JamesF, the "us vs. they" argument is way flawed and way overused but sadly, it works. Yes, there are distinct differences between Eastern and Western culture that some people from both sides like to focus in on and blow out of proportion so they can have a reason to hate on each other. But people are just simply not that easy to classify. You can't just lump any person into one or the other. That's why Bush's entire "You're for us or against us" tirade just makes me want to scream "Stupid idiot!" everytime.

Look at the news today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6266707.stm

Over 100 people were killed just in one day, 75 killed from a bombing at the University in Baghdad. There's no possible way that all those people were terrorists. In fact, the caption on the BBC's website says that most of those killed were women just walking home from class.

Students trying to get a decent education and make better lives for themselves do not deserve to get killed like this.

But obviously Bush doesn't have to give a damn about this. He's never had to give a damn about anybody before in his life. To him, all these senseless murders are just part of the fight to "end" terrorism in Iraq. Yet why did we get involved in this mess in the first place? Because terrorists killed innocent people in our country. For the approximately 3,000 people who died on 9/11, though, 10+ times many people had to die in the fight against terrorism. Does anyone think this makes sense? Fighting fire with fire never works. The condition of Iraq right now is an utter tragedy.

Look at the news today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6266707.stm

Over 100 people were killed just in one day, 75 killed from a bombing at the University in Baghdad. There's no possible way that all those people were terrorists. In fact, the caption on the BBC's website says that most of those killed were women just walking home from class.

Students trying to get a decent education and make better lives for themselves do not deserve to get killed like this.

But obviously Bush doesn't have to give a damn about this. He's never had to give a damn about anybody before in his life. To him, all these senseless murders are just part of the fight to "end" terrorism in Iraq. Yet why did we get involved in this mess in the first place? Because terrorists killed innocent people in our country. For the approximately 3,000 people who died on 9/11, though, 10+ times many people had to die in the fight against terrorism. Does anyone think this makes sense? Fighting fire with fire never works. The condition of Iraq right now is an utter tragedy.

Ms. Walsh...great post. I agree that the war in Iraq is nothing more than a tragedy right now.

I think it is just downright wrong to compare Bush to Hitler.

Hitler was stopped why? Because of what he was doing to jews...right? So Saddam was right in doing what he was doing to his own people? If you want to see real pictures of what he did...look no further than the pictures of all the people, women, children etc that he gassed, raped and murdered. And because Bush decided that enough was enough...and we ended that dicators rule he is to blame?

Hardly. He is to blame that the war has gone from what was considered easy to where we are now. But it is war. Since when is it predictable?

The world was screwed up LONG before W got into office and if we just sat on our asses and let the terrorists and dictators keep doing their work, do you think the world would really be a better place instead of trying to rid the world of them?

Bush is not perfect, no President or person is perfect and everyone will do things you do not think are right or whatever. But tell me...are you in on the world meetings, do you talk to world leaders, do you know every single aspect of every single problem that the US is facing? HELL NO you don't.

I prefer peace on earth...but was that happening in the middle east? Is that what has been going on in Iraq before the war?

Everyone is so delisuional because they want free love and peace. Screw that. It can not happen when you have these terrorists roaming around.

I guess we should let the dictators kill, the terrorists attack and not do a damn thing about it. really intelligent people...really intelligent.

First of all, it is not our call to get into other people's problems and Saddam's crimes against humanity are not enough to go to war over...in that case, start a war with India or North Korea or Iran which do the same things to their people and to be honest with you what Hussein did to the Iraqis is what we are doing: gassing, killing, raping, you name it man it is happening. So how have we made the situation better? Hussein was not a threat to us in the days and months preceding the invasion on 3/19/03 and still never was and the real threat of OBL is still out there but Bush even claimed at one point he didn't care to find him and didn't pay much attention to him. What a blowhort

This war is about oil and how much Bush can profit off of it when he has the troops guarding the oil fields and yes he has made plenty of money off of Iraq that is a given. I wish I had the source to copy and paste it here but most people already know this anyways.

I may not be in the meetings with leaders but thankfully not all of them are warmongers like Bush and some of them actually prefer to get solutions through diplomacy and not by attacking others...and if you see footage on the eve of the 3/19/03 invasion it sure looks like the Iraqis were living peacefully. Now this is not true all the time due to Hussein's crimes but again I say his crimes are not enough to go to war over and we are now more vulnerable to an attack than the days before 9/11. That is not something that a lot of people take lightly and it is all thanks to Bush in starting a war over lies and manipulation. So his solution is to send more troops there? We need to start withdrawing and one can only hope that the Democrat Congress passes a bill making it mandatory for the president to begin withdrawing forces from Iraq and let them govern on their own.

When you say terrorists are preventing peace and what not....well we are not going about this in a peaceful way and terrorism has risen since the war started so that will keep us further from days of peace and harmony.

No we should not let dictators kill and terrorists attack but we are doing those same exact things in Iraq....attacking and killing. And again Iraq was not a threat to us right before the war started so let someone else resolve the problem with the dictator and we tend to our own affairs. We must learn to stop policing the world and getting involved in other people's problems. Someday the dictatorship will end and someone with a peace approach comes forward and governs.