Proposal: Has the war in Iraq kept additional attacks from occurring in the U.S?

Question

This is a debate proposal. My actual opinion may differ and is more complex than what can be written in this short space.

I am asking your opinion. I am not interested in Bush bashing. I am asking whether our being there has saved lives on U.S. soil. Do you think if this country would have been attacked similar to 911, the death toll would have been more or less than the number of casualities of war? Intelligent people can make the separation.

Answer 1

No, I don't think the war in Iraq has kept additional attacks from occuring in the U.S. What we have done is created even more terrorists from this so called "war on Terror". How, you may ask? By the killing of innocent civilians through "so called" "collateral damage".....Imagine the rage and hatred you'd feel when one of your children were killed "accidently" through American firepower?

What we have instead created more terrorists through our actions in Iraq. I DON'T support the war, but DO support our troops.

This is BS propoganda that has been attempted to be "sold" to those who are ignorant with how the military operates, how intelligence is gathered in the field, and how the FBI and CIA operate. My husband served 8 years in the military, so I'm familiar through him with exactly those things I listed.

How can you justify a war that has basically been a genocide upon the Iraqi people as preventing U.S. terrorists attacks?

The result will be exactly the opposite my friend. We've destroyed the Iraqi economy, there infrastructure, removed there leader that DID manage to suppress the sectarian violence that is occuring there between the Sunnis and the Shiites, throwing that country into a bloody civil war in which COUNTLESS numbers of Americans have died for what purpose? You can't force peace or democracy on two religious groups intent upon destroying each other point blank.

We have and will continue to create more terrorists with our continued occupation of THEIR country.

Imagine your reaction if you suddenly woke up one day and found the U.S. was suddenly occupied by a foreign power... (Russia for example)

What would your reaction be? One of hate and resentment or one of gratitude?

Barry, please note when I use the word "you" I am using it in a general context.

Answer 2

OK...too much pressure and I generally choke under pressure. I have been sitting hear thinking about why I don't think the Iraq war has made us all that much safer here in the US. There have been many very good reasons to support this in the answers that have already been given. And I also feel that the fact that we have escaped any further assaults, so far, is more the result of local, state and federal law enforcement working together to ferret out and track down any potential terrorists than because there is a war over in Iraq. The terrorists are not in Iraq fighting the war. They are elsewhere, training and learning how to kill us. Instead of being in Iraq trying to keep them from killing us and each other, we should have been funneling our efforts into finding the terrorists, destroying the training camps, finding Osama bin Laden and the rest of the al-Quaeda leaders, stopping the flow of munitions to them and drying up their financal support.

Answer 3

I think there has been a temporary reprieve in terrorist activity here in the States due to the war in Iraq. There will be fallout from this war for decades- loss of life to our troops, attacks on countries that actually or appear to support us, future attacks on our soil. And loss of life to the innocent in Iraq.

If another attack comes, similar to the 9/11 attack, it will cause far greater loss of life than has been seen yet. And I think that there will be other countries hit at the same time so forces are mobilized to protect hearth and home and not able to come to the aid of their allies. A divide and conquer mentality. And it will not come from Iraq.
(I am grateful we have soldiers willing to give their lives to defend our country and pray for their safe return even if I don't always agree with the premise or length of the war they may be fighting.)
Another opinion for your proposal!

Answer 4

Yes, I believe that the war in Iraq has concentrated many of the terrorists resources so an attack has not occurred in the US. However, vigilance has also helped keep additional attacks at bay and there is no way for me to know if we hadn't pursued Iraq after the Afghan invasion if attacks on US soil would have happened. It is possible the conflict in Afghanistan and continued military presence there would have been sufficient but on the other hand demonstrating willingness and ability to take nations on, one by one may have stretched terrorist resources emotional and physical, (its scary waking a sleeping giant), farther than we suspect. Its difficult to say with certainty and a lot of the strategy for the war has shown strength and provided some intimidation of those who want to destroy us. Yes its provided some fodder for those who need an excuse to hate the US, but there are plenty of reasons to hate any nation or any government, the US is just the most likely target right now. I don't believe there is anything we as a nation can do that will keep small dictator, or military run, countries from aiming rhetoric and guns at us. If a ruling party or group needs an enemy to coalesce power, the US will always oblige. If the US didn't exist some other country would be a target. Without us many of these countries would be fighting each other. And you know....most governments are inherently evil, that is why the constitutional model seems so ingenious, it provides those who are governed a chance to unseat those in the government they no longer want or need. (Of course the government bureaucracy is the biggest elephant in the living room) But countries run by one powerful guy or gal just aren't good places to live if you don't belong to the right clique.

