Why ???

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Iraqi "resentment"":

Wait a minute, I thought the reason we were in Iraq was because the U.S., and the world, were facing a mortal threat from Islamic terrorism. If the U.S. and the world "would survive" if America pulled out its troops from Iraq, then why are we even there?Wait a minute, I thought the reason we were in Iraq was because the U.S., and the world, were facing a mortal threat from Islamic terrorism. If the U.S. and the world "would survive" if America pulled out its troops from Iraq, then why are we even there?

Ben's response:

Why ???

Because since the 1620s and Rev John Winthrop's stating boldly that America should be "a city on the hill" and "a light unto the nations" America has been defending liberty when it has been threatened and extending freedom --- usually non-coercively.

It has been an on-and-off-policy. "Isolationism" was not always a bad word.

There have some dumb American moves; the invasion of The Phillipines was one such.

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein used "weapons of mass destruction" (poison gas is officially categorized as one such WMD) on his own people. He told his subalterns to re-start the nuclear weapons program (we have that on tape.)

He tried to assainate an American President. He gave bonuses to Palestinian "martyrs"who put bombs in Arab babies to kill Israeli babies.

A recent poll --- not by Bushies --- showed that 70% of Iraqis favor a secular democracy.

Unlike any recent war the entire American force is composed of volunteers. Many of them have re-enlisted three or four times --- even after wounds.

They write blogs that say the press is sensationalizing the war.

The current much-publicized argument between the Iraqi government and the US government will almost surely blow over.

(Insert pix of dead Kurds and Iraqi women waving their purple fingers in the air signifying that they braved danger --- to vote.)