Was Bush justified in sending troops into Iraq....and was this war more, less or equally as justified as the Gulf War?

Bush sent the troops over with the approval of both parties and the country at the time. Hindsight is 20/20 but at the time, I think everyone agreed that it was the right decision and I don't believe that hillbilly was smart enough to pull one over on the entire country. Maybe in hindsight one could argue that it was wrong, but clearly a lot less people thought that at the time, which is what matters.

Marc™ wrote:

Was Bush justified in sending troops into Iraq....and was this war more, less or equally as justified as the Gulf War?

No and less.

Well not everyone, but let's face it, we could have enemies invading the country and shooting women and children in the streets and not everyone would support police action to stop them. By and large, the country was behind dubya back then, Democrats included. We're still in war and nobody talks about it. 20/20 hindsight I always say. Bush did this; he should've done that. It's easy to say now.

Side note: For somebody who hates me, you read my posts a lot. xD

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

... Bush did this; he should've done that. It's easy to say now.

It was easy to say in March of 2003. It was not necessary to drag us into an unnecessary war with Iraq while we were committed to fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan (also an unwinnable situation but necessary after 9-11 and harboring Al Queda).

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

Side note: For somebody who hates me, you read my posts a lot. xD

There you go again, making totally unsupported statements as if they were credible. How did you come up that I hate you? I am frustrated by your lack of debating skills, by your pulling ideas out of thin air with no substantiation. Yes this is irritating and I will confront you on it, but how did you deduce I would hate you?

I still don't get the purpose of that futile seven year war that only just ended a few months ago. Wait a second, yes I do. It was a ploy by the Bush administration to divert attention away from their failing miserably with the War in Afghanistan, in an attempt to get a second term.

I don't know how fairly I can comment on this because I'm Canadian, so Canada's role is mainly in Afghanistan and it's a very different role. I think Bush needed a new enemy because he had failed to get Bin Ladin. A few years back, I saw a documentary filmed by a Canadian journalist who'd lived with an Iraqi family for several weeks. It was a very powerful portrayal of an ordinary Iraqi family caught up in the war.

Embedded in Baghdad

Agree with Impact and TSJ4Ever. The Bush administration couldn't find Al-Qaeda on a treasure map. The Iraq war was a transparent diversionary tactic, and I find it astonishing that they kept this forgettable conflict about nothing going for nearly a decade.

This is something I remind people a lot of. I was never a fan of Bush but I have to make sure that people don't forget that EVERYONE wanted to war. Americans are easily lead. After 9/11 Americans wanted blood and didn't care who's blood it was just as long as there was blood. Add to that that this was the first time in modern US history that we were going to war and it was not being paid for. In fact taxes went down since the the war in Iraq. Add so few Americans have ever served or know anyone who has served.

1 - I don't have to fight)
2 - I don't have to pay for it
3 - THEY attacked up (eventhough THEY did not attack us..and had nothing to do with who did)

I'm tired of this jilted lover relationship the Bush family has with Iraq that keeps resulting in this pointless wars with the middle east. "Weapons of mass destruction", my ass!!! Any war IMO is a pointless one IF the U.S. isn't being directly threatened.

Impact wrote:

I still don't get the purpose of that futile seven year war that only just ended a few months ago. Wait a second, yes I do. It was a ploy by the Bush administration to divert attention away from their failing miserably with the War in Afghanistan, in an attempt to get a second term.

I remember when Bush Jr. declared war on Iraq mt first thought was "He's trying to finish his Daddy's war". I remember when Bush Sr. declared war. I was so scared. I was a kid back then and all I could think about was WWI and WWII and thinking we were headed for WWIII. I was so worried my Dad would go off to fight, like so many fathers did in the World Wars. My Dad's not even a soldier, but I was thinking about history. My parents handled our fears really well, though. and explained as much as they could, but I still remember the sight of that headline on the cover of our provincial news paper. I'd never seen such a huge headline - just one word - WAR - and it too up most of the page. I think Bush Jr. wanted a chance to finish Daddy's war and was looking for any excuse he could.

TSJFan4Ever wrote:

I think Bush Jr. wanted a chance to finish Daddy's war and was looking for any excuse he could.

I agree & also believe he wanted to even the score with the man who tried to kill his "daddy".