Yes it happened 12 years ago and is a completely sadistic and revolting tragedy. But it's not new news, it's something that we should have done something about a long time ago. I'm not saying we forget about what happened, I'm saying we need something else to go on that has relevancy to here and now.

And when we capture saddam we should torture him worse that the italians did to mussolini. Same goes for bin laden, but most of you have forgotten about him just like the rest of america. Hopefully, we'll actually finish what we started in both cases, even if the Iraq war may have been started under false pretenses.

Chris,

The well documented chemical attack on the Kurds by the Iraqi military was in 1988, 15 years ago. It is still of extreme importance. The attack, by itself, is not an immediate threat.......

In President Clinton's speech in December 1998, the president cited the chemical attack on the Kurds among other reasons for the ordering of a renewed bombing campaign against Iraq. This was ten years after the original chemical attack on the Kurds.

President Clinton figured out the significance even though it was ten years later. He was right.

So are we going to keep using this as fuel to bomb Iraq for the next 50 years?

I don’t understand you cwilhelmi, you just said ( it's something that we should have done something about a long time ago) but yet here we are doing something about it right now, and for even more reasons then we had 10years ago, but you still want to complain about this war, i guess some people want to play around with tens of thousands of lives only to prove BUSH a republican WRONG! And for no other reason..... tell me im wrong!

65gtoman

you are wrong.

HockeyDad,
Good Response, Thanks!

One question:
Once we kill all the Iraqis who are fighting, and the fighting stops (if it ever does), then what? We say, "here is idiots guide to running a government, we're going home?" I'm sure there will be a lengthy "occupation" of Iraq where we "guide" the new Iraqi government. It still sounds like colonization to me.

What would we to have gain by just taking over their land, I mean wouldn’t Canada have more to offer us if we colonized their country? And its alot closer. How about Mexico, come on now, you don’t really think we want some 3rd world hellish country now do you? What would we ever gain? I guess we could make it a state and take our vacations over there. Ride camels into the deserts.

Chris, we don't need to bomb Iraq for the next 50 years. We already toppled the government at 15 years!

Spence28, military occupation and colonization are very different. Colonization involves people moving there permanently and setting up residence. I don't think anyone is volunteering to go. I would expect a lengthly occupation. I would expect civilian and military advisors for a long time. However, with every four years bringing the potential for a new president in the US, it is possible that a new leader could decide to bail out, leave them the "Dummies Guild to Democracy" and pull back into an isolationist shell. Maybe the threat will re-emerge, maybe not.

World War One did not have a military occupation at its conclusion and it led to World War Two. How long did the military occupation of Japan and Germany last after world War Two? We didn't colonize them during that time period. In fact, the US and European countries rushed to jettison colonies because they weren't worth the grief. Look at how many new countries came into existence in the late 1940s and how many of them are the trouble spots of the world today. Colonies haven't been in vogue for over 60 years.

HockeyDad,
Colonization doesn't necessarily mean people need to move there to set up shop, and as 65gtoman put it (in another racist rage) "Ride camels into the deserts". If we use our military occupation to our financial advantage ie/oil and other resources (maybe camels, 65gtoman), I personally see that as a type of colonization. On the other hand if this whole war is an altruistic endeavor by the Bush administration (yeah right!) then I tip my hat to him and his people, regardless of whether WMD are found.

65gtoman,
To answer all of your questions, and risk sounding much like Rick.....For oil.
Iraq has the second largest oil reserve in the world behind th Saudis....so it would be of great advantage to the US to have a friendly government in Iraq. Do you think if Bush would have been allowed to drill in Alaska this war would have been so important. Maybe this war should be titled "War against Terror-able thought that I can't put gas in my SUV for less than $2.00 a gallon"
Obviously some of my response to you has been in jest, but don't be so naive to think there isn't something in it for the US. Us give them Something (new government and "freedom" for Nothing? doesn't that go against the American way....they call it capatilism for a reason?

65gtoman - What I'm saying is there's only a finite time period with which we can justifiably react. We've already bombed them for the gassings as we've all acknowledged, so we can't use this reason every time we want to attack Iraq.

Or is it time to bomb Germany again for the holocaust, it has been a while after all, and I'm sure there's still some anti-semites there that have it coming... Maybe, we should drop some more nukes on Japan just in case they’ve been thinking of attacking us again...

I obviously don't advocate either of these, but I mention them to illustrate the fact that there is a statute of limitations of sorts regarding actions we can take, and there's also the principal of double jeopardy. We can't punish nations for their atrocities over and over and over as we see fit...

