Republicans - Do you believe going into Iraq was still a good idea ?
953115
Yes.  The invasion was the right thing, done for the right reasons.  \n\n1.  As reported by the BBC, CNN, and the NYTimes, there was certainly 600 metric tons of unenriched uranium, along with 1.5 tons of enriched uranium, in a country that had no nuclear reactors.  And, the Brits ruled that the assertion of Saddam still trying to buy uranium after the 1992 cease-fire (around 1999) was indeed accurate.  The US Congress had the same findings.  \n\n2.  Saddam had thrown out the weapons inspectors, and in fact threated to use chemical and nuclear weapons until he was deposed from power.  Every intelligence service in the world thought he had at least chemical weapons, and they knew about the uranium.  So, the lack of ready-to-use WMDs is an understandable mistake.  Bill Clinton argued that there were WMDs when he was President.\n\n3.  There was certainly a death toll before the invasion.  As you might recall (probably not, but we'll play along), this started when Saddam invaded Iran in the 1980's.  To pay for that war, he invaded Kuwait.  After he was kicked out of Kuwait, a state of war (a la Korea) still existed in the area, and shooting happened almost every day.  Bill Clinton and Bush '41 regularly launched attacks against Iraq.  \n\nIn retaliation, Saddam killed around 100,000 of his people in order to stay in power, and in an attempt to convince the world that the embargo was starving children.  \n\n4.  The invasion certainly prevented a situation like Korea, where we've been at war for 50 years, a full army camped on both sides of the DMZ.  \n\nHOWEVER...\n\nHistory will judge Bush harshly for his conduct of the occupation.  No one in the Bush administration seemed to understand Iraq, or had any plans for the occupation.  Notable among the mistakes:\n\n- not having enough troops in place behind the invasion force to keep the peace\n\n- Disbanding the Iraqi army, then having to start a new Iraqi army from scratch.\n\n- Firing most of the bureaucracy of the government, at a time when most of the government buildings were in ruins, insuring that there would be no government institutions in place to run the country.\n\n\nIs that honest enough?
791119
I don't think we ever got off of Iraq.  With 105 Americans killed in Iraq last month, how could anyone get off that topic.  Bush assured us we will be talking about Iraq for the next two years, when he announced that Rumsfeld we be there as long as he is president, and he still relies on Cheney for his advice on Iraq.  Sounds like "stay the course" to me.
573756
That depends on the resolution.  If we pull out and Iraq has a civil war, then no.  If Congress finally sends the necessary number of troops to secure the country for the 75 years - YES I REALLY DO BELIEVE THAT'S HOW LONG IT WILL BE - then very eventually, it will be worth it.
1107180
Absolutely YES. I come from a Republican Family and I am at odds with many. They put "Being a Republican" ahead of logical thinking. How can a thinking person support George Bush. I am a Republican but this man is a walking disaster. He has done ,NOT one thing to improve this country. I think it is all to make his daddy richer and happier. Iraq was and is a disaster. The man lied and keeps on lying about the war. The man on the street knows better how the war is going. Enlisted people are going to jail because they are being held responsible for what officers told them to do and then denied giving the orders.Any one who has been in combat knows that enlisted men and women do only what they are told. The marines involved in the killing of civilians were told by HIGH UP the chain of command to do whatever they did. Officers will not be sacrificed. Enlisted "Grunts " will. My family believes the propaganda from the White House- I do not.
763797
Republicans have a real problem here - they can't afford to let Kerry run his mouth uncontested, but they are skating on thin ice concerning Iraq with the nearing election. I would not want to be in a position trying to justify our being there (even though I feel that we need to stay at this point). Politicians are just slinging mud - when the overspray of mud hit the voters in the eye, the election can be affected drastically. Republicans need to be mindful of the shaky ground that they are on and proceed cautiously.
893793
If you believe Bush, which I don't, we won the same year we started.  What's going on now is peace and nation building.  What happened in Nam, and I was on active duty during the last three years, I retired at 20 years after Desert Storm, was that the Republicans, Nixon and Ford, caved as a result of public pressure and discontent with the body count.  Since Bush dodged service, I think has no understanding of that, and has set us up for the same result.  I will point out that our troops have done a lot of good for the Iraqis, I think our service people are the best of our best, my own daughter and her husband are on active duty.  Yes, I think a lot of us know the invasion was a mistake, I said so from day one, right now the question is how to fix it, and that is not something we will be able to do in a hurry.  Sad, but fact of life.
802232
of course they would blame the republicans.  Also the reason why Iraq is such a failure is because republicans worry too much about what the democrats think.  We should have just gone in there done what needed to be done with no restrictions and that would have been it.
467063
Can we send them by bus? I think sending a few conservatives by bus to Iraq is a good idea.
