Posted on 08/21/2002 4:16:24 PM PDT by ml/nj
Let me state up front: I wasn't in favor of the "Gulf War" then, and while many are talking about invading Iraq now I'm not in favor of that either. I could discuss that if anyone wants to.
But my question tonight is: What if we never went to war with Iraq? What if we just let Hussein take over Kuwait, and maybe move on to Saudi Arabia?
Would 9/11 have happened? If it would have happened anyway, would our position be stronger than it is now?
My guesses are No and Yes.
I guess No, there wouldn't have been a 9/11 attack upon the United States by Islamic Fundamentalists. Hussein strikes me as many things, but he doesn't strike me as more than conveniently Muslim. He was at war with Fundamentalist Iran, and if he moved on the Saudis, he would have been at war with Fundamentalist Saudi Arabia. Would these guys have had the luxury of turning their ire toward us? I doubt it.
But if they did, I think we would have been in a much stronger position. Either Hussein would be on our side helping to root these people out or he wouldn't. (I think he would have been.) If he would have been on our side, his people would have provided beaucoup informers and maybe even military support, but if not it would have been much easier politically to move against him now. And he would have largely been in control of Persian Gulf oil. We could have taken those oil fields from him alone with fewer naysayers in the Muslim world than we have now.
I haven't heard anyone else ask my what if question. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others.
ML/NJ
Let's start with "What if we just let King George use the colonies as his b!tch."
In the exact same form? No. If you mean a major terrorist attack on the US? Yes.
If it would have happened anyway, would our position be stronger than it is now?
No.
The policies of WJC are responsible in part for what happened on 9/11 far more directly then the Gulf War. We can speculate on whether 9/11 would have happened if “the little general” hadn't run in 1992 and GHWB had been re-elected but what would be the point?
a.cricket
...Wolverine Married She-Hulk?
My guesses are No and Yes.
I haven't heard anyone else ask my what if question. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others.
Thank you for the opportunity. I believe the only proper response is that this post is a shining jewel of colossal ignorance. It lacks not only basic common sense but wishful thinking in only the most perverted version of Pollyanna thinking.
Even Neville Chamberlain would not go so far as to advocate a foreign policy which, distilled, says nothing more than "Don't do anything or they might get really mad."
I cannot do proper justice in evaluating this post, so I will leave it to the classic film Billy Madison:
What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. . . . may God have mercy on your soul.
We let him have all of Europe in 1940 from the Atlantic to the Soviet Border. We did business with him as England fought the Battle of britain. Hitler only declared war on us because he promised the Japanese that he would. At least Neville Chamberlain had the cajones to declare war on the nazis first.
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