Iraq war officially ENDS

[Jill Monroe]

World News - 'A new chapter': US officially ends Iraq war (http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9461909-a-new-chapter-us-officially-ends-iraq-war)

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This was one of the biggest Bush blunders...EVER.

Far more harm & damage was done than good IMO. The toll on our service men & women...not to mention the economic damage to our country & apparently paying for a war is more important than taking care of domestic affairs @ home.

I'm glad it's "over" but in many ways it's not truly over.

[Caroline Forbes]

Now we get to watch all that our brave soldiers died for go up in smoke because we withdrew too early. Yay Obama.

As for the economy - what is the US' biggest industry? War. You can't have it both ways. You want to shrink the military? Realize that you're shrinking a hell of a lot of jobs with it. But when bases have to be closed, who will be blamed? Conservatives.

[Jill Monroe]

withdrawing "too early" from WHAT exactly? I hear that argument but I don't understand what it's about. we never found the perpetrators of 9/11 during this war & sadam hussein had nothing to do w/ that. getting him was subsequent event & hardly one that was expected. Iraq is hardly any better now than it was before but we've lost 4000+ men & women & helped stoke the flames of anti-american sentiment overseas w/ this ill fought war. if someone were to attack US or invade US what exactly would we do since our military is stretched so THIN & enrollment into the service is @ RECORD LOWS.

as for the industry of war? yes we know regean w/ his RUNAWAY defense spending budgets that TRIPPLED the deficit but b/c it was for defense, that's okay but then it's ALSO okay to slash DOMESTIC spending & hurt ppl who live HERE & need help HERE right?

[Screen Legend]

Now we get to watch all that our brave soldiers died for go up in smoke because we withdrew too early. Yay Obama.

Oh, it has been happening long before Obama came on the scene.

Originally, we went to war because they had reports that there were weapons of mass destruction hidden in some bunker in Iraq. Colin Powell himself was on television swearing up and down that there WMDs somewhere in Iraq. Did we ever find these so-called weapons? No. No we didn't.

[Black King]

True facts the pull out now isn't really Obama's decision. the 2012 date was set by Bush a few years ago.

[Caroline Forbes]

Iraq is hardly any better now than it was before but we've lost 4000+ men & women & helped stoke the flames of anti-american sentiment overseas w/ this ill fought war. if someone were to attack US or invade US what exactly would we do since our military is stretched so THIN & enrollment into the service is @ RECORD LOWS.

Do you HONESTLY think Iraq isn't any better than it was under Saddam. Really?

You can't have it both way there, though - do you want the US to stay out of conflict or do you want enrollment to be high?

as for the industry of war? yes we know regean w/ his RUNAWAY defense spending budgets that TRIPPLED the deficit but b/c it was for defense, that's okay but then it's ALSO okay to slash DOMESTIC spending & hurt ppl who live HERE & need help HERE right?

But slashing the military DOES hurt people who live here and need help here. Just because something takes place in Iraq doesn't mean it exists in a vacuum. There are a lot of Americans who depend on the military - not just those IN the military - for work. CUTS are CUTS. It sounds great to say you're pulling our soldiers out of other countries, but the fact of the matter is that means JOB CUTS for Americans.

I'm not saying it never should happen, but people need to realize that one thing affects another. People need to consider carefully what to cut and where to cut it from.

But pulling out completely and leaving Iraqi citizens in the lurch is going to do MUCH MORE to hurt the opinion of those people of Americans than being there does. And it leaves instability that anti-American sentiments can build upon. Isolationism is not the answer to the US' problems. We've tried that, and it doesn't work. When we look weak, that's when 9/11 happens.