In retrospect, should the United States have continued with Containment of Saddam instead of a trillion $ war?

Answer 1

yes

hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's would still be alive (not including the 3800 US soldiers dead and 20,000 seriously wounded), Iran would be better contained then it is currently and we probably would have captured Osama since most of our army would have been in Afganistan instead of Iraq

that would have left us money to fix bridges, dredge ports and all the other things money has been diverted from to "pay" for this war

Answer 2

Containment of Saddam was not particularly effective. Besides that, what the world needs is to stop screwing around with Islamo-fascism and start curing this disease. The cure is democracy and freedom. Ground zero for this great change from treatment to cure is Iraq and Afghanistan. But it is only the beginning.

The conditions that propagate the kind of virulent strains of Islamo-fascism that spread like a cancer destroying and mutating millions of innocent lives must be cleaned up and replaced with the hope for the future that liberty brings.

We have allowed this infection to progress much too far to even bother trying to contain it now. What is called for is major cure. Extreme conditions require extreme measures. Suicide killers hijacking and flying jets full of innocent people into buildings is about as extreme as it gets. You do not fight cancer with a band-aid.

.

Answer 3

Yes, of course. There were a few things we know now that we did not know then, but the differences do not justify the action we took then.

One of only 2 Senators that voted against the authorization for war back in 2003 was Bob Graham of Florida. He was the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee. His stated reasons for voting against the war authorization was that the intelligence did not support the conclusion to go to war.

At that time, I felt a great unease on the rush to war. As it turned out that unease was justified.

Answer 4

WOW I think you should invent the way back machine so you can go back though time and fix it...Maybe you can run for president and do a better job? In the end we are all human and we make mistakes. I think this says it best:

Quote:
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt

Answer 5

Recall Collin Powell's fake dossier he presented to the UN, his mobile weapons labs were for weather balloons. The hysteria over mushroom clouds was hyperbole, the Plame incident with its false claims of yellow cake. Hans Blix was discredited. The BS was piled so high

Answer 6

YES

Saddam was contained and no threat to the USA.

We've spent 600 billion so far in the Iraq War. 4000 dead, over 100,000 serious injuries. In 4 more years the cost of the endless war will be 1 TRILLION DOLLARS. Rediculous.

Answer 7

If we really only wanted Saddam gone we could have funded the insurgents that also wanted him gone.

Answer 8

Containment wasn't working. (and its failing again in Iran...)

Hussein was Shooting at our planes. He was in violation of the terms of the 1st war's cease fire. (Which by itself justifies the second war in my opinion.)

The USA pursued 17 different U.N. resolutions to try to get them to behave like a responsible member of the International community, and he refused. He felt that by defying the wrold, he was cementing a place in the leadership of the arab world.

When it came down to time to pay the piper, where were all his Arab allies? They either helped us get him, or stood pat while we did.

Let's stop playing the coulda-shoulda-woulda game. Its not productive.

Answer 9

Of course; and we should have increased our economic and military support in Afghanistan, and captured Binladen and Al Zahwiri. Would have saved thousands of lives, billions of OUR $$$, and been more effective in the long run.

Answer 10

Hindsight is 20/20, but the ability to see this before it happened?
Priceless.