Before we went into Iraq, there was no question in my mind that we were going to clean Iraq's clock when it came to conventional warfare; and that's exactly what did happen.

I will also say that I had some serious concerns before, and during the invasion. I questioned weather we should go in at all. Being as we were going in, I hoped to God we would find WMD's, or I knew the invasion couldn't really be justified. It was also clear to me that the extent of the Bush Administrations thinking post conventional warfare/invasion was that we would be hailed as liberaters by the Iraqi people and that they would immediately get behind us in helping rebuild and re-store their country. We all know what happened there...

As far as Iraq being a theatre of operations in the War on Terror, prior to our invasion I believe that Iraq's entire regime was one of terrorism. They were domestic terrorists to their own population; and very effective at that. Did they export terrorism? Outside of funding suicide bombers in Palestine, I don't believe so. Does their being a domestic terroristic regime justify our going in there? Again, no. But there is no question that Iraq was flooded with foreign terrorists after the invasion. And that's who we've been fighting ever since; thus Iraq being another theatre of operations in the War on Terror.

And by the way, Iran and Syria are the two leading countries of state sponsored terrorism in the world. I have absolutely no problem with taking either one of those countries out. And what I mean by that is bombing and missile strikes, not invasion. Could we invade either one, or both of those countries? Absolutely.

Think about a couple of things here. Prior to the first Gulf War, the liberal media was claiming that it was going to be another Vietnam. It would be a quagmire. We would lose 10,000 men in the initial fighting alone. I knew no such thing would happen. There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to clean Iraqs clock. Remember, Iraq had the 4th largest military in the world at the time. What did it take, a 100 hours?

Also remember, Iran and Iraq went at it for 8 years, and had nothing to show for it but a stalemate and thousands upon thousands in deaths. This is the same Iraq that we cleaned their clock on. Irans military is second and third rate.

After the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Syria was crapping it's pants with Armored U.S. Divisions just across it's border. If we could clean Iraqs clock in about a month, don't doubt for a second that we could do the exact same thing to Iran and to Syria. We have more than enough troops in Iraq alone to do that. And don't think for a second that Iran is not very aware that it has U.S. combat forces in two neighboring countries on it's borders. But again, I do not advocate invading either of these countries.

To pull out of Iraq prematurely could be cause for the existing Iraqi government to collapse. If that were to happen, it would leave a huge power vacumn. Iran would be more than happy to move in and occupy the Southern Iraqi oil fields. And they would have much support with the large Shia occupation in the South. Syria may move in from the West. And Turkey would love to wipe out the Kurds in the North and occupy the Northern Iraqi oil fields. This would be the cause of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of deaths. It could create a civil war within Iraq. Turkey is a NATO ally. If Iran and Turkey butted heads, the entire alliance could get pulled in. And can you even imagine Iran even having more wealth and power by owning the Southern oil fields in Iraq, not to mention they would then control both the stratigic Eastern and Western shores of the Persian Gulf.

I'm not for war. Like I said, I seriously questioned going into Iraq in the first place. But if you're going to do it, then do it. Don't play at it. Finish what you started. Don't make all those lives and spent treasury count for nothing.

Iran is looming. Iran has made it very clear that they will not stop their enrichment program, period. Both the Bush administration and Israel have made it very clear that they will not allow an Iran with nuclear weapons. Unless there is some miracle in diplomacy, or regime change in Iran, I fear that military action is coming soon. I just hope we put more thought into it than we did with Iraq.

- 67GTO