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Originally Posted by randolph
The war was devastating for the people of Iraq and opened up a contentious battle between Shias and Sunnies for control of the country that probably will never be resolved.
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Just wondering... say we never went to war with Iraq in 2003. Flash forward to 2011 and there are riots happening in countries all over the middle east as there are now. Do you think the Shias and/or the Sunnies would rebel against Saddam? It's happened in so many countries I can't imagine that it wouldn't have happened in Iraq as well. Some will call that hypothetical, but I really can't think of any reason why it wouldn't. And I find it interesting that neither of the two groups are rebelling now.
About question 3... Sorry, when I originally answered your question about Iran, I originally thought you asked if the war DECREASED the influence of Iran. Yes, it did increase the influence of Iran. And back to what I was saying earlier, we could have taken care of Iran with our strategic position if support for the war against terror had survived the 2004 election.
Quote:
Originally Posted by randolph
Al Qaeda was a minor issue in Iraq. If we had focused on Afghanistan instead of Iraq, we could have cleaned out Al Qaeda and possibly stabilized Afghanistan.
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Al Qaeda never was a one country organization. They had abandoned Afghanistan after we took control of the country. They weren't going to come back and fight for it. When we went to war with Iraq they saw that our influence in the region was about to expand a great deal more and they did want to fight against that.
btw... for those who say our presence there caused bitter acrimony against the US in the muslim world, they should have thought about that before they attacked the US. The fact is that the US was attacked by muslim extremists. I don't criticize them for attacking the pentagon. It's an act of war, certainly, but I recognize that that's a military target. That bullshit they pulled in New York is another matter. Did Al Qaeda consider that that might cause bitter acrimony in the US against muslims?