Alan said: "Yak, I hope you're right. And whilst I accept that the vast majority of armed forces have acted in good faith, for the betterment of the Iraqi people, in terms of the war on terror I believe America and its allies are worse off than before Iraq."
I agree Iraq is a schemozzle for a number of reasons, not the least being the US's apparent lack of a plan POST-Saddam and their knock'emdown approach. But consider this.
. look at the big picture. Assuming Iraq doesn't fall into anarchy or [worse] become an Iranian sponsored Shia state, will the average Iraqi be better off in 5/10/20/30 years then he/she would have been had the status quo remained? Today is only one year post war. Germany was a mess in 1946; Japan an even bigger mess. . the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns have had some positive effects. Libya has rolled over; North Korea about to do the seem it would appear. Pakistan is "compliant" at the moment and countries that might otherwise sponsor Islamo-Fascism are "on notice". That was one of the objectives of the US strategy. . if the US had done nothing about Iraq and left it under Saddam's control, then with the benefit of hindsight it may well be a benign factor right now. . whether or not the West is worse off BECAUSE of the Iraq invasion is problematic. We are dealing with an extremist version of Islamic fundamentalism which has its source in Saudi Wahabi teachings. The reason why they bomb the Saudis, Turks, Iraqis and other Muslims as well as us is because their objectives are quite sophisticated and complex. Yes, they hate the West with a passion but they also detest Islamic/Arab countries that pose a threat to their fascist beliefs. They are driven by an ideolgy we do not, and cannot understand. Whereas even loopy dictators like the North Korean President or Gadaffi can be "leaned on" and pressured to conform to civilised norms, these fanatics cannot. There is absolutely no prospect of compromise with the likes of AlQueda. There objective is a religious based ideology that permits no flexibility. They intend to convert all Arab countries to their perverted form of Islam, force all Infidels from their Holy Lands, destroy Israel and kill as many Infidels as they can in the interim. History shows with great clarity that evil on an international scale cannot be avoided. Sooner or later, one is compelled to fight it. The sooner the better. In this case, it makes no sense for the West to be reactive and just respond to random acts of terror. The trauma would destroy the social fabric of the West. In dealing with a threat like this the only option is to seek it out and destroy it - ruthlessly and aggressively. Had the US not invaded Iraq there is every likelihood we would be in at least as much as, if not more peril, than we are now. AlQueda isn't reacting to Iraq. Their intentions - as stated by bin Laden on a number of occasions - are as stated above. Those who believe we have "provoked" AlQueda have a poor grasp of current affairs. They cannot be provoked. They will do as they will do, regardless. Our only option is to cut their head off - literally. To do so requires courage and will.
AlQueda is a much bigger threat to moderate Islam than it is to the West. We are fighting their war for thembecause they lack the courage and the will.
Let me ask this rhetorically - if US marines were to hole up and capture bin Laden tomorrow would anyone begrudge them kneeling him down and putting a bullet between his eyes. I think not, despite what the anti-US brigade might say.
