[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chazmo
[B]
I appreciate this post, tritium, but I think you should know how shitty I feel about our escapades in Iraq.

I'm smarting from being lied to by my government.

 

I'm not sure I should go down this rathole tonight, but here it is...

I was a staunch supporter of our Iraq invasion. You guys might remember the discussions we had back then. I had no compunctions whatsoever.

But, it was bullshit. We sent our troops into harm's way for bullshit. And, frankly, I'm convinced that it wasn't just "bad information" that made our leaders take this path. I believe there was another agenda which we are not privy to. And, damnit, I'm a citizen of these United States. My tax dollars fund this government.

It makes me sick.

I joined the US military as a teenager because of my belief in my country's candor and good intentions. I have never wavered from that fundamental belief.

I think it's all bullshit now. Whether it's oil, whatever... I've lost my faith.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chazmo
[B]And, frankly, I'm convinced that it wasn't just "bad information" that made our leaders take this path.

 

Well, that may ultimately be what happens, James.

Honestly, I didn't care whether Iraq could deploy the weapons against the west, James. The point was that we didn't want a madman to have these weapons at all.

The US and UK governments used fear to justify invasion. Bush explicitly told us what the reasons for the invasion were. Lies, James. That's what kills me.

Now, if they'd come out and said "this guy's a horror and needs to be taken out" that would've been a weaker argument but defensible.

Anyway, I'm sorry for ranting. Enough on this. It really sucks to have your faith shaken. And, I'm not a religious man.... I'm talking about faith in my own "people"

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Chazmo
[B]Well, that may ultimately be what happens, James.

Honestly, I didn't care whether Iraq could deploy the weapons against the west, James.

 

I remember that with Heathrow, James...

Another thing that chaps my ass is that 9/11 was the trigger to all this. A horrible event that haunts me incessantly to this day. We went into Afghanistan, and I felt totally justified. The links were there to Al Qaeda... Everything was seemingly above-board.

Then, parallels were drawn toward Iraq.

FOUL!

 

One of the things that irks me, is the way they move on from one thing to the next, not delivering what they promised from the first, but sending up a smoke screen to distract the attention.

Once finding Sadam himself seems too tough, I can see them moving on to the next dictator, showing the world how bad things are there and taking all of the attention away from Iraq, which will be left to spiral down again while the western giants take their profits from the oil industry there .....

 

I'm not going to add more other than to say that I agree with the two of you regarding the war, and the way things are going now.

Right now what scares me most is that we seem to be the minority here...

 

Thanks, Jack. Nice to hear from you, dude.

:misery loves company:

 

Glad to see that we are not alone

And glad to see that someone else is prepared to admit to not being in the majority way of thinking