[z3n]

“And if had my way after 9/11 Afghanistan would have been made an example of in quick fashion...”

~~~

Totally agree with that sentiment, although I was less libertarian at the time, I thought there was no reason that anyone even losely supporting OBL wouldn’t be collateral damage.

I do, however, remember GWB giving a state of the union during the build up to Iraq claiming that ‘we are not in the business of nation building’ and getting up from my couch and shouting at the TV as if it was Sunday afternoon and the opponents QB just threw a bomb over our weak secondary, “WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN IF YOU UNSEAT A LONG ESTABLISHED DICTATOR?”

[Alberta's Child]

That retarded baboon GWB destroyed the Republican Party, in my opinion.

[Tell It Right]

“WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN IF YOU UNSEAT A LONG ESTABLISHED DICTATOR?”

Agree wholeheartedly with that.

I could have cut our leaders (i.e. Bush) some slack if they had decided to attack Pakistan and Afghanistan together, with alQaeda and the Taliban having control of both countries. I think when an enemy attacks our civilians directly (most deaths that day weren't in the Pentagon), using civilian means, while wearing civilian clothes, and the whole time integrating their own military structure within their civilian population for the purposes of minimizing retaliation from whatever western power they attack, then the Geneva Conventions gloves should come off and the civilians of citizens associated with AlQaeda are fair game. Them working so hard to make attacking them back look ugly doesn't give them the right to attack us without retaliation.

I think Bush's failure to do that was part of the reason to go to Iraq. 9/11 was awful and he probably felt like he hadn't done enough to retaliate (I agree) and force our enemies to surrender (I agree), so to save face he got Saddam to surrender (the part I don't agree with). He should have been harder on Afghanistan instead of trying to "win over hearts and minds" in a war that "won't have a treaty signing moment" and all the other redefinitions of victory he did to make victory impossible. Had he not done that, I bet there would have been no Iraq war.