I just wonder what was going through his mind?
I mean.... what the heck was going on anyway when they decided to go in??

Originally Posted by boom_er1

I may be stirring up some contoversy but, I have been wondering why we (US Military) are still in Iraq. There have been no WMDs found. There have been discussions lately that have said if we pull out basicly the country itself will implode. I am by no means an expert on the subject but I agree that we need to start bringing ALL of OUR troops home safe.



Bottom line question WHY ARE WE STILL IN IRAQ?

Just look at Exxon-Mobil's profits for your answer.

Originally Posted By Joker

´ve got this 2 weeks ago from a friend of mine in an E-Mail. He is in the Army and has 2 tours in Iraq. I didn´t know most of it.
I think its the right spot to post it.

Did you know?
I didn't know!
How could we?
Did you know
that 47 countries' have re-established their embassies in Iraq ?
Did you know
that the Iraqi government
Currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know
That 3100 schools have been renovated,
364 schools are under rehabilitation
263 new schools are now under construction;
and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq ?
Did you know
that Iraq 's higher educational structure consists
of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers,
all currently operating?
Did you know
that 25 Iraq students departed for the United State s in
January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know
that the Iraqi Navy is operational?
They have 5 - 100-foot patrol craft,34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.
Did you know
that Iraq ' s Air Force consists of three operational squadrons,
Which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft
(under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night,
and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?
Did you know
that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know
that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000
fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know
that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq
that produce over 3500 new officers every 8 weeks?
Did you know
there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq ?
They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals,
83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know
that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know
that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know
that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know
that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know
that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know
that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a
televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW!
WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?
BECAUSE OUR MEDIA WON'T TELL US!

All very good.
And if the invasion had happened on those grounds a very worthy cause.
But it didn´t, did it?

Fact:
The invasion was planned and executed on the wrongful assumption that Iraq had WMD,s, no WMD,s have been located.

Nowhere PRIOR to the invasion was it said that it(the invasion) was to rid a country of a regime and to free a people of dictatorship.
No one mentioned a connection between AQ and Iraq as a motivation PRIOR to the invasion. (We now know there where none but are now since AQ declared Jihad and started sending fighters into that very unstable inviroment).


My point being.
Sure alot of good things have been done in Iraq, and maybe I had supported the invasion to reach those goals alone.
The number of troops were enough to invade and win the ground war (ie: convetional war), but nowhere near enough to keep order in the aftermath.

Fact still remains.
The invasion was to rid Iraq of WMD,s.
Had it been to root out the leadership and build a nation it was done with to few troops.
The troops worked wonders in what they knew.
Close with and destroy the enemy with superior firepower.
But no lessons from former peacekeeping/peaceenforcing missions were drawn and/or the number of troops were too small to keep the place together after the initial invasion were done.

In the case of the WMD,s and the "clear and present danger" Iraq was to the world around it it was all bollocks.
Even IF you take into account the theory of Iraq shipping their WMD,s off to Iran before the invasion Iraq didn´t pose much of a threat to anyone.

These are my two cents.

And my original question haven´t been answered really.
Why not give the troops a chance to do Afghanistan right before shifting focus?

Right.
But NOW, there's a reason to fight. It's a pretty poor excuse and it seems like a case of a damned if you do, even more damned if you don't.

well said...(sir :P)

I still believe the premises behind the invasion were faulty. the CIA was given an investigation to a possible link between AQ and Iraq, and they turned up nothing. Absolutely nothing. So Rumsfeld went to the Pentagon, and created his on Intel Agency. Which was made up of amateurs who made mistakes. And then, under pressure from Rumsfeld, the CIA "found" information that Iraq was trying to buy Yellowcake, another faulty lead. Iraq hadn't had the ability to do anything Nuclear since Israel blew everything up in the 1990s.

The original plan was to send in this guy (can't recall his name off hand), and he would run the country much in the way Saddam had, but without the torture. This person supposedly had influence in Iraq. However, when he arrived, no one knew who he was. Exit strategy foiled.

What shouldn't have been done was disband the Iraqi army. The "new" army is pretty much the same personnel, only now they're angry at the US for firing them and leaving them Jobless in a country with no government for 6 months.

What should be done? It depends on who we want to protect. If we want to protect Saudi Arabia, stay. the US army is the border between Iran and S.A. at this point, and if we want to protect our interests in the latter, we need to keep those two apart. If we want to protect Israel, do whatever you want. Iraq's a mess, if Iran moves in they get virtually nothing. And Israel can still overpower them.

My idea is two new countries and one annex. Give the Shiite portion of Iraq to Iran. That will make them happier, certainly, and maybe send Jimmy Carter over there to talk to them (hey, it worked with Hamas). Secondly, Create Kurdistan. The Kurds want their own country, give it to them. Blow up whoever tries to invade. End of story. Third, create a new Iraq in the remaining portion, and give them the option to sink into one of the neighboring countries. The three groups are almost completely seperated as it is. They don't see themselves as Iraqis, they see themselves as Sunnis, or Shiites, or Kurds. Create a three-leader Baghdad or something.

Then leave.

You are asking the wrong question. The question is not "Did you know", its "Why should you care"? Last I checked we had our own problems with schools, employment, crime, infrustructure, etc.
This sounds like Nation Building doesn't it??? I thought Bush was absolutely against that?


The stuff of FULLMETALJACKET mentions is nice but it isn't the reason we are there. There is much worse stuff going on in Somalia and Zimbabwe. Why not build schools, train police there?

The answer is simple:

They don't have any OIL!!!

No offense intended to ya'all, but it sounds like we are still trying to justify the reason as to why we are there, -other than the real reason which is OIL. And that doesn't get mentioned in the media either.

If there is any real doubts on this last year Exxon alone posted a $40.6 Billion Dollar profit the largest of any US Firm. That $40.6 Billion is our money just like the $600 Billion spent on this disaster is coming out of our pockets. And here's the real question. For all this money spent on others, what exactly is our end of it, what do WE (The US taxpayer) gain? (aside from the bill for this catastophe).

UPDATE

I just heard the news as I finished this, Oil is rapidly up AGAIN.

True...

I wish my freaking overcrowded school had enough support to build a new one. But because the Educational system is strapped, as are most middle-class Americans at this point, the only way to get a good education is to get rich.

Well if the damn enviromentalists would let us drill on our own land, we wouldn't be having this problem.