Tech_Esq
Sic Semper Tyrannis!
There weren't any terrorists in Iraq when we invaded. Suddam's regime was an ally (before desert storm) in our efforts to subdue Middle Eastern terrorism. The reason we invaded Iraq are entirely strategic in a geo-politcal sense.
OK, now you are going too far. Iraq was NEVER an ally. We executed a very fine bit of Morganthauian Real Politick and assist (and damaged) Iraq and Iran as long as they decided to fight each other. If the Dems had kept their damned noses out of it the Gulf war prolly never would have happened. But they were never allies.
Invading Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism. And what does Sharia law have anything to do with our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq? Nothing. 9/11 Provided the Bush administration with the best reasons for pushing their geopolitcal agenda. Bush Sr. started it, Bush Jr. got to finish it.
Wrong. It had everything to do with middle east terrorism. It had nothing in particular to do with 9/11.
There is a difference. It was obvious to anyone who has watch the ME even casually for the last 30 years what would happen if there was an invasion in Iraq. The Islamists have sent "holy" warriors to Afghanistan in 1980, to Chechnya, to Bosnia and it was only predictable that AQ would try to engage the US. This gave the US the opportunity to decisively engage AQ elements and destroy them in larger formations.
What freedoms are being protected by our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq? Freedom to purchase oil at low prices? Freedom for oil companies to make record profits and receive government subsidies simultaneously? You've been ripped off. Not only are you paying for oil at the pump, but your taxes are paying the oil companies directly.
If you have a problem engaging countries in the ME over the availability of oil, then you need to take it up with your pal Jimmy Carter. It is part of the Carter Doctrine that the US views it as "in it's national interest" to maintain the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf. As for the cost of it, that argument is bullshit.
We were attacked by Islamo-fascists on 9/11. Islamo-fascists exist throughout the "Muslim world." It is the mission, the duty of the US to find, fix and destroy those enemies so they can no longer mount an effort that results in a direct attack on defenseless civilians and thousands of deaths in the homeland.
Now, Bush was a pussy. In WW II when fewer than 3,000 Americans were killed, we put 16 million men under arms. We had a total population of 175 million people. Today we have nearly twice that. We should have put 32 million men under arms and squashed the Islamo-fascists immediately and paid for it with shared sacrifice from all Americans. But, we didn't do that. We acted like pussies instead.