3 years later is the US winning the war?

[RawAlex]

PD, actually Bush is doing a good job tying Iraq to the war on terror because they have created whole new chances for Terrorists to grow in Iraq - a country that had effectively none before.

JR, while many of the points you bring are valid, I think that some of them are creations of spin doctors and media flacks rather than reality.

"100's of thousands of Iraqi children would not be dying before the age of 5 because their leader is building new palaces with their medicine. " - true on it's face, but with the little footnote that the "oil for food" program from the UN severely limited a country that should have been prospering with it's overwhelming oil reserves. Saddam was an asshole in this regard, but no different from literally hundreds of dictators past and present. North Korea has a much larger problem at this level, yet the US does nothing on that front.

"some of the worlds most notorious terrorists are no longer safely living in bagdad." I didn't know any were living there. Now I know for a fact that they live just outside of the city and toss bombs in regularly.

"al queda supported terrorists no longer have a base in Iraq" and "Iraq is no longer hiding weapons of mass destruction or failing to account for them at the demand of the UN." - I didn't know they have a base... and nobody found an WMD (and the UN had not found any in the previous 10 years either!).

Most important: "i believe that would be ditctators are now on notice and know that there is a "too far" while they are telling the world to fuck off." - none of these dictator types have ever told the world for fuck off in any meaningful way. The closest you might get is the apparent (but never proven) state sanctioning of terror in Lybia. Beyond that, it is all huff, no puff. On this basis, North Korea is a way more significant threat than anyone - and the US sure isn't running in to take their WMD away.

I can say that Iraq has more terrorists today than they had before the US came in.

I can say that the middle east is LESS stable as a result of the US actions.

I can say that even with the US right next door, Iran feels they can do whatever they want.

I can say that the war in Iraq has NOTHING to do with the war on terror, except as mentioned above.

Other than that, I dunno!

Alex