Let's say Iraq goes very well....

[Winterblues]

Let's say the killing stops in Iraq and they form some form of working government. Everything the Bush* Administration hopes for. How does America benefit? How does it end the threat of Terrorism? Will America be better off? Will the animosities that have been created because of this invasion and occupation suddenly disappear? Even if the very best scenario happens I don't see how America will have benefited..Do Americans really believe the trillion dollars we will have spent and the American lives destroyed are actually worth it? :shrug: Am I just being stupid for not seeing how I/we have benefited from all this killing?

[TwilightGardener]

1. It's a steaming shit pile--always has been, always will be. And the longer

we're there, occupying a Muslim country as arrogant "infidels", the more future terrorists we create.

[Angela Shelley]

4. And the longer we have people thinking that this was anything

else but a steaming shit pile, the more future terrorists we "raise" within our own society.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. No, because we'll still have our military bases and personnel there for the next 100 years.

[Fresh_Start]

3. the economy was not strong

the war, believe it or not, helped the economy by allowing the government to throw hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy without funding that expense. But an economy which is 70% based on consumer spending will suffer even if corporations have billions of dollars of government spending because wages/incomes have not participated in the government free for all

that being said, I think that the war is an unmitigated failure for the US even if Iraq emerges as a democratic country.

[stillcool]

5. When the pipeline routes are secure...

and the resources flow into the right pockets, it will be very much worth it. In the meantime it is still very much worth it to many. Where would the Defense Industries be if there were no wars?

[Dawgs]

6. Don't buy into the media/right wing hype. We've already lost in Iraq... and big time.

[LogansPapa]

7. Taking care of Dad's Buds.....

American corporations have and will benefit greatly.

The cost of the "War on Terror" in Iraq has been put and will continue to be put on the backs of the American taxpayer, with an $800 bone thrown to them every once in a while to keep them from revolting.

Bush41’s cronies couldn’t be happier with the way things are turning out - and will continue to do so for many dividend filled years. The sugar plum dreams of endless sweet crude coming to the Port of Umm Qasr, with a lifetime of discount prices, may have fallen by the wayside - but the tentacles of their various corporations have quickly adapted and created economic venues that would have made the British Empire envious.

Put simply, the Bush grandchildren will never want for anything.

BTW - as with our invasion - none of this has anything to do with terrorism, except to expand it

[I work for workers]

8. Had that happend a couple of years ago, they had a legitimate argument

that a democratic Arab state would provide a peaceful counterbalance to the grassroots support radical Islamic terror enjoys in the Mid-East. It didn't. Even assuming Iraq fully stabilizes, its birth pains will have likely been bad enough to prevent it from becoming an Arab shining city on a hill, at least any time in the near future.

Now the issue at hand has changed. If the US can't stabilize Iraq by the time we pull out (assuming a Democratic victory in 08, this gives the military three more years to do so) advocates of terror will have learned a very dangerous lesson; they can destabilize the developing world regardless of developed world intervention.

Terrorism is as much about economies of scale as it is about spectacular violence. I don't think we will see another 9/11 style attack. That type of terror is going the way of the dinosaur. It's too expensive, requires too much effort, and produces too much backlash. The terror of the future is infrastructure terror, small attacks against the machinery that makes modern life function. When infrastructure crumbles, governments crumble along with it.

When a government loses legitimacy, one of two things happens. Either another government rises to take its place, or society fractures along ethnic or religious boundaries and plunges into chaos. Terrorist groups lack the ability to replace the state, and the state lacks the ability to stop terror, so the first option is highly unlikely in the long term. The second is almost guaranteed.

Today's economy is globalized. If the infrastructure of a nation holds its society together, the infrastructure of all nations is supporting our collective economies. Every time a pillar is brought down, the rest need to prop up more weight.

To destroy our way of life, terrorists need only to collapse the infrastructure of the world's weaker nations. Iraq is teaching them how to do this, and teaching them they can succeed at it. If that nation does manage to overcome the forces trying to tear it down, with our help or without, it will have sent a powerful message to violet radicals of all kinds around the world.