957442
Listen, I don’t think going into Iraq was are best decision, but its too late to complain. We got ourselves into this mess so now we must finish it. If we leave now it will lead into a catastrophic war resulting in millions of lives being lost, it is 1938 all over again. President Ahmadinejad is Hitler. \nLet me explain:\nWe attacked Iraq, not because of terrorism or 9/11 but for oil and to establish a democracy in the middle east or is it because they’re “Muslims and we’re Christians” but lets not go there.(Remember, Christians and Muslims have been fighting since the birth of religion) Because of our attack terrorism has increased five folds since 9/11, so obviously we’re not over there to stop terrorism. Saddam was the key to keeping Iran in check, he was a counterweight to the Iranians. They balanced each other out. When Saddam was captured the Iranians began to see the situation as a opportunity for them to gain power. Syria joined in. Now think about it, Iran at this very moment are acquiring nuclear weapons (Russia is supplying them). Iran and Syria(Egypt is involved as well) have this great plan. They believe that anyone who isn’t Muslim must die. In fact, Ahmadinejad recently wrote a letter to Bush warning us of this. They are threatening us with nukes and we must not stand for this. \nIm getting tired of writing so im going to sum it up. If we pull out, Iran and other terrorist groups will look down on us. They will have no respect for us and it will encourage them. They will begin with taking back Iraq and soon move all over the middle east, they will wipe out Israel and then aim for the rest of the world. There wont be anyone in the middle east to stop them, as of now we are the only ones holding them down. If we leave it will make it a lot easier for them to obtain nuclear weapons and will lead to the end of the world as we know it; they will succeed and millions will die. For us its not just about staying in Iraq, we must take action. We must attack Iran, Syria, and get a hold on Russia. If we attack Iran about 50,000 of our solders will die and ill be happy to be one of them. If we don’t attack, millions will die, take your pick.  \n\nI have a lot more to say but im tired, its late, and i type ever slow so I wanted to be quick about it, email me if u want to know anything.
741017
David,\nWanting the troops to come home is good thing.  Wanting them to come home before they have chance to finish a job that they have been given is not so good.  I hate to say it, but there is a mess over there now and to fix it is going to take a lot more troops.\n\nI don't like being away from my family.  But the job needs to be done and it needs to be done right.  I believe in doing something right the first time because you may not get a second chance.\n\nIf we were to bring all the troops home now there would be a lot more trouble and a lot more innocent people killed.  I don't believe that I will be going over there for the third time because of patriotism and freedom of Americans.  I do it to protect my fellow service members and those innocent Iraqi's that as of yet can't defend themselves.\n\nI hope this helps.
957670
it seems those who actually think so are mostly the republicans who are on a different page politically...they're attempts to pounce on kerry's badly worded barb agains bush didnt do anything to stem the democratic victory wave....kerry's misfortune is in his timing since most americans were still strongly supporting bush's effort in iraq in 2004 as opposed to the current situation.....
843632
I heard all the talk, they try to make you feel that you are a rat jumping from a sinking ship. At least the Democrats want to set a timetable to get out of Iraq. I feel this is a good idea. One it would force the new leader in Iraq to get his police force in line.
53241
Here we go, rualive84 =)\n\nParty affiliation: I vote the person, not the party.  Registered as an undecided.\n\nIn my humble opinion, I find that it is unfair for anyone to judge what they, themselves haven't done.  I would never want to be President.  I would never want to be exposed to sensitive information and have to make educated, long lasting decisions that place many person's lives at risk.  I will say this, however, today people certainly have ample reason to be pessimistic about Iraq, but they also need to understand the long-term positive consequences it could have on Middle Eastern reform. Although it's not possible to achieve consensus on whether we should have gone to war, there should be agreement about what's now at stake. \n\nUltimately, the United States' failure in Iraq is not good for anyone. It is not good for the Iraqi people. It doesn't help the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace. It won't help achieve better human rights in countries such as Saudi Arabia or Egypt. It won't stop Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons. And, of course, it won't give our troops the 'mission accomplished' homecoming they deserve.\n\nI have many friends in Iraq and they need support.  They don't all believe in the publicized reasons for going to war, but they are all better than we are because they follow the path of freedom and righteousness.  The Iraqi people deserve to be free.\n\n((As far as being judged by God.  Well, I don't really think that was your question, but I do know that it is not our right to speak for Him.  He will judge us all in His own way.))
1183877
That's a pretty big assumption you have there erudite... It is my opinion that the USA IS NOT going to leave Iraq in shame, as long as the democrats don't get their way.  I am in no way a republican, but I recognize the folly of leaving Iraq before they have a stable government that is able to police itself, and I think most of those who make the decisions do too.  I don't like Bush at all, I think he is a babbling monkey puppet, but I applaud his steadfastness to stay there despite all the criticism and low poll ratings he has recieved.
711923
Very badly I'm sad to say.  We should have known this,  and no doubt Bush was told of this possibility by his military.  I don't believe it is republican pride so much as from everyone's being deliberately lied to about why we should  have been there in the first place.  We should have gone to Afghanistan to get Osama, whatever happened to him?  He's probably  sitting in a Paris cafe drinking coffee and reading about Iraq in the paper.  Iraq was a deception perpetrated on the public,taking advantage of the patriotism of the American people.  The shame is that it looks like Iraq will never improve, only serving those who are pro fitting from it, while our troops get wounded and die, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis perish.
421943
Nice question, "actions speak louder than words".\n\nSgtK, I thank all Armed forces personnel for their service to OUR country, Iraq like Vietnam was the WRONG call, I blame our flawed leadership for this decision. My FREEDOM to post my opinion without repercussion is what is also great about OUR country. I'm concerned about the amount of hysteria in the republican party which translates into paranoia and if one disagrees with the current administrations ideology, one is deemed as Un-American or a traitor. You do agree with my assessment about hysteria in the republican party don't you? Sorry to drift from the question at hand.
986544
He is absolutely right.  If there was a draft we would never have been in Iraq.  There is not a politico in Washington that would have sent their son(s) into that mess.  Not to mention Bush would have had second thoughts to sending his precious twins over.\n\nAs an example: How many politicians sons are in Iraq now?  The answer is very few.  And every one is in a noncombat position.  Nice and safe from the real mess over there.\n\nA mandatory draft is the only way to prevent this sort of mess.  It makes politicians think about things before putting their own kids in harms way.  \n\nI do believe we would still be in Afghanistan though, because we were viciously attacked before hand.   That war is justified even in the eyes of Muslims, as a defensive war.  Iraq is a Crime Against Humanity, it is and will be known as a aggressive war (unattacked or unprovoked.)