Wrong forum?

Well done spurge, you've presented this thread really well. No mess!

On the topic, I don't have much to say other than, it wasn't worth $800b, clearly.

What will end up happening in Iraq is the country will fall into civil war, and Turkey going to war with the Kurds in the north. Iran will support the Shiite government, and much of Arabia lending support to the Sunni minority.

If we're lucky, cooler heads will prevail, and the country will be split into thirds. With 1/3rd being Kurdish, 1/3rd being Shiite, and 1/3rd being Sunni. But cooler heads won't prevail.

What Afghanistan needs is to begin mining resources discovered in it's mineral rich mountains and use that wealth for the benefit of all its people. Once people see again that a government can be beneficial to the people, they'll push aside tribal hatreds.

Afghanistan will one day be a very wealthy country, if it doesn't get raped.

Thanks to America the saviour or the “leading force for good” as they call themselves Iraq will have huge problems but who cares right? I mean America got what they want and they leave. That’s what the “good people” do.

All in all things are playing out they way they should and piece will come. The sooner we get leaders that aren’t assigned by America the sooner the piece will come!

Officially the military may be out, but with about 16000 americans remaining there, I wouldn't actually say they really left.

You're actually still overestimating other countries' defense budgets/underestimating  america's budget. It does not matter what other countries you compare the USA to, even if you pick only the countries with the highest defense budgets in the world, you still need about 20 countries before the sum of their defense budget reaches americas. The USA spends about 43% of all military expenditures in the world.

One day I believe people will ask themselves why a country that is surrounded only by water and military irrelevant countries and that has never really been attacked (no, events like 9/11 or Pearl Harbour are not the same as seriously "being attacked") needs the same DEFENSE budget as almost all other countries in the world combined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

I haven't heard anything about women actually being liberated - quite the contrary, I read two interviews with iraqi women who claim that despite some rather irrelevant legal changes, their situation clearly got worse, even going as far as saying that iraqi women are actually THE big losers of the war.

They're not building bombs. No intelligence service has any credible evidence for this. The most common belief among informed people is that Iran is currently not developing nuclear arms, but has instead prepared to be able to develop nuclear arms in the shortest possible time IF they feel they now need them because they're being attacked or something.

Was it? Somehow I still don't see why a group of Saudi-Arabians terrorizing the WTC means that the USA needs to attack Afghanistan. With the result now being that even the Taliban are now more popular than the USA in Afghanistan...

Of course it was worth it! We you know..accomplished so many..um ya things.

Kidding of course I agree useless time and money there!

Love the thread Spurgeon. Very nice and professional looking.

That being said, the best thing for the Middle East would be complete American withdrawal. The removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and hell, even Israel. Stationing troops around the Middle East is a pretty clear sign of aggression and it's not hard to see why several countries in the region would act defensively (particularly Iran). Not that I condone any of Iran's actions, but it would be simply best for the U.S. to get out of a region which it clearly doesn't understand.

fyi - Afghanistan is not the middle-east, it's central-Asia.

Pakistan is a major regional threat as it and India have nuclear weapons and Pakistan is known to have sold thier technology to other countries including Iran.

I suppose you are unaware that Iran bought its nuclear ballistic missle technology from Pakistan?  It isn't a question of did they, a frighter was caught red handed with the missles on board.  So to suggest that Iran isn't seeking to build nuclear weapons is ludicrious. 

Pakistan is unstable and will likley be seen as a enemy of the west soon.

It already is like a half enemy/friend.