Invasion of Iraq 10 years later: Good move or mistake

[Asterix]

10 years ago today the US invaded Iraq to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. The after-effects of that decision are still being felt to this day, and obviously will continue to play out in the years and decades to come. At this milestone, however, knowing everything that you know now, should we have gone in, or not?

Regrets and hypotheticals aren't really the goal here. We could go on and on (and have, many times) about how the post-invasion situation was handled, etc. ad infinitum. You should vote simply on the facts as they have actually occurred over the last 10 years.

Poll forthcoming. Note that it will be a public poll.

[oldandslow]

No. One of the few who called it at the time as well.

Gained nothing except to make Iraq a vassel state for Iran.

Brilliant, I tell ya.

[LiveSteam]

I remember a lot of peeps wanting REVENGE & to kick the shit out of any ME country back then. Then the body bags started coming home.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by oldandslow

No. One of the few who called it at the time as well.

Gained nothing except to make Iraq a vassel state for Iran.

Brilliant, I tell ya.

I'm with you, what exactly did our billions of dollars and lost/maimed men and women get us, other than a country that now cozies up to iran?

It was a black hole of lives and money.

[AndChiefs]

I was going to choose the gaz option but didn't want to commit to something like that.

[tredadda]

No way to justify that war and I highly doubt history will be kind on it as time goes on.

[Comrade Crapski]

I'm still waiting for all that free oil moonbats promised me.

[jspchief]

Like nearly everything the government tries to do, the biggest failure was the execution, not the idea.

[FishingRod]

I was originally supportive of it but, we won’t know for sure for a while. As of now, it appears like we will ended up with little if anything gained for much loss of life and considerable expense. If Iraq turns into a more democratic, friendlier country we may need to reassess but, right now it doesn’t look good. With the benefit of hindsight arguments can be made that Korea wasn’t worth it and Vietnam would be a very tough sell. I think we would be far better served with much less meddling in the affairs of other countries for not only what we deem our own self interest but in what we believe to be those with altruistic motives as well.

[Asterix]

Originally Posted by Comrade Crapski

I'm still waiting for all that free oil moonbats promised me.

You really can't be talking about Democrats here, who largely opposed that war, right?

[patteeu]

The fact that it led to the election of Barack Obama and that he squandered much of what had been gained, gives me pause, but I voted yes anyway.

The choice isn't between what we have now and the peace and prosperity we enjoyed before 9/11. It's between what we have now and what we would have faced if we had left Saddam in power in a post-9/11 world. By now, sanctions would have long since crumbled leaving Saddam the room he needed to refocus on his WMD programs and his destabilization efforts in the region. And with his vendetta against the US, we have every reason to believe he would have provided aid and comfort to our Islamist enemies when and where he could.

[Asterix]

Originally Posted by FishingRod

I was originally supportive of it but, we won’t know for sure for a while. As of now, it appears like we will ended up with little if anything gained for much loss of life and considerable expense. If Iraq turns into a more democratic, friendlier country we may need to reassess but, right now it doesn’t look good. With the benefit of hindsight arguments can be made that Korea wasn’t worth it and Vietnam would be a very tough sell. I think we would be far better served with much less meddling in the affairs of other countries for not only what we deem our own self interest but in what we believe to be those with altruistic motives as well.

Vietnam was NOT worth it. Never was. Idiotic war to fight from day one.

Korea? KOREA?!? WTF? How was Korea not worth it? South Korea is a good ally, with 50 MILLION people living in relative peace and with high standard of living. North Korea, an avowed enemy of our country, would be MUCH more powerful if it had conquered and controlled South Korea, which has much more arable land, better ports and generally is better situated to be economically successful, for the last 50 years. Total US dead and wounded, about 128,000 (33,000 or so killed), plus Dougie MacArthur's ego of course. A high price, but well worth it IMHO.

[penchief]

Originally Posted by jspchief

Like nearly everything the government tries to do, the biggest failure was the execution, not the idea.

The premise far invading Iraq was built on an outright fabrication. So yeah, the idea was a bad one, too.

[Asterix]

Originally Posted by patteeu

The fact that it led to the election of Barack Obama and that he squandered much of what had been gained, gives me pause, but I voted yes anyway.

It is inevitable, of course, that you would blame Obama for "losing" Iraq, but it's really only NeoCon arrogance that we can rebuild countries in our image that led to making the mistake that we were going to "win" (in the way that you mean) there to begin with.

The choice isn't between what we have now and the peace and prosperity we enjoyed before 9/11. It's between what we have now and what we would have faced if we had left Saddam in power in a post-9/11 world. By now, sanctions would have long since crumbled leaving Saddam the room he needed to refocus on his WMD programs and his destabilization efforts in the region. And with his vendetta against the US, we have every reason to believe he would have provided aid and comfort to our Islamist enemies when and where he could.

Instead, we have an Iraq that is increasingly looking to Iran (our main Islamist enemy in the region). Long term, that was probably inevitable given the democraphics of the country, once we toppled the existing dictatorship. Don't think there was a way to win there. Never was. We just chose the bloodiest, most expensive way to lose.

All that can really be said in favor of the move is that we at least tried to do something to switch Iraq's allegiances. Doing nothing wasn't going to give us that result. Fumbling the post-war rebuilding so badly and the demographics of the country doomed any chance of success, however.

[Asterix]

Originally Posted by patteeu

The fact that it led to the election of Barack Obama and that he squandered much of what had been gained, gives me pause, but I voted yes anyway.

Oh, and 24-3 against, and counting... Other than "does Pioli suck?" you almost never see that kind of majority around here.