What if five years ago we were discussing Iran instead of Iraq. Would we have gone to war with Iran then?

Question

Go back 5 years to when the US was only considering going to war with Iraq...

We looked at all the data we had (flawed though it was) and decided we needed to attack Iraq and remove the government in power in Bagdad.

So we went to war on the premise that it might have WMDs and was refusing to allow UN inpections to take place. But we later learned that Iraq had no WMDs.

Now we have a country (Iran) which may REALLY trying to build nuclear weapons. They admit to working on all the basic technology to build nukes. So why have we not attacked Iran?

Of course, the answer is that we are too busy in Iraq.

But if this were five years ago would we have attacked Iran if Iraq had not been an issue?

Oh yeah, and Iran has lots of oil too!

Answer 1

The Bush administration used 9-11 as the excuse it needed to declare an unconstitutional and illegal war against Iraq for three very 'lame' reasons:
1) The Bush family had a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein ever since the days of Desert Storm when George H.W. Bush was criticized, ridiculed and humiliated for 'not finishing the job' and ousting Hussein at that time;
2) The Bush dynasty is tied to the oil fortunes and Dick Cheney's Exxon-Mobil buddies want all that OIL swimming underneath iraq's sands so they can get richer and richer and richer feeding American motorists' addiction to cheap, easily-accessible foreign OIL;
3) The giant U.S. military-industrial complex recognized, after World War II, the profitability there was in WAR. So these wealthy industrialists bought up all the politicians, hired pricey lobbyists, and formed special interest groups to promote and encourage WAR. Thus, the U.S. became entangled in the Korean Conflict; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Cold War; Vietnam; and Desert Storm. Another WAR was necessary to boost the profits of companies such as McDonnell-Douglas; Sikorsky; Boeing; Halliburton; GM; the Carlyle Group (with whom George H.W. Bush is affiliated and a family named binLaden is heavily invested in); and other corporate conglomerates.
We went to WAR for OIL and PROFIT. We will go to WAR with Iran for the very same reasons as soon as George Bush's handlers can figure out a plausible excuse (since they already know 'weapons of mass destruction' won't work again). -RKO-

Answer 2

No, Iran has become so bold because we are in Iraq and we're not in very good position to start another major war. Iraq regime change was in minds of lot of people well before 9/11. It was 'regime change' for Iraq and everybody knew WMD was not main reason. I'll bet money, if it really was genuine WMD concern we would have just dropped GPS bombs on Iraq weapon sites and not this whole regime change.

Answer 3

Interesting question, but the answer would be yes if there was evidence that there were WMD's and that they were involved in 9-11.
The only difference is Iran is a little more sophisticated than Sodam insane was.

Answer 4

irans elite guard is in numbers the same as the us presence [in troop numbers in iraq]
thats just thier ''elite fighting force ,
then you got them dern karma-cassies [bonzi]
suicide bombers

and all those oil wells to set on fire
can you see the price of oil treble?

can america keep attacking arabs
and think some arabs arnt seing a pattern?

wont notice how israel is staying quite while usa spends the equivilent to all the australian money held in super annuation in australia ,every 5 years to make war on arabs [islamists]
ie one trillion dollars
ie all the super money compulsory mandated to be spent on propping up a failing stock market with enough funds to get huge bonus [not the pay increase]
where did the us childrens inheritance go
same place as trhe aussie workers supper
paying big buisness to make weopens of war?
big no bid coluded contracts?

Answer 5

no we would have adressed the issue of the no fly zone,the blatant disregard of Saddam Hussein against our embargos and the sanctions and rules(weapons inspectors) from the UN and the real question is,if Saddam would have said come on in co-operated,instead of world defiance,then maybe and only then would our eye have been on Iran

Answer 6

Leaders have to make decisions based on available information. There are no do overs.

Answer 7

yes of course.