Hey Spence - What don't Canada and Mexico have the 2nd largest reserve of? I wonder why we aren't colonizing them.... 🙂

In our capitalist society of multinational corporations, how do we harvest and profit from Iraqi oil? Our multinational corporations have already been buying Iraqi oil for the last ten years for your SUVs and our corporations have been paying the same OPEC controlled price per barrel as if they bought it from any other OPEC nation. Do we think our corporations are now going to get a 50% discount from a friendly Iraqi government? If we get that mythical discount, it only benefits the multinational corporation that buys the oil and then you would have evidence of one corporation that profited from the war, but its publicly traded stock could be owned by anyone in the world, including Iraqis.

Nothing has changed in terms of Iraqi oil production, OPEC, the price of Iraqi oil, or who buys it. Try to figure out the scenario of how the US government will will turn that oil into profit for the American people and pay off the $75 billion dollar cost of the war. Until you can, "war for oil" is just a cute slogan on a sign at a peace rally. It just isn't that simple....

By the way, I don't agree that Presidents Clinton and Bush bombed Iraq over the chemical attacks on the Kurds in 1988. They just cited it in a larger list of related reasons.

Chris, let's not mention the colonization of Canada....We're trying to keep that hush hush right now. Wink Wink Nood Node say no more.

Hockeydad - LMAO!! Glad too see someone else who can have fun with this!! And remain civil...

I don't think the war was for oil, but it obviously is a huge part in what's gone, is going, and will go on in Iraq and the region in general.

As far as the gassings, since it wasn't "directly" related in any of our attacks yet, does that mean we can still bomb them for it? I always love a good bombing in the morning, really makes for a great day...

if what you say is true, why don’t i see gas prices dropping to 50cent a gal. i don’t see any tankers bringing me oil for my gto, and i guess our government telling everyone that there going to give the oil back to the Iraqi people after the war, is just one more lie.

Why would you want to live in such a suppressed country ran by the evil dictator BUSH the conqueror. Is anyone really free? I think we should all buy electric cars and move to France because they don’t start any wars EVER. I think we as a country could learn a lot from France. after all they new just how to deal with that adolf hitler.

65gtoman,
Clearly HockeyDad knows more about this issue than I will ever dream of, but before you said "and i guess our government telling everyone that there going to give the oil back to the Iraqi people after the war, is just one more lie." did you read his post? The American government isn't going to see any extra oil.

"i don’t see any tankers bringing me oil for my gto"
Have you been to the coast with your binoculars? Maybe you should go be a lookout.

"Why would you want to live in such a suppressed country ran by the evil dictator BUSH the conqueror"
Did I say any of these things? No. Did I imply them? I don't think so. The point was, there are different definitions of freedom based on who you are, where you are and what you think. Obviously you have a hard time understanding that not everyone is a hardcore right wing war veteran.

"I think we should all buy electric cars and move to France because they don’t start any wars EVER. I think we as a country could learn a lot from France. after all they new just how to deal with that adolf hitler."
I'm glad you're not in charge!!! Are one of those guys who buys "freedom frys" at Mcdonalds?

France was the only country to appease Hitler?? I forgot that one, I had always assumed that GB, the US and a host of other countries were involved as well... Silly me.

Even though I don't fully support the war for oil theory, don't forget that the Iraqi people still have to sell the oil, and this is where the "potential" benefit to the US comes into play. And this is not realizable until they have more control of the country, after all, it takes time...

By the way, Do any of you guys actually WORK? This forum is killing me!!
It's a goodie.

spence - no $hit, I've accomplished nothing today!!

what i meant to say was i don’t see any tankers from Iraq bringing oil for my gto, sure there are tankers out there now, just not from Iraq (At the present time), anyways we took the oil from the evil dictator and we are giving back to the people of Iraq.

Like I said before there’s no oil war, no power war, the U.S. of A. is out to protect all of us from the evil doers and at the same time free the people of Iraq, why is that so hard to believe? We are not an evil country, we are one of the few freedom fighting countries out there. We have always helped other countries out in times of need, for this is why we are the best country to live in the whole world.

That's rather altruistic don't you think? If nothing else it's very naive.

There are always hidden agendas and there's always something in it for us. Similar to the redistricting in Texas and the gubernatorial BS here in cali, it's not being done because it's right for the people, it's being done because it's right for people who are behind it.