So! Has the Iraq War made US SAFER?? Petraeus couldn't answer. How about you??

Answer 1

Not at all. The actual threat of terrorism was only a fraction of what Bush and Republicans said it was in order to get votes.

The fact that we are occupying a Muslim country has made it less safe for the U.S. for decades to come.

Answer 2

Possibly, it's hard to ascertain what would have been different if we'd have allowed Saddam to remain in power. Because the fact is that radical Islam had been growing prior to 9/11 and prior to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, so how much different it is from where it would have been without the invasion is open to speculation, which means that you cannot say with any certainty there would have been more or fewer jihadists.

As for safer, yes, we are safer - the invasion of Iraq did not change this. What made us safer is all the other programs and policy changes put in place. Eliminating Saddam as a supporter of terrorism and a potential supplier of WMD to terrorists did eliminate that potential threat.

Finally, to address the fact that Petraeus couldn't answer it - that's not his job to assess US overall safety, nor is it within his purview to address it. He has a job - in Iraq. Expecting Petraeus to answer this was simply grandstanding.

Answer 3

No. We enraged a lot of people around the world by going into Iraq in the first place. Pre-war Iraq was no threat to us. They had no weapons of mass destruction. There were no clear ties to Al Queda.

Some say that we must be safer since there have been no new attacks since 9/11, but remember that there were no attacks on US soil between the '93 WTC bombing and 9/11.

There weren't that many terrorists in Iraq prior to the war. If we were going to invade a country, we should have gone into the ones where the terrorists were...like Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

Answer 4

Absolutely, right after 911 I was afraid to go out of the house,
I would check the terror color everyday before I went out. But once Bush invaded a country that had nothing to do with 911 I suddenly felt very safe. In fact safe enough to actually go outside. But now that the country is bankrupted and it has been going on for 6 years with no end in sight and the certainty that our economy is going to collapse and we will invade Iran and start world war 3 during which gas prices will hit 10 dollars a gallon which will further devastate the economy I am starting to worry a little bit now. However I am taking great solace in the fact that the upper .05% of our population will get even more wealthy .

Answer 5

I do not see a general as an expert on what I consider a national intelligence matter more a question for the FBI head. I think we are much safer but the thought of cut and run in the War on Terror does frighten me to what will happen when we are not fighting them over there.

Answer 6

No, it has served perfectly as a recruiting tool for Osama Bin Laden to perpetuate his Jihad against USA. The internet+Iraq war+George W. Bush=Millions more hating the USA. What has prevented more attacks is that we secured cockpit doors on airplanes, so now they know that even if they could sneak weapons aboard a plane, all they could do is blow it up like the old days, not use it as a weapon for shock and awe purposes. We should have spent all this money that we have blown in Iraq, on making the good ole USA even safer and rebuilding our infrastructure instead of Iraq's infrastructure.

Answer 7

As Rumsfeld would say "we don't have the metrics" to determine whether we are even winning in Iraq, let alone whether the whole effort is making us safer.

From a common sense approach, it is obvious that people can get into the country illegally with relative ease, so what exactly is stopping a jihadist from entering?

And conservatives would argue that somehow Bush's "toughness" has prevented them from attacking us in the US? What does "toughness" mean to people who will, as we have seen time and again, gladly sacrifice their lives to kill Americans?

So the fact is, they can get in, the war in Iraq isn't magically holding them there, and they have the will to commit another 9/11. Further, all intelligence estimates indicate that the war has been a great boon to the recruitment of young jihadists.

So I say absolutely not.

As far as Petraeus' statement goes, it was to me, absolutely shocking, despite the desperate conservative spin after the fact. Yes, Petraeus is a general commenting on the military mission, but what are the troops supposed to think if their leader isn't even sure that the whole war is worthwhile?

Answer 8

Yes, because USA brought down a dictating murdering tyrant. We're not done yet. Mr. Bush said we're going to have a war on terror. Did you think he was joking? Not just Americans, but when it's all said and done, the Iraqi people will be safer, too, as will the world. NO ONE should EVER tolerate terrorism, and if you say Saddam Hussein wasn't a terrorist, you're confused, and lying to yourself.

Answer 9

Yeah. We know the enemy and we can reduce the risk of attack by 80% just by not allowing entry to the country for anyone from the Mid-East region coupled with the wars in Iraq and Afganistan providing a killing field for the filthy animals makes us much safer.

Answer 10

It's only a valid question if you believe that the purpose of the Iraq invasion was to make US SAFER.

I feel safer knowing that the US is taking strong action to stop terrorism.

Is there a connection with the War in Iraq? The ones who think so recognize a valid threat of terrorism, the others don't. So why do we continually rehash this?

Petraeus isn't a politician.

Answer 11

Patraeus could not answer because that is not his job. He said that the surge is working, that is his job. As to whether the war is making us safer will need to be answered over the next several years. Look at the facts: 1. No foreign attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11. 2. Democracy in the heart of the middle east (no democracy has ever attacked another democracy). 3. More attention to the terrorist threat than ever before.
The only way that we will be less safe is if we fail in Iraq. According to Patraeus, that is not the case.