Enough anxst about the fabricated excuses for the invasion, the weapons of mass destruction and threats to our security or who knew or didn't know what and when. Had Vlad Putin called Bush and said something like, "George old chap, that Sadam is a bad guy and I'm going to do you a favor and invade Iraq for you," does anyone think that Shrub would have said, "Thanks good buddy, much obliged." He would have said, " You do Rusky, and Moscow is toast."

We invaded Iraq for simple reasons that: 1. it has a whole lot of oil that we need; and 2. we were able to do it under the guise of national security at a time when the American people felt most vulnerable and would be fully (e.g.Hillary) supportive. Right reason and right time equaled the right action. Just ask Machiavelli.

Uh huh. Like mass murder in the course of theft isn't something of a karmic drag.

Or, if you don't think what goes around comes around, consider the fact that for the $3 trillion investment in stealing oil, we could have rebuilt the infrastructure to work on renewable, domestically produced energy, and given everyone flying cars and a bj to boot.

The war was a mistake. Are there upsides like inrifedayeen suggests? Maybe; military knowledge gained (esp. Re asymmetric war), prove we won't cut and run like Bill in Somalia or Reagan in Beirut... but the downsides far outweight these consolation prizes.

Here's an angle for justifying the war, which I personally might have accepted. It was proven that Hussein tried to have GHW Bush (Bush 1) assassinated. Is that an act of war? Perhaps. What if Bush just said, "we consider this assassination attempt an act of war, and if Saddam does not step down, then we're attacking you". It would have been honest, and it would have sent a message, like: "don't eff with us!"

proven? hard to prove. castro likes to say he has survived lots of cia driven assassination attempts, but still he doesn't declare war.

nations shouldn't go to war because the masters don't like each other. it weakens both nations, even the victor has some price to pay.

as a master plan for world domination, the invasion of iraq had something to offer: success would have provided many benefits to the empire. if your notion of the conduct of nations has no check-box next to morality, then it was worth considering. and america doesn't consider morality.

but even sociopaths give some thought to the possibility of failure. there was no lack of information suggesting the likely outcome of invasion is just what has happened. we can say already that it wasn't the quick, cheap and nearly bloodless coup that it's designers said would result. there's plenty of room for worse things to happen, too.

this invasion was planned by men who had never been to war, who indeed had gone to some lengths to avoid service, and who persisted in their plan in the face of contrary advice from most of the people whose experience and professional qualifications deserved some respect.

that's another reason the war was not justified: the people pushing it were visibly incompetent and clearly acting out of some secret agenda: there was no connection between iraq and alqaeda, the alqaeda leadership was known to be in afghanistan, yet bush turned away from osama bin laden.

anyone who couldn't smell a number of rats in this war simply wasn't trying. trying to justify the war at this stage is no longer ignorance, or even chauvinism. the war was and is immoral. it's planning was incompetent, it's goals impossible, it's dangers obvious.

anyone who spoke for the war was at best a fool. many were seeking personal advantage and qualify as amoral hypocrites. and some, in and around the oval office were genuine megalomaniacs who have a place in a zoo waiting for them when the public catches on.

And a clusterfuck of an execution does not equal right.

I'm thinkin' that the evangelical voters, the men anyway, would have been up for the BJ cuz God knows they don't get that kinda sex at home.....it would be sodomy. Female voters would have wanted a little sumthin sumthin for themselves or let's start the invasion.....

Right reason, wrong reason. Don't you think it is a little late to be debating the reasons why we invaded Iraq or at this point if they were justified or not. Bottom line is we did...... END OF STORY! If we were smart we would turn Iraq into a U.S. possession and take the oil (under government control) and tell the Arabs to go to hell. We could let the Iraq people make a small profit. Let the oil companies make a reasonable profit and still probably cut our crude oil prices nearly (if not totally) in half. Here is where the government control comes in to play. The oil companies can either receive the Iraq crude oil, refine it and sell the fuel at say about half what they are charging now, OR, the feds create their own refineries, pass the savings on to the public and let the profits replace part (if not all) the federal income tax. Unfortunately we now have to return to reality where we either get none of the Iraq crude or the big oil companies (who have most if not all) of the politicians in their pockets and continue to screw us at the pumps. Personally I think it is time that we all start driving electric golf carts to and from work whenever possible. In the small town that I live in the gas/diesel would set in the pumps until it went bad if even 90 percent of the public were allowed to drive electric golf carts to and from work and otherwise around town. It would not take long if this were to happen (where ever possible) around the nation before the major oil companies suddenly found themselves with a product that was in high supply and low demand. All we have to do is get our law makers to allow these type of vehicles to be legally operated on the city/town streets. Again this solution is probably too simple and I am sure that the big oil companies (through the paid for politicians) would come up with many reasons why this idea either won't work or would not be safe.

No dear Americans you didn't pay for the war in Iraq, CHINA, JAPAN and EUROPE did, please do not forget this.

And dear Americans, is about time you have a bunch of new POLITICIANS.

Anteo

Anteo: You are probably correct in terms of dollar figures. As for the soldiers who gave their lives there: I don't recall very many (actually no) Europeans, Chinese or Japanese who died in the Iraq war. As for your view of our politicians, (while I have to admit there are a few that "Might" be ok) as for the rest, the toilet is the best way to get rid of them. The only problem is the "human factor." Put an honest person in a position of power and sooner or later that power will corrupt them to one degree or another. Additionally political puppets who don't dance when big business tells them to do so, usually have the purse strings cut and it is an unfortunate fact that you pretty much have to buy your way into the congress or senate anymore.

I just finished "How to Rig an Election" and found it enlightening from this standpoint. The party itself uses soft money to keep candidates in line. I'll never contribute to the party or to their majority pacs again. Send money straight to the individual campaign for people you support.....

Hello nyecop, you are right about your soldiers giving their lives and the Europeans didn't, well here is why, the soldiers didn't give any profits to Europeans but all the profits went to the American oil companies.

America started the war in the Gulf because the American oil companies wanted the price of oil to go up. Is the last oil in the ground and they wanted to make most profit from the very last drop of oil. The oil went up so did the profits, the soldiers gave their lives; (who cares about few dropouts), the Iraqis got democracy that unfortunately they can't cook for lunch, run air-conditioners nor power the cookers and a million of Iraqis gave their lives (who cares about Arabs). The Europeans got stunned at the petrol pumps and the Chinese are paying for the war.

Please tell me, how is going to end? How big is the bill that you Americans are going to get at the end?

Anteo

"America started the war in the Gulf because the American oil companies wanted the price of oil to go up."

Thanks for clearing that up. I'd love to stay and talk more, but I'm due back on planet Earth now.

JTS, maybe it would have been a success if instead of the 3,991 great soldiers who have died were part of someone else's family one of them could have been from yours.

That is WHY WE DID IT: To STEAL the COUNTRY, the OIL, and with time to have Burdels there for our Governors and Politicians like we used to have with Batista in Cuba. You are so smart.

The Kuwaitis beheaded any of the suspects before we got to interview them. Try to find any proof that there actually was an Iraqi government attempt to kill Bush(41). Looks more like an attempt by the Kuwaitis to line us up to take care of Saddam, once and for all.