Originally posted by JaTo:

Again, the Iraq invasion stood on it's own merits even if 9/11 never happened.



while pretty much everyone agrees with this notion, it was not presented as a stand alone action. this was directly related to 9/11 many times and even in the same breath over and over and over. it was almost sickening to hear it so much and then to go in and not find the evidence we promised was there to back up the stated reasons. this left even a more bitter taste for most people who bought the president's stance that iraq was preparing to attack the US and was an imminent threat. we've gone over the perceived pluses and minuses so many times i'm exhausted of discussing it. whether invading iraq will pay off for the war on terrorism in the long run is the question. so far we haven't come up with a good plan to solve it, but most conservatives beg for patience which is reasonable. it's just hard to swallow the request for patience when the plan keeps getting restructured. why was this not thought out more thorougly and properly the first time? we have our own military telling us we went into iraq unprepared? why do these things continue to happen?

i think those are the questions that frustrate those who aren't enamored with the bush admins decisions.

Originally posted by JaTo:

If you think terrorism is a passing "fad" that will go away with time and the US turning a blind eye to it, it's you who are sadly mistaken.



that's exactly what i've been saying. but in addition to that i've added that this isn't something that will respond the way we want it to by using unfocused force and overstated reasoning as we've done with iraq. this just adds fuel to their fire and complicates the situation even more for us. that's not rocket science or brain surgery. it seems that so many are stuck in the cold war mentality of posturing and threatening, that we've become very slow to change and develop genuine diplomacy. this goes for the other side too, the US isn't all to blame on this one. but we are the bigger person.

now in light of all of this, i'll admit the bush admin hasn't totally fumbled the ball here. at the same time i don't feel like the best decisions have been made mainly because of the current state of things in iraq and constant re-structuring of how we plan to fix it. from the start it seemed like the plan was to send the troops in, remove saddam from power and we'll figure the rest out once we're there. it was all smiles and waves on 'mission accomplished' day. but this was never an acceptable plan and has proven to have been a sub-optimal strategy.

patience is the definitely warranted, but at the same is it so much to expect our decisions to be thoughtful and well planned? imo our troops shouldn't have to die to make up for mistakes.

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