Three Years

[Chillie]

Three year's since the start of the war in IRAQ, what was it all for ?

[gleeber]

In my opinion it was about security.
The world was still reeling from the effects of the attack on the twin towers. Islamic terrorism, was, and still is, a fundamental stumbling block to the security of the West and its peace loving people.
Whether Bush and Blair deliberately lied, or whether their vision was tarnished by their own delusive beliefs and greed I dont know. I do know though, that Iraq, and the Iraqi people are better off without Sadaam Hussain.
America (and the rest of the West) are trying to introduce democracy into the region for the first time. Democracy and the Holy Qoran do not mix very well.
Arabs look at the West with suspicion. They point the finger of morality at the open and secular societies we are fortunate to live in, in the West, whilst their leaders live it up good style in the parlours and casinos of our major cities.
These people are afraid of freedom and in my opinion thats because religion and the wrath of God has nailed their souls to their lead filled boots, trusting only their mullahs and their holy books to guide their way through this life into an eternity in heaven and all the perks that may bring.
This is a clash of civilisations and the war has started. Get used to it, its going to be around for a long time.

[fred]

Three year's since the start of the war in IRAQ, what was it all for ?

You've seen it in the movies often enough, the cowboys in the middle of the desert with only one flask of water between them, the spaceship with a crew of five and enough air for one, the plane crash survivors on a mountain with hardly any food, the shipwreck survivors in the lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. The good guys introduce rationing and make sacrifices, devise ingenious schemes to survive but there is always at least one who decides that they will take it all for themselves and hang the rest, usually the banker, the company executive, the indian agent, the one with the most opulent lifestyle before disaster struck.

The times they are a changing, two factors are going to shape the world in the next 30 years, one of those factors is oil and the other is climate. For the last hundred years we have pumped more and more oil from the ground and living standards and population have exploded but those days are nearly over, for the first time in history we can no longer pump oil fast enough to meet rapidly rising demands and very soon the amount of oil we can pump will start to fall. We need oil to put petrol in our cars so we can go to Wick to do the weekly shopping, wrong, we can walk to Wick if needs be we need oil to provide the food in the first place. We depend on oil to grow the food to drive tractors, make artificial fertilisers and pseticides, pump water for irrigation and then transport that food thousands of miles to the supermarket shelves.

For a hundred years we have pumped more and more poisons and greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and logic dictates that we couldn't keep doing that for ever, sooner or later you reach a tipping point, a point of no return when even if you stopped completely the world could not recover. That point is not far away, perhapse 15 years and then the climate changes rapidly, places which had water will be deserts and the crops which once grew there will no longer grow, places which were dry will be flooded, new disease which once could not survive in a place will flourish among crops and people with no resistance to them, the fish will vanish from the sea.

There is no war in Iraq, never was, what you see in Iraq is not war it is armed robbery. Who is the enamy? The Muslim terrorists? Well now over 85% of the Muslim terrorists in the world today became terrorists since and because of the invasion of Iraq and even before the missiles rained down on Baghdad it was obvious that that would happen. This isn't a war between faiths or even a war between countries this is the House of Saud and the House of Bush and all the other rich and powerfull people of the world making sure that when the crunch comes they will be the ones with food on their plates.

[MadPict]

Three year's since the start of the war in IRAQ, what was it all for ?

So that 20 billion dollars could be wasted, stolen, used as bribes, by individuals and companies. I watched a programme on Ch 4 last night about Iraq's Missing Billions, and all the empty promises made by Bush about how the Iraqi's would get better schools, hospitals etc - there is no sign of the better anything, except maybe the better lifestyles of the corrupt westerners who moved in after the war to line their own pockets........

[golach]

Three year's since the start of the war in IRAQ, what was it all for ?

Very simple a small 3 letter word is at the head of all this conflict....OIL

[badger]

There is no war in Iraq, never was, what you see in Iraq is not war it is armed robbery. Who is the enamy? The Muslim terrorists? Well now over 85% of the Muslim terrorists in the world today became terrorists since and because of the invasion of Iraq and even before the missiles rained down on Baghdad it was obvious that that would happen. This isn't a war between faiths or even a war between countries this is the House of Saud and the House of Bush and all the other rich and powerfull people of the world making sure that when the crunch comes they will be the ones with food on their plates.

If you watched Despatches this week you'll see that it certainly was about armed robbery - some people are rather belatedly investigating the level of corruption and theft that has gone on but I suspect it will be swept under the carpet. Meanwhile, thanks to Bush and Blair, what could have been a real opportunity to bring relief and help to the people of Iraq has actually left them with ill-equipped hospitals, absence of basic services (even much of what they had having been destroyed), no security and if it's not actually in a state of civil war then it's pretty close. We don't even know how many Iraqui civilians we have killed.

I fail to see how anyone can crow about the advantages of our society when you look at the mess we have made. This was a golden opportunity to show less liberal cultures what true democracy can bring and we blew it.

[canuck]

... Democracy and the Holy Qoran do not mix very well. ...

I don't think that the issue is the "Holy Qoran". I think "that which doesn't mix with democracy" is a misinterpreted, poorly exegeted, even intentionally manipulated version of the Qoran. And the same could be said of any holy book which is used out of context by people desiring to achieve selfish goals.

[weefee]

Three year's since the start of the war in IRAQ, what was it all for ?

to allow George Bush to pretend he is an action man and dress up in army fatigues?

[EDDIE]

Three year's since the start of the war in IRAQ, what was it all for ?

It was all about oil and what ever america wants to do the uk will always back them up right or wrong what ever the case may be its true what everyone says that the uk is americas poodle sad but true.

[fred]

If you watched Despatches this week you'll see that it certainly was about armed robbery - some people are rather belatedly investigating the level of corruption and theft that has gone on but I suspect it will be swept under the carpet. Meanwhile, thanks to Bush and Blair, what could have been a real opportunity to bring relief and help to the people of Iraq has actually left them with ill-equipped hospitals, absence of basic services (even much of what they had having been destroyed), no security and if it's not actually in a state of civil war then it's pretty close. We don't even know how many Iraqui civilians we have killed.

I didn't watch Despatches but I've known about the missing billions for some time. I've followed the war in Iraq since before it started and read in foreign papers, blogs and articles about a lot of things that never reach the British press. This morning I read in an article on a speech by an Iraqi pharmacist who says that even after years of sanctions before the war Iraq was 80th in a list of deaths of children under 5, now they are 36th.

The UN held a lot of Iraqs money, $22 billion I think, from siezed assets and the oil for food program. They entrusted the money to America to pay for the rebuilding of hospitals and things and the Americans gave the money away to corrupt contractors. The beauty of all this is that now Iraq has no money they have to go to the World Bank and the IMF for loans to rebuild, the Neocons got one of their top men the job of head of the World Bank and he dictates the conditions of the loans. This is what Paul Wolfowitz had to say about it.

"Mr. de Rato may want to comment more on the question about whether or not we are imposing conditions on the government in Iraq. The one issue I am most familiar with is the issue of the oil subsidy, and frankly, it is not a matter, at least from the World Bank point of view, that we are imposing conditions, but we are strongly encouraging the Iraqi Government to do something about a problem that is--nothing is free, and there are billions of dollars being wasted or worse, basically giving oil away."

He overlooked the fact that something was for nothing for American contractors and that America gave all Iraqs money away.