Firstly, I want to make it clear that this is a thread for discovering people's opinions, not for criticising or changing them.

Secondly, I want to make it clear that I am not asking if you support America staying in Iraq to finish what they began. You can answer that question in the thread if you really want. The two questions actually asked are.

When the war was beginning, did you, at the time, support starting the war?

and

If you knew then what you do now (no weapons of mass destruction, the extent of the war in terms of duration and casualty figures), would you have supported starting the war?

Thirdly, Americans only please. Non Americans (such as myself can answer in the thread, but please do not vote in the poll.

Fourthly, no mention was made of Afghanistan in the poll, just talking about Iraq.

I remember I was watching it happen on TV thinking we were wasting our time trying to police the world. I didn't think Bush Jr did enough to try to convince  the rest of NATO to go to war. Then I was arrested for beating up my mom's boyfriend as I was watching the action on TV. The cops watched it with me before they arrested me after I explained my story.

When it comes to war I always disagreed and protested it; in my own life I was not being peaceful when it came to my own dealngs with people that use each other. So I guess I am saying I do believe violance is necsassary, but not in many cases.

I cut college classes to attend war protests it was well worth it.

No, and I still dont. A lot of this had to do with my Girlfriend at the time she was very into this kind of stuff and I have always been a hands on hands off kind of person. Anyways, its been a long time since then, but it was something along the lines of it makes no sense that we go there. They have zero proof of them having WMD's and it would just be a waste of time.

Now, was it a waste of time to take out Saddam? I cant really say. But as far as I can tell the people are no better off and billions of dollars have been wasted. More people (on both sides) have died since the war was declared a victory than during the takeover. Yadda Yadda Yadda. WHen we leave I believe it will be worse off than before and everything Saddam did and more will be going on. In fact, it does now.

I always thought that Bush was in Iraq for personal reasons more than anything.  He used 9/11 to gain support of the Americans on something that was not even related to the incident.

Well as a Canadian I can't vote.

However I was against the war when it was started but changed my mind since.

Why?

Simple at the beginning of the war, Goerge Bush said that their were weapons of mass destruction and that these weapons could be used on American's. Now I would have supported the war , however the CIA gave the report. The US came to the Canadian Government asking my country to support the invasion. But CSIS (Canadian Security intelligence Service) reported to the Government that their were no weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq was not a threat to Canada.

I believed my Government that their were no weapons of mass destruction. So as such I thought Bush was just lying to go and finish what his father failed to do (Invade Iraq). I was severly anti-War especially when the CBC reported that the US faked the toppling of the Suddam statue. I saw footage that showed only a small crowd around the statue and US soldiers helping the civilians topple the statue. CBC said the footage was taken without authorization of the US and it showed a small group backed by US troops tearing down the statue. More footage was accused of being falsified by the US according to CBC.

So of course I was anti-Iraq war the whole beginning of the war was nothing but lies. However after Saddam finally got hung. The US claimed it had entered to topple Saddam and changed its tune entirely to the horrible things Saddam had done to his people.

Today Iraq is almost won, I didn't think the US could win and that was another reason I didn't support the war. Iraq now has democracy something I support whole heartedly, Saddam is dead something I think should have happened along time ago.The Iraqi army and Government are close with the US pretty much allies and I think the US needed more middle eastern allies.

So today I think if Bush had said to begin with, were going in to topple Saddam and bring democracy to Iraq, and then not faked video footage and lied to the masses. I would have supported the war from the beginning. But its the lies that kept me from supporting it to begin with.

I was in the middle about the war at the time. On its own, there's nothing wrong with a little forward-thinking regime change, but why start with Iraq? There were others they could have gone to for similar jingoistic results, so ultimately i woudl say i was against it at that time, and would still be, though much less vehemently than most who have opposed it

I originally supported the war and almost waivered in my opinion until recently.

With the unrest that is surrounding the middleeast right now, could you imagine how horrible Iraq would be today if we did not go to war?

If you think what the government is doing in Libya is bad, could you imagine Iraq?  We have all seen the mass graves filled with Sadda's victims.  Could you image what he might have done to a full on rebellion?  I shudder to think.

I supported it, but do not now.

At the time, I thought that taking out Saddam was a good idea. Killing/capturing Saddam and making Iraq a generally better place was and is a good thing.

However, what changed is my knowledge of history, and becoming a Libertarian starting in 2008-2009 through a lot of research. I began to understand a few things concerning how such intervention is a crap shoot in terms of results, becoming unbiased on our debt and military spending, and trying to ensure my beliefs are in-line with the rest. Furthermore, I saw the precedent of what our attacks did, which was strengthen the resolve of nations employing similar actions like Russia did in South Ossetia against the Georgians.

Because of this, I believe its better for America to stay out of wars that are not directed against allies which we have a responsibility to render mutual aid to. Unless someone is attacking a NATO ally or Asian friend, we really shouldn't be messing in wars. It'd do wonders for our debt, too.

Oh, and in regards to WMDs. We actually found quite a bit that Saddam did not destroy. There was a smoking gun moment that we did find them, despite the fact that no one really talks about or cares about it. Even if there was such a moment, I still wouldn't support the war because there are a lot of countries needing regime changes that have WMDs like North Korea. We can't pick and choose who we beat up, because it shows we're hypocritical.

No and no.