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Well let me try and respond in kind. Of course the stability of the Middle East is in everyone's interest, hence the support we have recieved in both wars by Gulf states. To say that the instability before was better than it is now is completely opinion based. It is natural that instability would climb before it settled, which leads me to the comments regarding WWII. You are correct, in that we had a much larger stabilizing force, and we were in a much more comfortable situation(meaning we had a more obvious enemy, a better landscape to work with, etc). However, another thing we used was extensive offensives. Now I know people against modern conservative policy hate her, but Ann Coulter had a valid point on this issue. We bombed the ever-living s*** out of Germany. If we were willing to risk the civilian casualties as we were then, we probably would be faring much better against the insurgency in Iraq. Unfortunately, we live in a time and with a generation of citizens who simply will not tolerate casualties, they simply don't have the stomach for war. Thus, we are unfortunately fighting the insurgents on their term, and although we are in some sense winning, it is extremely slow going. Regarding WMD and others banned by the UN, Iraq admitted to firing SCUDs at Israel during the first Gulf conflict. We are also all aware of his gassing of Kurds. Regarding the systematic killing of Christians, I don't know of anything that indicates he made regular practice of it. However, I do recall numerous examples of Christians being persecuted for breaking the law, although there were also several Christians killed by the insurgency, so some blurring may exist on the matter. I personally have two fraternity brothers serving in Iraq at the moment, and recently got to spend time with both of them while on leave. While they do acknowledge the chaos and the frustrations of dealing with the insurgency, they are also outraged at the media's coverage of the war. As often spoke of in alternative media, they say they are constantly being thanked by citizens, who are generally cooperative with and supportive of the United States. Thankfully, I think the media is finally extinguishing their own bias, as even CNN has recently been open about Iraqi's support for the U.S. mission. My friends who are serving generally have had a politically incorrect solution (usually entailing carpet bombing or the creation of an Iraqi sized parking lot), but they do feel their work is important. I'm sure there are those who feel otherwise, but I think the general talking point involving the low morale of the military is probably far from true.
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