Why does Barack Obama not support the Iraq war if he supports the Global War on Terror?

Question

Lets remember that Al Qaeda in Iraq is there and functioning. They may not have gone there if we didn't invade, but that doesn't mean they aren't there now. If Barack Obama was smart, he would push for a redefinition of the Iraq war to only fight terrorism, period. Leave the political reconciliation up to the Iraqis instead of us shoving an unrealistic policy down their throat. If they blow it all, we can sit back and blame them and Iran. Let the military do what they do best, kill and capture.

Answer 1

Hopefully by this point most people have had the opportunity to view the information we have impirically and logically and conclude that the Iraq war doesn't and never did have anything to do with the war on terror. If you're drinking the conservative kool-aid instead of thinking critically about the facts, just stop reading this and turn on Fox News to hear all the nonsense that feeds your unquestioned beliefs.

Al Qaida is there because the US is occupying muslim territory, which angers their base, increases their recruitment, and feeds anti-American sentiment in the region. In other words, the occupation of Iraq exacerbates terrorist activity, and increases the recruits into radical militant muslim organizations.

The war on terror would have much more effective venues in the scenario where we are not occupying the country and giving radical militant religious people a "cause" to fight against. Instead, we could simply have troops in bases in surrounding countries who are cooperative in the war on terror without "occupying" their sovereign nations. Then we could deploy troops to regions that are far more important than Iraq, like snuffing out the Taliban, poppy crop revenues (which fund terrorist activity), enforcing borders, and having a greater presence in tribal regions on the Pakastani border where bin Ladin sympathizers dwell (and probably even bin Ladin himself).

The bottom line is you have to look at your strategy, the execution of the strategy, and the results you get from those two things. If it doesn't work, you have to try something else, and frankly, the alternatives seem to make a hell of a lot more sense.

Answer 2

There are a lot of us who feel the war was a mistake. Saddam was not in any way connected to al Qaeda, who opposed him because he was a secular Muslim. By removing Saddam and disqualifying the Bathists from all offices we created a power vaccuum for the jihadists to move into, and did their work for them.

There were no WMDs, and if Bush and Cheney thought so they were lying to themselves as well as the American people. The only reason to invade was because some Arabs had hurt us, and we wanted to lynch a couple as payback. It didn't matter if it was the right Arabs, as long as we felt a little better.

That is the kind of thinking Bush is capable of. While I personally consider Senator Obama too young and inexperienced to be President, I frankly do not see how he could be any worse.

In Iraq our troops are not doing what they do best, which is engaging enemy troops in open combat. They are forced to fight a war of occupation with an hostile force capable of blending in with the general population, in an unconventional war armed with conventional weapons and tactics.

Somehow, George W. Bush has led us into a situation where we are the redcoats and the enemy are the minutemen. I suspect the President should get someone to read him a little history, since he has forgotten whatever he learned in school. Even a pretend Texan should understand the value of martyrdom, but George cannot even remember the Alamo!

The global war on terror is only being fought in Iraq because we are there. Once we are out they will all move to Afghanistan, or start shooting at Israel again. Our only advantage is that we can pick the spot. We can choose better than Iraq.

Obama knows that, and he is a rookie. Think about what that implies about the Bush league.

Answer 3

He supports our troops more than the Repubs, but he points out...very correctly...that we were lied into this war and that it is a war in Iraq that never needed to be fought.

He strongly supports going after the b*stards who caused our national tragedy of 9-11.

I'm a vet. Been there, done that, bought the friggin' t-shirt. I know that war should be a last resort and necessary rather than the wet dream of a politician such as Herr Bush.

I strongly support our efforts in Afghanistan because it was and is a necessary war. I strongly support seeking out and killing the terrorists who struck us on 9-11.

I strongly disapprove of our invasion of Iraq that we were lied into supporting. We now have a civil war in Iraq and our brave sons and daughters in the military are the meat in the sandwich. Make no mistake. The sunni hate the shia hate the kerds and vice versa. Iraq will have its civil war whether we leave in ten minutes or ten years.

As to Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Iraqis will kick their butts out after we leave.

Answer 4

Because the war in Iraq has precious little to do with the war on terror.

The terrorists are not stupid. Do you think they are going to have training bases in Iraq when there is all that fight and killing going on?

Terrorist are not in Iraq in the concentrated numbers that would justify a rational President staying there one more minute. The terrorists are in Pakistan in Afghanistan.

What IS in Iraq that draws Bush and Cheney to it like moth to flame, is oil.

Answer 5

Since the Iraq war has been one of the best terrorist training programs ever offered, it may be he sees a correlation between putting an end to this American-financed training program and doing something practical to stop terrorism.

*****

So far, AngryChair has best answered your question.

Answer 6

He doesn't like occupying Iraq, but he is OK with occupying Afghanistan and invading Pakistan?!?!?!? This guy is a State Senator that got away. Have you ever seen YOUR State Senator? You should talk to them some time, you will laugh. I dated one**, picture the dorks who were your high school class "officers", just a bunch of dorks with nothing better to do - that's Barack, just a good looking dufus trying to win a popularity contest.

** She was proud that she helped to redesign the state license plates..."We even consulted the State Police to make sure the colors were OK." What a proud moment in U.S. history. But that's what Barack should be doing, redesigning license plates, not redesigning U.S. National Security Policy.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Huh?

Since fighting against the people of Iraq has made our position WORSE, anyone who supports the War Against the people of Iraq has, in fact, been helping those who hate America.

If you had any humanity whatsoever, you would not support mass murder of people who have never hurt us.

If the Freak In Chief hadn't started his terrorist attack against Islam, everyone in the world wouldn't hate us and want to cause us harm.

BTW, all the people who keep telling you Al Quaeda is a major player in Iraq have been lying to you.

Yet you keep listening to the same lies, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over ... you LIKE that Red Kool Aide, dontcha?

Answer 9

I didn't like his statement that's why I'm voting for the best Hilary. I would never in my life vote for a republican. It was a Republican that got us in this war. When Bill was in there was no war. Bush is just after his own gain. I don't trust any republicans. I know what they all about finding ways to stay rich.

Answer 10

Al Qaeda only came there b/c of the war, they gained ground because of this war. The Global war on terror, like he said himself, will never end unless America changes its foreign policy.