Question: Is our actions in Iraq & Afghanistan deterring terrorism or provoking it?

[Xicano]

Question #2: Is our actions in Iraq & Afghanistan really about a war on terror or is it using 9/11 in a skillfully played public relations campaign to expand our corporate empire in the latest sequel of America's manifest destiny?

[Name removed]

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[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. Question 1: Probably provoking it....

but at this point, it's already been provoked for several decades. We can't merely ignore these cells, however, as they won't just disappear if we do nothing. We must promote both a short-term military campaign to render terrorist power inert and a much longer-term political campaign to dissuade future terrorism. The second part is where Bush failed miserably in Iraq (he failed both in Afghanistan).

Question 2: Iraq was. Afghanistan never was. That's why Bush paid attention to Iraq and why Obama's pulling out of Iraq and into Afghanistan.

[emulatorloo]

5. Good analysis. Bush had a cavalier attitude about capturing Bin Laden, and he totally screwed up

Iraq.

If Bush/Cheney had not let Bin Laden go at Tora Borah 12/2001 we would not be in this mess. Obviously they really did not care about capturing him

[Echo In Light]

4. The War on Terror Is the Leading Cause of Terrorism

http://www.alternet.org/world/48620/

[emulatorloo]

6. There was terrorism before there was a "war on terror"

No doubt Bush made it worse.

Just because he fucked up everything he touched does not mean that terrorism does not exist or need to be dealt with.

He was stupid,

[Echo In Light]

7. Yes, the worst of it stemming from Washington as elites impose "democracy"

[emulatorloo]

8. that was Bush/Cheney's thing. Everybody sees that is a disaster.

I need to hear Obama's speech before I judge this. Nobody wants to see more troops there. He appears to have an exit strategy, Bush Cheney never did.

[Echo In Light]

9. Was going on L O N G before that cabal of corporate pirates (PNAC)

[mmonk]

10. Terrorism=blowback.

Any questions?

[Zodiak]

11. It will provoke it

All of the schools, hospitals, and roads built amount to exactly nothing when one's children are blown up by a foreign invader lobbing 1000 lb bombs.

War is chaos and destruction...it does not win hearts and minds. Foreigners shooting guns, even trying to be the good guys, will always be seen as invaders, usurpers, and murderers.

Why do Americans not imagine what it would be like to be Afghani?

[valerief]

12. You're absolutely right. Americans are force-fed Tiger Wood stories,

Black Friday mobs, and fuzzy toys du jour.

Teevee and a deteriorated education system has made Americans morons. I know. I'm one of them. I do, on occasion, though, put on the special sunglasses that allow me to see that "They Live" and "they" bullshit us at every opportunity to keep us from uprising.