The media will cover anything they feel is sensational. Everything you watch, listen to or read about should be taken in with skepticism.
Of course no WMD were found in Iraq. While I disagree that GW shouldn't have initiated the invasion of Iraq, that is mostly based on the idea that his dad should have finished the problem in the early 90s. The second time around, it was hey, were gonna go to iraq soon. How many weeks went by before the forces went in? I don't find it suspicious they found no WMD. With so much time, Saddam likely smuggled them into neighboring countries. who gives a **** if it was Syria, or Iran. The weapons existed and now they are lost... At least before the war they had an idea where they were. Saddam need to be overthrown, I think an assasination would have been more cost effective though...
I agree with you. I don't really blame Bush Sr. for not overthrowing Saddam as he didn’t have the foresight. If you remember, although not compared to today, the Gulf war was still highly unpopular. The mission was to force Iraq out of the Persian Gulf, not to overthrow Saddam. Once he was out, for all intense purpose the mission was completed, and deemed a success. The uprising in Iraq that followed ALMOST toppled Saddam, but a slip-up by the generals in the field which allowed Iraqi government to fly battle helicopters within the country quickly destroyed the resistance. Bush senior was also reluctant to get involved any further, due to the unpopular state of the war in the first place. I hate to say it, but the average American, with the rights and freedoms that our men have died to provide them with from previous battles, have gotten so comfortable with the American way of life, that it would take a MAJOR catastrophe, possibly bordering on all out extinction of our way of life, before they would be whole heartedly behind any major military conflict in the future. Until it comes to YOUR town, and effects YOUR way of life, most people do not have the stomach to commit to the violence and realities of war. It's so sad to me to realize that the average American has gotten so out of touch with politics and government in general, that they could care less about voting, or who is representing them at the local, state, and government levels. We need to realize that we should be blaming ourselves, not the government for the current state of affairs if we do not play an active role by voting and staying current on the issues. I graduated in 1999. I would say that 98% of the people I talk to from my graduating class are either not registered to vote, or could care less about politics. Most can not even name the governor of our state, or the mayor of our town. I'm no political phenom by any means, but I vote, read up on current issues, and know enough of the basics to know whose representing me at the state and local level, and a general idea if they are representing the issues I care about as a citizen.
This is one of my favorites. From Alexander Tyler. No, he wasn't writing about the United States. This quote is well over one hundred years old. Tyler was writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
Back to the topic at hand...Iran needs to be stopped from producing a nuclear weapon period. We have to understand that the ruling party in Iran despises the west, and will stop at nothing to bring about the rule of age-old, biblical, Islamic law and spread it throughout the world, using any means necessary, political, social, and militarily. Then we have Russia trying to re-establish itself as a world superpower. They will do anything necessary to accomplish this. If this means straining ties with the U.S., by providing Tehran with nuclear technology, so be it. How we handle the situation is touchy to say the least. I can't imagine how difficult our secretary of state must have it trying to negotiate with Iran, whose only goal is world domination by "their" form of islamofacism. All out war with Iran would be foolhardy for all parties involved, but if the time comes to where we determine that they have become a grave military threat to the west, or Israel, then I would support some strategic heavy-bombings missions aimed at eliminating the threat, and the nuclear facilities, fortifying the Iraq/Iran border from Iranian encroachment, and applying HEAVY sanctions. All of this would require no US boots on the ground within Iran, except for maybe a few small covert missions with specific objectives.
