Agreed!

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HUH?

yes.
I would argue that thisis not correct. that any contry, esp this one, is comprised of differing interests. This war satisfied the interests of those in power or wth connections to them. you can't simply say it was to benefit the top 1%. that's patently false populist rhetoric (as most of it is). Halliburton may have benefitted but I'm not sure Berkshire Hathaway did. Bush's friends may have supported it but I'm not sure Bill Gates' did. Most business benefits from peace.
I also don't agree with the Wa-MArt comment. does it bother you most people in teh world tend to prefer choice or no choice? that china is embracing consumerism? running water? cars? subways? entertainment?
This may have had something to do with Bush's perception of the importance of a stable country in the middle east that woudl promote democracy. you have to at least think there's the possibility that he really believes that. it doesn' justify the actions, that's the kind of crap that led britain to create iraq in the first place. Now, I wouldn't be surprised that Dick Cheney had other interests (fat Hallburton contracts, oil, etc). however, none of these things are in our interests (well, that vision of iraq would be, just not the route we took to getting there).

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I don't think "sacrifice" quite describes what has occurred. Sacrifice implies giving up one thing to obtain something that is deemed to be important. Example: "Yeah, I have a long commute. But it's worth the sacrifice to get my kids in a good school district."

But I'm not one of the troops that went to Iraq. I'm not related to or married to any of those people. I've never even met someone who has been to Iraq. So, when one of them dies or an Iraqi is killed, I haven't "sacrificed" anything.

Instead of talking about sacrifice, perhaps a more accurate way of describing this reality is to say that we got these people killed.

An army and it's soldiers are resources of a state. We, as a nation-state have squandered a number of this resource. Briefly casting aside the tragic human loss, much time, money and effort went into the training and maitenance of each of those killed and injured.

Add to that the respect that we, again as a state, have lost in the international community, the divisiveness throughout this country that has been exacerbated and sacrifice really starts sounding about right to me.

Name me countries in History that acted in a selfless manner.

We do pretty good by comparison.

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In a sentence:


They have what we need.


Usually the cause of any conflict. Resources.

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Now I'm definitly not agreeing with how it went down.

It sucks.

I have military in my family and have direct friends in country.

But this is how countries work.

Acting nice gets you shat upon in hte future.

The "world" is not a happy fun feel good kinda place.

Not controlling (or attempting) to control the oil supplies would lead to the demise of the us via death by lack of resources...

no oil or lack of oil = no food

Have to pump the water to grow the food and transport the food.

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Er?

We need oil. Countries that have oil need to sell it. And we're in the better position: we could painfully manage with a limited supply of oil, but oil producing countries need money.

Personally, I wish they would just restore Saddam to power. He's probably the only person capable of restoring order in that God-forsaken country. Even from a human rights perspective, there would probably be fewer deaths of innocent people with Saddam back in power than if the current situation is allowed to continue.

how much oil would the hundreds of billions spent on the war have bought? probably a couple of barrels. zur, I don't buy what you're selling. Wars generally benefit a few people at the expense of the many. we've gained very little here. there was no shortage of oil or impending starvation. war is usually backed by excessive power and greed. do we need to take the resources by force? no. we coudl easily trade for them. and while the world is not a nice place, it's a better place when you have friends.

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