Pickles
Member Since: 26 May 2013
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 3772
 
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Interesting & heart felt comments. Here are a few of mine.
We have the identical discussions in Aussie.
And hindsight is a wonderful thing, Similarly, we've also had the aftermath of Vietnam to deal with.
AT THE TIME, I believed in the invasion of Iraq. A threat to Western countries?...Absolutely. Let us not forget that it was Saddam's sworn vow to wipe Israel (Israel have Nukes, & would use 'em if they had to,...where could that lead?) off the map,...that is still the aim of several Arab States.
I guess we had the same info as you guys. Our PM of the time, John Howard, certainly is not stupid, He's actually one of the best PMs we've ever had,..He would believe in what He was doing,.. and was supported by the opposition (Labor Party), at the time. As I've said the Iraq war is an issue here as well. John Howard has defended his decision. He confirms, "The war was not based on a lie",..."There was no lie. There were errors in intelligence, but there was no lie". He defends his decision & maintains it, as "the best decision he could make, based on the intelligence" He had.
I don't like Wars, of any kind, so I ain't no warmonger.
There is another side to this. Saddam himself, & his regime, could have avoided everything, if they had given full co-operation to the U.N., complied with access requests, deadlines etc (U.N.?....weak as  IMHO,...Saddam just laughed at 'em). At every step of the way Saddam & co frustrated the U.N.....refused to give full access, changed their mind, then let 'em in, only at certain times etc etc,...and THEY GAVE THE IMPRESSION that they had something to hide.
If Saddam had said, ok guys, come in, have a look, do what ya like etc etc, there would've been no war, there would've been no excuse for one. But Saddam did not do that,..He gave the impression that He did have something to hide. Now of course the other side to that is that, that is the way Saddam had to be, "to save face" in front of his people.
So, the war happens,..twice,....and the result,.....is a disaster.
No real plans for what happens after. There are lots of reasons for this. We never play by their rules. After the war "ended", IMHO there would've been more success if the U.S. had a bit of assistance from others. Now, I know that you guys & us Aussies did our bit, but with similar input from a few more countries, a bit more law & order would've been maintained.
So, I agree that the end result was not good, but I wouldn't be blaming Blair, any more than I'd blame our P.M. at the time. In your terms, I vote Conservative,..big fan of Winston & Maggie, & I thought Cameron was Ok. Always vote for the Liberal National Coalition in Aus, which is similar to the Conservatives with you guys.
ISIS is now the big problem of course, and if anyone thinks that they are not a problem for the whole world, then I would 100% disagree with them.
Pickles.
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