Thoughts on Iraq invasion before / now (respectively)?

I voted Against/For because I though it was a bad idea to begin with, and I still do. But, I know that we cannot afford to pull out. If we pull out, any measure of stability we provide is gone.

Before the war, I knew Hussein needed to be out, regardless of his link to 9/11. It should have been done a while back... I wouldn't have gone about it the way we did.

That said, I feel the same way now. Asking are you for the war now is a bit of an odd question, because were I to go back to then, I would say go to war again. However, I can only hope we would not bugger it up as much as we have this attempt. On the other side, were this outcome the only possible one, I would probably choose not to go to war.

I think it is convenient that many opponents of the war voted to go to war, and largely were responsible for us only sending the numbers that we did, since they were 'traditionally anti-war' and now they throw the administration under the bus for low-balling this effort. Certainly the administration made many (*MANY*) mistakes, but they do not hold the burden alone. Then again, I don't know why I would be surprised by two-faced politics.

Past For: Hindsight is 20/20 and we can't really judge our past decisions on information we didn't have then. At the time, it seemed a battle that could be won easily. Also at that time, I was sitting near the DMZ in Korea. Kim Jong-il and his military seemed a much more credible threat to the vicinity than Hussein's, but fighting with him was not worth the effort because pacifying him changes nothing in the region and it would be a bloody-bloody fight to make Iraq look like a skirmish. So, OIF seemed like a good idea - one of those right time, right places kind of deals that was half pre-emptive/foresight and half we've-enough-of-your-crap.

Current For: There are two reasons I am still "for" the effort. 1) While we didn't cause the religious turmoil there, we are still inextricably part of it by removing the thumb that had been holding the miscreants down. You don't break the cookie jar and just leave the mess for Mom to clean up. Especially because in this case, there is no Mom. 2) Whether or not we get our oil from Iraq, we do get oil from the Middle East and our nation is energy dependent. If we don't make some effort at making alliances in the region and guaranteeing ourselves some energy security, that oil will simply go elsewhere - to Russia, to China to India - and our nation will undoubtedly lose its industrial edge and our comfortable way of life. I suppose there is a third reason after all - 3) The GWOT. Although the mission in Iraq is becoming less and less a mission to keep terrorists occupied from striking the US. Most of the insurgents there now are more interested in just killing their opposition religious sect, gaining regional powerbase and getting us out of the country. So it's a thin #3. If we didn't have an ethical obligation to finish what we started, I would wholeheartedly support immediate withdrawal to lay the smack down on the other terrorist holes.

I'm curious about the Against/Against votes. If you think that way, what was your justification for being against the war given the intelligence available at the time and the recent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil? What would you have proposed instead?

And remember, this is what you thought then, not what you think now...

You would think that a mojority or the citizens of this country could see that this President is a total idiot and what this country has suffered because of him is a shame. You would think that the so called right wing would see that having oral sex is a far cry from maiming hundreds of our precious boys,men and women