Originally Posted by: PonyOne i am. believe me, i am. [/QUOTE]
I know you are, it's obvious ... And so is nearly 50% of the americans , but unfortunately it wasn't enough to change .

Originally Posted by: PonyOne the only way Saddam maintained law and order was via fear and and the fact that he came from that country, he knew that country, and the people who patrolled it for him came from that country and knew it... Bush just came in from the outside, not knowing the country, with a non-native force and expects to have the nation love him after having obliterated all of its infrastructure?

Exaclty , they hated Saddam for being a dictator , but still , he's one of them ... Having a national dictator is still better than remembering years of civilised modern British occupation.
Even when he fought against ethnic groups , it never appeared as racism or discremenation (and it never really was) , cuz his government cabinet included every major ethnic group in Iraq (shi'a muslims , christians , and of course sunni muslims) .
I'm not defending him of course.

[QUOTE=PonyOne] the iraqi populace was fairly happy about us coming in in 1991, and many saw us as liberators... and then Bush I pulled out... come on, one of the things you learn in high school as a guy is that pulling out doesn't save your ass at all, okay, we pull out and all those people who were cheering us or happy were retaken by Saddam and many were tortured or executed... now, we come back a decade later and of course people are gonig to be suspicious. but even still earlier on we had a chance, and Bush didn't take it. now we're trying, and it's too late. they hate us. and it has nothing to do with them being "terrorists."

Actually in '91 , people weren't really happy about the US invading their nation , but at least they were ready to give up to the consequences of their own fault of invading Kuwait ... Yes , it wouldn't have been any close to the mess that it is right now.