How does invading and occupying a Muslim country decrease terrorism?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Answer - it does not decrease terrorism, it increases it, which any fool could see. Which is exactly what is happening. AQ and it's offshoots were small and scattered and now have been enlarged, energized and unified throughout the Muslim world because of the catastrophic miscalculation of the Bush Administration - that invading Iraq was a good idea. These fools have done more to advance terrorism and its cause than it's even possible to calculate, much less rectify.

As to the most idiotic assertion - "we are fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" - why is it an advantage to be an occupying army fighting an enemy on their home turf? Have not almost all occupations throughout modern history been unsuccessful unless they are the result of massive overwhelming strength and cruelty and disregard for civilian deaths. And then they are usually doomed to failure anyway in the long term. Didn't the British Empire pretty much settle the hash on that issue? And the French Occupations? And yet, it seems as though some on the right are moving more in this direction. I heard that wingnut Melanie Morgan advocate on Hardball last night that we just needed to stop being concerned with collateral damage . And then there's this general in this thread saying pretty much the same thing.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2447280

Again, just another recipe for greater longterm disaster and chaos that will sow the seeds of hatred for generations to come.

We never entered this war in the first place as a war of expansion of democracy and liberation. It was a putative defensive war fought on false pretenses that Saddam had WMD's and supposedly had some ties to AQ. Someone, somewhere needs to acknowledge this. WE WERE WRONG TO INVADE IRAQ. Wrong. Wrong as in being an error of judgement and wrong as in being morally wrong. Just like George Bush, the American people and almost all their politicians are unable to recognize and apologize and atone for and correct as much as they can a horrible, horrible blunder. The people who are responsible need to be put out of office. Saying all that, I have no earthly idea how to clean up the mess that they have made in that country.

[indepat]

1. Wrong just like every extreme RW policy is dead wrong for this Republic

and all almost all except large corporations and the most affluent and the overall damage done to this Republic and it Constitution, to liberty and freedom itself, the environment, the standard of living, the economy will ultimately, most likely soon, be extremely detrimental to large corporations and the most affluent too. Think Gore Vidal is right in saying it will take two generations to overcome the damage done in six years if then.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. Tying the Iraq War to the WOT - but not in the way they imagined

The Iraq War was about the single worst move someone could have made if they were actually serious about a War on Terrorism.

I guess we are making progress as long as finally, some are acknowledging the issue of - if they knew there were no WMDs, no, they would not have voted for the Iraq War. This is about as close as it gets to admitting error. Who has finally, definitively said this without waffling? I know Edwards, but who else?

[Toots]

3. When we invaded Iraq was not a Muslim country, it was quite secular

However now it is a mess and quite Muslim in make-up.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. That is an excellent point. But it's interesting how when religions

or tribal or native affiliations are supressed by dictators, like Sadaam or Yugoslavia - they rise up again it seems at the very first opportunity.

The United States is a younger country and has had the unique (at least until now) experience of being forged from many lands and religions. Why should we think that our model will work in areas that have thousands of years of culture, history, hatreds and tradition to overcome before they could actually become a working democracy? It was just naive stupidity on the part of Bush et all to think they could impose a successful democracy in the wink of an eye.