So I got off topic. I say yes with thoughtful reservations. And yes I think an additional attack in the US would have equaled the casualties in Iraq. I believe the next attack will take more.

Answer 5

War is not the means to avert terrorist strikes,and neither it can wipe out all the terrorists.And likewise,terrorists who are hell bent in their intentions,cannot be stopped from striking.Its misleading to say that the war on Iraq was primarily aimed at targeting the terrorists or their bases.Hence war on Iraq has neither helped in reduced attacks against US,nor eliminated any terrorist forces.All it has done is generate more animosity and breed new terrorists against US.And last but not the least,the irony is that strongholds of terrorism i.e countries which still continue to churn out hard core terrorists, and harm US interests, enjoy the protection of US as its allies

Answer 6

No. I think that if all of that attention were devoted to Homeland Security that we would not have been attached since 9/11. I think that the Iraq War will in the long-run provoke more 9/11 style attacks. We should have just gone into Afghanistan and possibly other countries that actually had terrorists.
The reason that we attacked was because Iraq was an "imminent threat" to us because of their WMDs, which it turned out they didn't have at all. Calling the Iraq War part of the War on Terror came after no WMDs were found.

Answer 7

well quite frankly you are asking ask to think if bush never declared was in Iraq

now i don't think the war in Iraq is a big impact on the terrorist attacks in the U.S Bush apparently claimed that the main reason for them to go war with Iraq is because they think Iraq has weapons of mass destruction

Now i think the Americans soldiers being there well anger the terrorists even more. now lets think of it from the terrorists point of view American soldiers have invaded your country and you want them to leave.... but how. and this is where they resort to blowing themselves up

i can see why they do it but most of us will never resort to that kind of action

so i think the war on Iraq never benefited the U.S but in fact made them a more likely target

Answer 8

We have never in the history of the United States been attacked on American soil by an Iraqi. Ever. The attacks in 2001 were mainly Saudi Arabian...ironically Saudi Arabia are on good relations. Why did we not attack the country responsible for the attacks instead of selling them Billions of dollars of weapons? If an attack occurred it will be well planned,extremely well financed, and a reaction to the United States presence in Iraq. The Iraqi people don't even have any money or finance to do this...so it will again come from our friends yours truly Saudi Arabia. P.S Do you think the weopans sold by us to Saudi Arabia are not going to end up in the hands of the very same people killing US Soldiers?

Answer 9

No.

It's not as though there were terrorist attacks here every few days -- more like every 8 years.

The very worst attack in history killed fewer than half of the number of Americans who have died in Iraq -- and we're still counting, and have no end in sight.

No to mention the tens or even hundreds of thousands wounded, or all the untold psychologically damaged in this war.

Then add the more than 1 million dead Iraqi's and the complete destablization of that country, and the Madrid and London bombings which were in retaliation for Iraq, and now we've got the Kurds and Turks excalating the violence between them.

So, for those of us who are human and don't ONLY value American lives, it's been many orders of magnitude greater death toll, and a lot of other damage (tens of thousands tortured, millions homeless, the women of Iraq now living under complete loss of freedom), and we're looking at major destabilization of the entire area.

Not to mention the more frequent terrorist attacks worldwide.

But if you are one of those who place value on no human life but Americans, this war has hurt us much more than foreigners have.

As I said, it's not as though they were able to hit us here more often than every 8 years.

There's no reason to think that our making even more enemies prevents attacks here -- it's more likely to end up having the opposite effect.

More people have very direct, personal grudges against us now than ever before.

Oh, and we have to include some of the death toll from Katrina, as personnel and crucial equipment were over there, rather than here, saving lives, as they should have been.

What other domestic loss of life we'll suffer from this cause also remains to be seen.

Answer 10

Okay, here's my take:
Fact: We are at war in Iraq.
Fact: There has not been another attack.
Fact: When we weren't keeping them busy, they did attack us on 9/11.
But while this does not prove cause and effect, I believe that some of the terrorists want so badly to destroy us that they would be here if they were not so busy over there.