I've touched on the war stuff. I'd better make my feelings about it all clear:
I don't believe in any conspiracy theories that it was the US government that orchestrated 9/11 or anything else like that. I'm very willing to believe that an extremist group of terrorists got the better of us one day and hurt us hard.
That said . . . I've had a hard time believing that the Iraqi government had that much to do with 9/11. That particular leap in logic had always bothered me, especially as petitions to keep Canadian troops out of Iraq started popping up around school. They were confusing times, and I think a lot of people (my own mother included) had somehow gotten the message that "the terrorists that crashed planes into the World Trade Center were from Iraq".
Self-defence is the most straight-forward means to allow for a legal declaration of war. Preemptive War, when one nation attacks another due to a perceived threat, is only legal in international law if there is an imminent actual threat. Your mileage may vary on that one, but for a lot of people (myself included), the US invasion of Iraq was not justified.
THAT said . . . now that it's happened, I don't believe pulling out troops immediately is a great idea until the country stabilizes. It's not popular anymore, sure, but if you go in, dick around in another country, tear it apart and then leave before cleaning up after yourself, well . . . then the past five years and all the death and expenditure will have been for absolutely nothing. Even more senseless than not.
That's the feeling I have for both Afghanistan and Iraq. While I may believe in the War on Terror in Afghanistan more, both countries require a presence until they're both at least mostly stabilized.
Do I think Iraq was an incredibly dumbass move? Yeah, I'd say so. And now we have to pay for that dumbass move until things are settled. Has nothing to do with "buffering the terrorists", it has to do with paying for your decisions. It sucks, but that's the obligation faced now.
That's my take on the current war issues. I'm done.
