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Originally posted by Shortfuse
WOW, the grammar nazis are here. But I'll work with you.
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I'm not demanding perfect or even good grammar. I do, however, ask (politely) that you please make sense when you post. I think you'd agree that it hurts the flow of the discussion. I could care less where you put your commas and semi-colons though. Totally up to you
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I was against the initial war, still am. But, I agree with you, that we can't pull out. I'm just saying we shouldn't be occupying Iraq in the first place. But we can't leave now until the mess is cleaned up.
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Excellent. I agree. We certainly went in there based on flawed intelligence which anyone will concede. Now that we're there, it's a disservice to the 1000+ men and women that have made the ultimate sacrifice. Hopefully, in the end, good will come of this. There is certainly a huge potential for good to come out of this if the planets are properly aligned.
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The football analogy wasnt' for you to compare piece by piece. Of course it's not exactly the same. But I take it that you've never coached a team nor held position in government. I've done both (Head Football coach at several MS and I was a elected Junior official in the town I went to HS) and you must realize that what you do in DC can't be done in Lexington, NC. What you do in the USA might not work in other countries.
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Your expereince as a football coach qualifies you to be an expert on the formation of democratic regimes following despotic ones? I don't believe they are going to have a USA-style democracy there at all. That was never the goal and still isn't. However, this go-round, the Iraqi people are going to be able to choose their own leaders on a regular basis. My understanding at this point is that the new government will ultimately be influenced a great deal by Islam but still consist of elected officials. Will it be a good thing for the United States? Who knows. It will certainly be of benefit to the Iraqi people though.
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As far as WMD, you can't go to WAR based on SPECULATION. Concrete proof is basically calling this report a lie. Snake, you got republicans who are not buying this. I told you my view, you're going agree with it or not. I can deal with that. My thing is basically that we can't pull out. My conscience wouldn't allow me to fully agree with leaving those Iraqis to more chaos then what they have now.
P.S. it was 20 years ago and not 30.
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As far as the election goes, this is really a non-issue since all the candidates basically voted the same way when it came to going to war. We felt our proof was fairly concrete, but in the end, it turned out to be a huge case of groupthink.
As far as when it was, does it really make a difference? Our government was dealing with Osama and Bin Ladin. Your logic was still horrible. 20 years ago is just as irrelevant today in that area as 30.
So to synthesize what's going on here:
1. We disagree over whether or not we should have gone in in the first place.
2. We agree that we should stay
3. We disagree over whether Iraq is capable of maintaining a representative government without constant US involvement.
#1 can't be resolved. #2 is resolved. #3 -- only time will tell.