Posted by
Modernone on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 2:25:31 PM
Life without the war in Iraq.
What a different world it would be.
Afghanistan would likely be more under control.
We would have a national debt lower by 500 billion.
The price of gas might not be quite so high.
Iran would not have its fingers in Iraq.
We would be a country with credibility stretching from Iran to China.
Our
world position might not have been so damaged so our influence in Latin
America might have been able to thwart the rise of the left.
Our military would be in a much better position to fight another war.
We would have a few more soldiers and others would have their arms and legs.
We
would have a credible leader who might have had a better shot at
reforming Social Security, Medicare, health care, education, tort
reform, balanced budgets, tax reform, etc.
We might have the respect
of Russia and China so we would could work with them to manage the
problem with Iran and other issues that surely would have arisen by now.
A
few more folks at the UN would be richer but instead we have lost
billions of dollars in Iraq that went where? Hezbollah, Iran, war
profiteers? To think that the war has stopped international corruption
is ridiculous.
Yes, Saddam may still be around. May be
contained, may be dead. Who knows. I am not sure I care given our
failure in dealing with all of the other issues we as a country face.
Would
we have been attacked again? Maybe, but it seems to me it would have
been due to our continued strength in the world. We have strengthened
the terrorists by undertaking our own destruction and they can go
elsewhere to foment terrorism and further diminish the power of the US.
I am sure they laugh when they hear that the war in Iraq has protected
the US.
Of course this is only speculation. To avoid the
downsides of not engaging Iraq and working on other problems would
require a competent leaders with a true global perspective and the
strength and smarts to successfully get something done. The hallmark of
this administration will surely be incompetence.
Lies? They are everywhere. Lets look at outcomes. Its a mess.