I hate that we screwed up the Middle East. Terrible politics and waste of life.
But Syria and Yemen are humanitarian disasters.
Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanastan and Libya are cess pits.
In some cases the best thing might be to do nothing in others I think we have a moral obligation to do something given the damage we did. I don’t want more wars but those countries have a long way to go in reaching stability.
#wwg1wga brother!
Place was screwed up long before “we” got involved.
Suppose it depends on your belief regarding democracy.
Howard got voted in to make decision to govern us and that includes foreign policy. I didnt vote for him, so anything decision he made was not one I usually agreed with, but he was given the power by the people to get us into this conflict.
Yeah, probably another gross over-reaction on my part
In what ways was it screwed up?
Thanks bro.
Lebanon turned to dust, Iran/Iraq war, Gaddafi, Saddam. Assad. Egypt basically under a dictator, constant wars, Israel in the midst.
Place was a mess, we just made it worse, but it was already a mess.
Started when the Romans invaded, actually probably before with the Egyptians, and continued from then. Never been really a peaceful place.
Sorry i thought the “before we were there” was pre ottoman caliphate days.
Assyrians (Greeks), Babylonians, Egyptians (before and after Greeks took over).
Yep and there was the Crusades !
Nelson Piquet?
Apparently Baghdad was once one of the most advanced cities in the world. Would’ve been amazing had it survived.
I visited Bagdad in the early 1980’s. A truly beautiful city, and fortunately much has survived.
Visited Beirut before their conflict and it was another beautiful place, much didnt survive but they have rebuilt.
@Bacchusfox - because power needs to be held accountable otherwise we start to slip into Orwellian levels of totalitarianism. Drop the rapist jibe because he hasn’t been found guilty of anything - that whole saga was a pathetic smear to strike at the credibility of WikiLeaks/Assange.
@Lifetime_ban - on what grounds? WikiLeaks is a publisher who should enjoy the press freedoms of the West. You’re entering some really dark waters here.
As a person with TS clearance and other briefings, perhaps I have a better understanding than you of what should and shouldn’t be available to “press freedoms”. There is information that if given to the wrong people at the wrong times causes lives to be lost, and that information is held closely for that very reason. Or do you advocate that diplomacy should be conducted by tweet and that the “enemy”, whoever that may currently be should be privy to any and all plans that may be being made against them. That is what Assange and WikiLeaks advocate. I know very good people that go to very bad places to try to make this world a safer, better place so that people like you can have the opinions you do, and do it willingly, but Assange can GAGF.
Your overall argument here seems to be that WikiLeaks puts the lives of certain people at risk - do you have any evidence of that? Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers doesn’t think so.
You think the Iraq/Afghan war crimes should be hidden from the public?
You think the Orwellian network and nefarious spying of the NSA and GCHQ should not be public information?
Come on.
No, I think most conspiracy theorists probably have their heads up their arses, and Assange and WikiLeaks feeds into their delusions by releasing information without context. I have discussed this before in this or another thread. Information without context is worthless.
Trump is a rapist. !!
■■■ he rapes women?
or
Trump rapes every company he takes over of all their assets.
See, no context behind the first statement. Conspiracy theorist can make anything they want out of that.
For mine, you fall into that category. You look for the sensational in everything because the truth is more boring. This is the last post I will make directed at you.
Wikileaks is now a propaganda arm of the Russians. Whatever it was a decade ago, doesn’t really matter anymore.