The proposed 2012 budget...

[NeonSamurai]

Originally Posted by August

As far as i'm concerned the decision to remove Saddam was the right one, but i'm not the one trying to make out like the Democrats were driven by fiscal concerns.

Really? I find the decision to remove Saddam highly questionable on several levels.

For example, the argument was made that he should be removed because he was a brutal dictator. The problem, though, is that the world is full of such people, and more often than not we do not get involved. So why remove this one guy in particular. We knew he was not a major threat (he did not have WMDs), and was not financing or supporting terrorist groups. The only other reason would be oil interests (and of course all those juicy government contracts).

By removing him we seriously destabilized the region, and allowed major in-roads when it comes to terrorist groups. There are also tones of other issues, and we are pretty stuck in there for a while.

So how exactly was all of this a good idea? It has (and continues to) cost us a fortune, many lost lives, screwed up the region, etc etc etc. In all likelihood in the long term the country will end up with yet another brutal dictator, probably more extreme (and anti western) then the last one.

I am increasingly coming to the opinion that west needs to stop trying to act like the world police force. It's not doing much good, not for us, and not for them either. It is however causing us a lot of problems, both internally, and a lot of hate externally.