grania, you and I will differ on this.
What we did was right, and I am proud of the performance and behavior of our military forces in that theater.
We had 2000 Americans murdered in cold blood in the space of several hours on 9/11, and Iraq was one of the countries that harbored terrorists KNOWN to have murdered Americans and was giving money to terrorists to murder people. The world changed after 9/11.
We had every right to, and could have gone in and flattened the place like the Soviets would have, but we aren’t the Soviets.
We gave them every chance with blood and treasure to create a better government that would have served our national interests and safety, and the fact that it didn’t work out and we got no thanks for it doesn’t make it wrong.
How many attacks did we have on American soil while we were taking the fight to them in Iraq and Afghanistan up until Obama took office? We didn’t have any that I recall. Instead of letting them sit on their asses over there and cook up schemes to come over here and murder us, we took the fight to them and made them spend all their time fearing for their lives and hiding in holes.
On top of that, I am firmly convinced that Iraq was behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building. And they violated the surrender terms of the first Gulf War every single day and targeted and shot at our aircraft.
Iraq had it coming, and justifiably so. Again, this isn’t a rebuke of you, grania. This is how I feel about it.
Saudi Arabia is the home of a lot of terrorists. Yet they're our ally. That's uncomfortable. Israel and Saudi Arabia don't seem content with their borders. With a partition of Iraq, it would be a nice start to a homeland for Kurds. Their land was erased by mapmakers at about the same time Saudi Arabia was invented. How do we even begin to forgive ourselves for being involved in regime change in Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Kiev, Syria? Can we really blame Iran for not trusting the US? They haven't been the source of terrorism on US soil. It's hard to blame them for attacking our soldiers and allies the soil of their allies. And why the heck are we still in Afghanistan? I know the arguments, but the fact is that our presence hasn't made the Afghanistan safer.
I'm a member of the branch of Conservatives that feels that it's our borders and invaders in our country that we should be worrying about. I'm all for mutual respect among nations and religions.