I won't believe people don't care, can't, scares me too bad. Infuriates me when the news leads off with topless picture scandal of future queen, then manages to fit there were casualties today in the war.

JD1 - You mean the idiot we have now, and the idiot we had before, right? Neither had my best interest at heart. By dirty bomb are you talking of all the WMD we took out of Iraq? Are we there for SUV's and 9000 square foot homes heating fuel?

Well Andy, you did (or I) shake one out of the trees. Beat our chest and show how strong we are. Fools.

The region's been unstable since the middle ages. It always will be. Our military fighting wars there - not helping.

We will NEVER stop the middle east from getting nuclear weapons. It's only a matter of time. Israel can, and has in the past, kicked the living sh*t out of the rest of the middle east. All of them at once.

I'm not suggesting we leave them hanging out to dry. Unless they start a war with Iran on their own, unsolicited. Iran is doing what Arabs always do. Threatening words against Israel.

If there's anything our President should be apologizing for, it's our country's stupidity the past decade financially.

Our 'strength' has turned into a critical weakness. Bin Laden proved this. It's a dirty little secret no one wants to admit. It's too "Un-American" to some.
Consider this:
- They killed 3000 of our people on 9/11/01.
- They got us to, as a result, piss away TRILLIONS of dollars on worthless wars.
Conservative estimate: 5 trillion of our 15 trillion national debt is thanks to these 'wars on terror'. Not to mention millions of lives affected by the subsequent military involvement. Epic investment.

The September 11 attacks succeeded in initiating the financial meltdown, combined with the housing bubble that's been discussed on various other occasions here.

Yes, we killed Osama. Yes, we crippled Al Qaeda. For how long, though? This was all a temporary waste of money that's having long term effects on our country well past 3000 deaths.

I'd have loved to see two things happen back in 2003 before we invaded Iraq:

1) implement a war tax, open ended and variable, to completely cover the costs of war
2) re-introduce the draft.

I'd love to have seen how thirsty for war this country and it's "hawks" in DC would've been then.

Isn't that who won their election?

One of my favorite foods, chicken hawk.

See, it's this kind of talk that has caused humanity to repeat the same mistakes over and over again throughout history.

Our response should NOT have been two ground wars. Ground wars that were doomed to fail on cultural grounds right from the start.

Yes, we'll always be a target simply by defending and supporting Israel. That hasn't changed for 70 years. Yet it wasn't until the past 10 years did it somehow manage to ruin us financially.

Again, you want to run wars over there? War tax and draft. If the country's so bloodthristy for war fighting for "democracy' in lands that don't really want it on religious grounds...then let's do it right. This is granting you the fact that it's a great idea to ruin millions of peoples lives (potentially) by sending our men and women over there.

Crazy talk. These wars were not paid for and over 95% of the American public does not have skin in the game. Most Americans sing songs at football games and applaud for the military. It is sick.

We don't have a presence in Iraq. Just an embassy that is 92 acres in size and cost a Billion Dollars. No presence at all. That is the size of the Vatican! What a waste of friggin' money.

Thing is, most wars aren't financially 'paid for'. This alone isn't a problem - you know, when you are actually attacked militarily. However, terrorism isn't a country and as such should not have been engaged as such.
I'm not suggesting we should have done nothing. I'd have been more interested in an aerial campaign. They want to take our lives? We'll take down their infrastructure. We'll bleed them out diplomatically.

Of course, this doesn't always work but this is because the people in the Middle East exist in a toxic combination of no education and having their day to day lives ruled by religion and religious leaders. Why anyone in charge thought invading their country would produce appreciably better results is beyond me.

I'm not going to suggest our wastes in domestic spending are much better, but at least that waste is being spent in our OWN country, instead of some other country that doesn't want us there - unless they are simply using us, temporarily, to gain power.

If you think that pursuing those that plot to kill you, instead of doing nothing and accepting the consequences of their actions as they destroy you and your neighbors, is "repeating the same mistakes", then you are really quite naive. Humanity has not evoloved to the point where the world can live in peace as one, striving for a better life for all. There are many that will kill to justify their greed or idiology. The terrorists that we went after have their origins and organizations based in the part of the world where we set up camp. We were not at war with the local citizens and the country in general, we were at war with the terrorist organizations that populate those areas. Interested in an aerial campaign? Pretty sure we were (are) doing that. Take down their infrastructure? Yep, we did that too. Bleed them out diplomatically?!!!!! They do not understand or care about diplomacy!!! Yes, lots of wasted dollars. Talk to Congress about that.

Paul: not nearly as many wasted dollars as we just spent the past decade - that accomplished the exact same thing.

I'm not naive. I'm just not an idiot that enjoys failing to learn from previous mistakes. History is a great teacher for those willing to learn.

Terrorists are not willing to learn. They just want to kill you.

Again, us killing some of them won't change this.
This has how its been for eons.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting the same results.

not the same, different :)

As Paul said, "There are many that will kill to justify their greed or idiology [ideology].", I guess that means the good 'ole USA as well, eh? Neo-con fool.

There's definitely some religious hypocrisy in this nation, but that's neither here nor there.

We also helped Mubarak into power. Then, when his usefulness was up, we wanted to help get him out. Except the Egyptians wanted us to stay out, and good for them to be honest. For better or worse, they executed their right of self rule. They didn't need us to implement Democracy.

The Beast of the East? I believe that was Lefty Driesell's dream for U of MD basketball back in the 70's to be the UCLA of the East......The killing will end when mankind gets his mind right. I don't see that happening. The world needs a few nights in the box.