The REAL reason we are there? I wish I knew...

The inexorable climb of militaristic and imperialistic endeavors worldwide is (and has been) pretty easy to see.

Although I disagree strongly with some statements and conclusions, Chalmers Johnson has a pretty take on this subject in a book he wrote The Sorrows of Empire.

It wouldnt be the 1st head of state that we've assassinated and its doubtful that it anyone would would be able to prove that the US was behind it.

I agree with Monk. The situation is way our of control. The Democrats call for a phased withdrawal to nearby countries. I am for that. Not an immediate withdrawal, a phased withdrawal.

As to the orginal question as to why we went there, one factor was that Saddam attempted to kill our President's father. Saddam was finished. We should have done away with him in an easier way. This week's Newsweek has excellent coverage of Iraq.

Strategic control over the regions biggest untapped high quality oil reserve sounds like a good reason.

Possibly also to make sure that the dollar remains the number one trading currency in the world. Saddam was converting his dollar reserve into Euros, if the region was inspired to do that collectively.. well.. I'm no economist, but my uneducated guess is that it could spark a 30's style depression in the states.

Here's a random thought: where is terrorism now happening and who is on the front lines?

Five years ago, thousands of American civilians died in the worst terrorist attack in our contry's history.

In the five years since that day, there hasn't been a noteworthy terrorist event on American soil.

One might argue that this is because our intelligence community has improved, and that probably is a contributor.

However, one can also argue that Iraq is consuming a whole lot of terrorist bandwidth. And when the terrorism happens over there, it's American soldiers, not American civilians, who fight against it and, unfortunately, die to it.

I don't like GWB. I don't think he possess the intellect to have planned this out this way. However, the result, when you think about it this way, is astonishingly good.

Yes, we've lost thousands of American soldiers. But we lost them doing what they should be doing - fighting a war and, more importantly, standing between the enemies of our nation and its civilian population.

Our troops rock. I love every one of them. We all owe them a deep debt of gratitude for putting their lives on the line to protect us.

And that's what they've been doing for these past too many months - acting as the focal point for terrorists to protect the rest of us from harm.

That is part of why we're still in Iraq, and will be for quite some time to come. We also created this mess for them by removing a bad leader which ultimately incited a civil war, so we owe it to the people of Iraq to help clean it up.

And, yes, another military base in the region would be nice, but don't we already have a strong presence in Saudi Arabia?