Six years on - are you happy with the response?

[Tas]

How many Iraqi's have to catch bullets labelled "to whom it may concern" before you stop using the torture argument?

[Chemix2]

As many quick deaths as it takes to amount to one long and painful death, multiplied by 270,000 and then every Kurd that was tortured to death (1 million?) and Kuwaiti

[Rich19]

I'm sure many people would rather be kidnapped, tortured by their captives and then beheaded or burned to death when the ransom is not paid; than have their feet whipped.

The brutal practices are still going on in Iraq, it's just that the people ordering it that have changed.

[Chemix2]

at least not everyone is on the side of the government

[Tas]

Really now, well you will have to let me see your sources for these figures, and explain how you can account for each single person who was supposedly tortured to death before you justify four innocents to catch lead with their guts for each and every one of them.

[Octovon]

As for Afganistan, its good to see that place no longer being used as a giant Taliban-government-sponsored terrorist training ground. The country is finally seeing something close to peace and prosperity for the first time in decades. Its sad to see the public so outspoken against securing Afghanistan from the Taliban, wanting to pull our troops out of the country, leaving more of a burden on our allies (at least the ones who are bearing the brunt of the fighting).

When it comes to Iraq, I'm more fence-sitting. I like the idea of a world without Saddam, the man was one brutal son-of-a-bitch, but the fact that Iran has continued arming terrorists (Hezbollah comes to mind) and continued its nuclear program (civilian? really? for a nation with substansive gas reserves?). The civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are regretable, but its not any military's aim that soldiers purposefully shoot civilians. My honest thought is that Saddam should have been replaced by some more 'accomodating' leader, while we rearm the Iraqi army to fight Iran with the aid of Western air superiority and intelligence (the two birds, one stone, half the commitment theory).

[Yannick]

I'm not a US citizen, but I am not satisified with the invasion of Iraq as a response to "terrorism". Al-Qaeda is still threatening home soil attacks, and not just on the US, meanwhile they're dug in deep in Iraq for what appears to me as no reason.

[PC_Master]

Non-US citizen not satisfied
The amount of news articles, TV shows and discusses that go around is pathetic. No one is talking about the incident. I suppose that is a good think in away, since I believe that "Its in the past and should move on", but they should at least talk about it.

[Relander]

Non-US citizen not satisfied

I supported the invasion of Afghanistan and continue to support its occuption by multi-national crisis management forces. However I opposed the invasion of Iraq and though I supported the decision later, I'm now persuaded into a conclusion that going to Iraq eventually wasn't beneficial thing to do but on the contrary. I have said it earlier and I say it again: We cannot "win" the war on terror through the force of arms (which just creates more terrorism) but through global intelligence, police & diplomatic cooperation, constructive foreign aid and limited counter-terrorism operations by special forces & air force.

The neo-conservatives nor the Bush administration (de-facto the same) didn't have those 270 000 dead Iraqis or torture in mind when Iraq was invaded, these points were just used for persuading the public to support the war: otherwise the USA would have went to Darfur ages ago not to mention many other locations where injustice, violence and tyranny prospers. The USA invaded most propably also because of testing new weapons & tactics since last time at 1991.

[masked_marsoe]

Originally Posted by Octovon

but the fact that Iran has ... continued its nuclear program (civilian? really? for a nation with substansive gas reserves?).

Years of war, sanctions, and massive subsidies have reduced Iran's economy to a shell. It's desperate for foreign currency, and the only way to get that is through oil.

But decades without work have left the refineries and wells running at low capacity - some haven't been repaired properly since the Iran-Iraq War - and a lot of their oil has to be siphoned to the domestic market at below-cost prices, because its one of the few things that keeps the population under control (oil is the bread of "bread and circuses").

Civilian nuclear generation will allow them to slash a large part of those subsidies whilst freeing up plenty of oil to send to China, ensuring a steady income of foreign currency, which will bring down inflation etc etc.



The war against terrorism has gone the same way the war on drugs went.