Libertarians will never be viable.  Also, Unf (for u), great for me, what you are describing in the bold is France.  They have gone through rev after rev, 5 constitutions, and num republics.  That will never fly here.

Look at what the Republican led US Government did to the US and the world under the strong leadership of President George W. Bush during 8 years from 2001 to 2008. September 11, 2001 - Terrorist Attack on US home soil planes crashing into the World Trade Center Twin towers - both destroyed, Pentagon was damaged. September 2001 Terror attack resulted in over 3000 cilvilian deaths. America trillions of dollars in debt, losing two wars in the middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan) sending 5,000+ US troops to their early deaths. Now America finds itself in the global financial crisis which the American banking sector collapse contributed significantly towards.

President Obama has to pick up the pieces and get America out of the global financial crisis and get America out of two losing battles/wars in the Middle East. The Democrats and Obama can not do any worse than what George W. Bush did for America and the world.

President Obama is almost as safe as houses to win a second term as US President when the 2012 Presidential election comes up in a tick over 3 years time.

First off, the Twin Towers were destroyed by fundamentalist Islamic terrorists that had been training and preparing to attack the United States in Afghanistan for years; and they were successful in a large part because Bill Clinton ignored their threat while he was president. As a result of the terrorist attack in New York and the unwillingness of the Afghan government to do anything about the terrorists, the war in Afghanistan was entirely justified.

The war in Iraq wasn’t (really) justified but it was fully supported by house, senate and citizens of the United States of America.

Beyond that the 5,000 casualties the United States has faced may be a personal tragedy to the families of those soldiers but demonstrate how effectively the United States has won these wars; consider that the United States lost nearly 60,000 soldiers in Vietnam and 55,000 in the Korea. For the most part, the United States (and their allies) have the support of the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the resistance they face is from foreign countries who want to impose an oppressive regime which would eliminate the possibility of the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan from ever knowing the freedom and prosperity that people know in the western world.

Now, the financial crisis has been caused by generations of mismanagement of the government and every party (and most incumbents) holds a lot of responsibility for it becoming a problem. Unfortunately, the banking sectors insane influence on politicians has ensured that they were protected at the expense of the American taxpayer; and because of your money the bank CEOs who managed their company so poorly were able to average $13.5 Million in bonuses for their management of banks in 2008.

I don’t know what is going to happen in 2010 or 2012, but I know that (while American voters are upset with how the republicans managed their country under Bush) American voters are furious about how the Democrats are running their country under Obama. I wouldn’t be that surprised if libertarians/independents end up getting elected at an unprecedented level because no one trusts either party anymore.

Democrats need Republicans to keep them from doing stupid stuff. The reverse is also true.

While the Democrats do hold a majority at the moment, it is not big enough for them to have forgotten this yet: enough remember that they can't just ram stuff through. If their majority increases in 2010, that might change.

Numunex look up VX, sarin, and mustard gas and their effects (VX in particular).  Also, read about the '88 Halabja attack here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack

Now ask yourself, if George Bush kicked the shit out of the libs wouldn't you want someone to liberate you?

Just a little proof by an English speaking Iraq senior citizen @ the ballot box:

Oh, that explains why the US has spent $650 billion (and counting) and 4,200 US servicemembers (and counting) have died.

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/People/PeopleAllVictims.aspx  37,261 ppl dead in 2008 alone by car accidents.  Should we mandate that all cars be turned to scrap?

No. The number of people killed each year in auto accidents is impertinent. If you are going to justify spending $650 billion (and counting), 4,200 US casualties (and counting), and 30,000 US wounded (and counting), you better have a better argument than that.

50,000,000 people freed from a dictator and a repressive Taliban mini-caliphate.  PS we are not just in Iraq and Afghanistan just to let you know.  Ask any soldier if they would rather stay here when they return or go back and finish the job and they will not hesitate to say that they need to finish the job.  I can't help how Obama's extreme "end the wars now, man" flank is pushing policy but he said in 2007 and continues to that "Af. is a war of necessity."  (Although I do love a Dem civil war  )

By the way, I talked to the LTC here about ROTC and I probably wouldn't qualify for medical reasons otherwise I would jump at serving unlike these pansy hippy college kids.

Personally, I think this discussion has gone into the weeds. I do think there are a few things everyone can probably agree upon regarding the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq ...

1. The war in Afghanistan was fully justified by the attack on September 11th, the intelligence available at the time, and the unwillingness of the Taliban to do anything about the terrorists training in their country.
2. The war in Afghanistan has (likely) reduced the threat of terrorism around the world through the destruction of terrorist training camps, and being that potential terrorists are recruited as insurgents rather than terrorists.
3. The war in Iraq was probably not justified, but it was "legally" entered into through the support of the congress and the citizens of the United States.
4. The death tolls of US soldiers, their allies, civilians and insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan are all very small when compared to other wars throughout history.
5. There will need to be some military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan for some time to ensure their stability
6. This military presence will continue to shrink and be removed from direct conflict as citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan choose to enter the military and police force to protect their own country
7. Long term prospects for personal freedoms and prosperity are far better post war in stable countries for the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan than they were under Sadam Hussein or the Taliban.

Now, there is no doubt that the cost of the wars has been massive, and they really should force EVERYONE to question how the cost of two wars can only be (roughly) 5% of the total federal budget. Where is all the money going and how can a government run a deficit that is (roughly) 10 times the amount it is spending to participate in 2 wars?