[max americana]

I’ve had the same article/question asked since 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and I have the same answer: F’N yes.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Someone’s ass needed to be kicked, and Iraq was the ideal candidate for the role. Large-scale terrorism requires state sponsorship, and if the states are afraid to do the sponsoring, terrorism will take a huge hit.

[txhurl]

About 5 years ago, W, in a candid moment that nobody noticed, though I’m sure the video can be found, said we could go into Depression if we didn’t handle the ME carefully.

He was being honest about how we could all go back to eating grubs if the oil flow wasn’t protected.

I wish I could find that clip. It’s the most Presidential moment I’ve seen from him. He actually brought up the D word, at a time of growth, and he said it with alarm.

[Paleo Conservative]

This we know, Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. He even gassed his own Kurd and Shiite populations in the 1980s. What happened to those chemical weapons? Who knows? Whether they buried them in the ground somewhere or trucked off to Syria, we had every reason to believe he had them.

Damn! I'm suing for plagerism. I said exactly those same points on many posts on Free Republic.

[Ricebug]

My vote; F’N YES also!!

[Berlin_Freeper]

It’s half worth it.

Iran is the other half.

[Terpfen]

Bush had a similar problem with Donald Rumsfeld and generals who would not adapt to insurgents who did not wear uniforms and hid among the people. Bush finally replaced Rumsfeld and found his Generals in David Petraeus and Ray Odierno. The counterinsurgency strategy they employed made quick work of our enemies in Iraq.

Bush didn't have a problem with Rumsfeld. The Democrats did.

[highlander_UW]

Was the Iraq War Worth It?

Well, if you're a liberal, the answer is NO...no way Americans should be dying for a bunch of brown skinned people....but that's because liberals are inherently racists.

[Steel Wolf]

Was which Iraq war worth what to whom?

Which war are we talking about? The initial invasion? The early occupation? The overthrow of the Baathists? Or later, when we tried our hand at nation building, or later still when we first realized we needed to switch to counterinsurgency mode. There have been lots of little wars against AQI and JAM, Sunni extremism and Iranian influence. Some are resolved, some are ongoing. Which war do we mean?

What value are we talking about? Taxpayer dollars? Human life? U.S. prestige? All parties involved have paid a number of prices. Some of them low by historic standards, some of them high. Are we getting a good return on our investment?

Who are we talking about this value applying to? The U.S. taxpayer? The U.S. citizen, who wants to send a message the U.S. will not stand for Saddam's thuglike actions and WMD ambitions? The Soldier on his 4th rotation? The Sunni who hasn't had regular electrical power since the invasion? The Kurdish nationalist who no longer has to worry about Saddam's goons disappearing him and his family? The Shia laborer who's now free to be as fundamentalist and extreme as he wants in his religious practice, without a secular government to hold him back? The average European, who's afraid of inflamed tensions with their aggressive Muslim minorities?

The answer to 'Was Iraq worth it?' depends deeply on what you project onto the question. It's easy to argue one way or the other, for whatever result you want.

[conservativepoet]

“tolerant values toward women”...Isn’t there a better way to say this? Tolerating someone just doesn’t quite capture the magic.

[Thrownatbirth]

The author forgets the “no-pest strip” strategy which essentially depopulated Islam of its more virulent anti-US mental cases. They flocked to Iraq on Bush’s dare (Bring ‘em on!) and were slaughtered like pigs.

[Skooz]

bump

[wayoverontheright]

Wars are fought on both strategic and psychological battlefields. We were attacked on 9-11 not because of an abundance of hatred, but because of a profound lack of respect. The summary sacking of an iconic Arab head of state is the consequence that was required to restore the respect we had lost in the eyes of our enemies. So it's our willingness to attack Iraq, and our willingness to shed blood without fleeing that is the principal reason we haven't been attacked on our soil since, and singularly makes the war "worth it".

The other outcomes of the Iraq war; the installation of a functioning democracy, the freeing of 26 million from the boot heel of a murderous tyrant, and the subsequent attraction and dispatch of al-Qaida, are all wonderful developments, and will add permanence to the respect factor, but the attack itself has been under-rated in my opinion, resulting in the fact that the question "was the war worth it?" could even be asked.

[PigRigger]

It will most likely take decades to truly know.....whatever we see today, both positive and negative, will likely be dwarfed by how this war impacts the reshaping of the region.....and we will only know that outcome down the road.....

IMHO.....yes, change was needed....the status quo would have probably led to a much wider and more deadly conflict.....that still may occur....but now there is at least some hope.....based on realism....

[syriacus]

Was South Korea worth it?

30,000 US deaths in 30 months under Truman.

[Dilbert56]

Turn it around. What price would be worth it?

• Saddam and Sons dead. Their Baathist thugs gone, hiding in Syria.
• Libya surrendering its WMD programs without another shot.
• Iran surrounded by representative governments sympathetic to the West.
• Tens of thousands of terrorists dead.
• Al Qaida humiliated. Defeated in battle. Rejected by a Sunnni Muslim population.
• A democracy in the Middle East vs. a state sponsoring terrorism.
• The image of the US as a "paper tiger" after Blackhawk Down and the USS Cole erased.
• Twenty-seven million people tasting freedom after three decades of oppression.
• Democratic reforms in Kuwait and other neighboring countries.

The price is too high? Certainly to a family that's lost a loved one. So what price would make the list above palatable. Or a bargain?

[Christian4Bush]

mark

[quant5]

Yes it was worth it. Between the choice of having Al Queda have tons of resources to attack American soft targets vs. sending suicide squads into Iraq against our capable military is the only correct choice. President Bush got handed the biggest *hit sandwich since Lincoln’s day. His weakness was his own cabinet choices, specifically Colin Powell and Condi Rice. Both are liberals. You can’t polish a turd :)