Thread: War in Iraq? your views

So I was thinking earlier about the war in Iraq and decided to make a topic about it.

This is NOT a debate thread, its merely to hear, or I should say see the different points of views from people all around the world on the War in Iraq.
So this means there will be NO:
- debating
- flaming
- rude comments on someones views.

If you don't know much about this war then read: Iraq War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please state what country you are from, so we can see where you reside from, and
where around the world these views are coming from.

To start it of, I'd like to add some facts about the Iraq war:



- The Iraq War that began on March 20, 2003 is also known as the Second Gulf War. Today, Iraq is occupied by multinational forces for more than six years.

- Spent & Approved War-Spending - About $800 billion of US taxpayers' funds spent or approved for spending through mid-2009, including $76 billion requested by President Obama and approved by Congress.

- U.S. Monthly Spending in Iraq - $12 billion in 2008

- U.S. Spending per Second - $5,000 in 2008 (per Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on May 5, 2008)

- Number of major U.S. bases in Iraq - 75

- As of Monday, Sept. 21, 2009, at least 4,345 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003

- The number of Iraq citizens killed since the beginning of the war ranges between 850,000 and one million civilians.

Iraq Body Count A website that keeps track of every single death happening in Iraq, from citizens, to soldiers, to reporters etc.

Now onto my views (USA):
Now we all know that the war was supposedly caused by "911" which is a load of crap, I believe it was caused by the United States government. First when the 911 towers were hit, it was obvious that the people of America wanted retaliation, so that's what happened. Usually a government forms a plan before doing this, which they did. Earlier with the UN (European Union), UN was sent in to find these weapons of mass destruction, after a while none were found, So Bush took it into his own hands when the 911 towers were hit, the invasion of Iraq was followed by the support of England.

As of now, there has been no evidence of any major weapons of mass destruction. You know why? Oil, I believe this was the big plan from the beginning. Maybe I would sort of understand if they were gaining more money from oil then they were spending, but this is not the case. All President Bush saw in going to war with Iraq was the precious commodity of oil, which equals money.

Now why is America still in Iraq?
America is in the war and that cannot be changed, Think of it as when you are about to go sky diving, two seconds after you jumped out of the plane, you realize you made a mistake, but you cannot reverse this, will have to set till everything settles and you land?

What bothers me most about this topic is that I had a friend that Died in 2005 in the war in Iraq, at the age of 20, almost 60% of the deaths from soldiers are under 25, with family's always worried about them, praying for them, hoping they will come safely back home, which isn't always the case...

As of now, six years after the Iraq invasion, Obama declares that 50,000 thousand troops will stay in Iraq until 2011, which means between 92,000 and 107,000 thousand troops are to return back home by August of next year, which of course is good news.
Of the 142,000 US troops in Iraq, between 92,000 and 107,000 are to leave by August next year, what these 50,000 thousand soldiers are staying for has not been announced yet.

Although this is good news, Obama is focusing his war again Afghanistan next, which I don't know much about since I just read about it.

Afghanistan next

Many of the troops in Iraq are to be re-deployed to Afghanistan. The US has 36,000 troops in Afghanistan but the situation is deteriorating fast, with the Taliban gaining control over large swathes of territory.
In anticipation of more violence with the arrival of spring, Obama this month despatched 17,000 more troops, and is expected to send the same number again later this year. Marines, who regard themselves as purely combat units, had been pushing for transfer from Iraq to Afghanistan.
Obama wants other Nato countries to take a bigger share. If they don't more US troops could be Afghanistan-bound.

I thought a lot about this topic, so some small

views please would be appreciated as I would like

to see the different views around the world about

this current event, I apologize for the length of my

thread, just something that interests me!

This is NOT a debate thread, its merely to hear, or I should say see the different points of views from people all around the world on the War in Iraq.
So this means there will be NO:
- debating
- flaming
- rude comments on someones views.

************************************

While I agree with the flaming and rude comments part, if there is to be no debating how can there be discussion? People presenting differing points of view and their reasons why is typically called a debate or discussion, correct?

Furthermore I don't think a political thread of this nature belongs at T-I. We are a global community and thus far we've managed to preserve our international flavor by avoiding inflammatory political topics such as this. There was even a recent thread discussing whether or not we needed a political sub-forum here. What about a Political and Social Sub-Forum

Lets keep this junk outa here man. There's so many places on the net for this stuff. Even with the 911 topic in the sticky, I plan on staying well clear of. One of the main reasons I wanted to join this forum was to escape the rest of all madness and tension from other forums, and a place to just chill with like minded people who share a passion for torrenting as much as I, but it appears this forum is wanting to became like every other. It doesn't matter what rules or conditions you put up front for topics like this, it'll still cause anger and tension amongst members, and members who may have once been friends here prior.

That's the reason why I said no debating, because of flaming...Just wanted to see the different views people had, not arguments, will close it then?...
Thanks anyways for the "views"

I'm for the war in Iraq to an extent.

Iraq has had major political issue's for years with Sadam obviously and when he was removed it was always going to be messy afterwards.

I believe that Australian and American troops were necessary but i believe that we should be putting trust in the new political system in Iraq and withdrawing out troops (i believe this is happening?)

I think Afghanistan is the next country that needs to be helped - I have a friend in the Australian Army who is over their he has told me many times that so many locals want help but are just ruled by the "taliban" and other terrorist organisations.

Whilst i believe we do need to help them see clearly and not be mis-guided by the "Islam" way, which if you actually knew anything about it is not to attack westerners it's just the terrorists twisted mind. I just can't see anyone coming out as a "Victor" in this war..

War is war - no-one wins.

Some members have asked if this thread is okay. For the moment, I have to say yes. There is no rules on the books to say otherwise. This is general discussion and if you want to discuss your political views, there is no problem with that. However, if this thread gets out of control it *will* be closed, so please try your best to remain calm and level headed. Keep it fun, people. =)

Being a libertarian, I tend to lend towards the "we are not the world's police" opinion, meaning, we should pull out of Iraq.

Big mistake for the U.S. to get into it in the first place....I understood Afgahnistan....but Iraq was definately over oil and a chip on the shoulder of Daddy Bush's. Probably a good part of the reason why we are having a world recession at this time.