public opinion to support the invasion by making misleading statements tying the two things together - Cheney was the most guilty of this.