The War in Iraq

My friend RSmith comments on my political thoughts: "Does the war in Iraq really make my children safer?" If I remember right, Rob has a college degree in history and is at the least, a very intelligent man, so I doubt he is asking my opinion.

Fact: Terrorism is a global problem that does/will affect my children.

It is hard to know the differences between the threats of a nation and the threats of terror networks. It is new development in recent history that a terror network, not directly affiliated with a government could cause so many threats. But that is not to say that nations are not still a threat. Saddam Hussein was a maniacal evil dictator who had recently caused problems and was accelerating towards another. Iraq is a much bigger country that I normally realize. It has so much more resource than any other country in the middle east. That makes it a bigger threat.

Have we stirred the pot and made terrorist threats worse? Again hard to say. I have little to no idea, but I want to say that we simply unveiled swarms of terrorists that were already there. We didn't just stir up what wasn't already there.

I tend to think the world is a bit safer for my children, or at least will be because we refuse to let bullies push us around. We try to stand up for freedom around the world. Certainly, one can pick holes in that stance.

The question is "When do we become the bully?" The world is so much smaller than it used to be. "Can we sustain such a strong military presence in the world and not have our economy fold up under us?" "Can we play the strong man and not take away the rights of people like I believe we did at Abu Gharab (sp) prison and with the detainees at Guantanomo?"