Lessons learnt from Iraq war and reforms required for checking future administrations from jumping head long?

Question

Lessons learnt from Iraq war and reforms required for checking future administrations from jumping head long?

Answer 1

We should have learned these lessons from the Vietnam War!  We should have learned that we can't win a war fought against an insurgency--insurgencies are almost always eventually successful.  That we shouldn't get involved in someone else's civil war.  And that war should be considered only as a last resort.  And that the president should listen to the real experts--the military men, and his own dad!--rather than to naive ideologues.  And that we shouldn't vote for lazy, incurious, idealistic slackers who don't have any real experience or expertise.

But I also think one of the major problems is that we just spend too much on weapons and military.  We spend more than the rest of the world combined, and if you just consider al the countries that could conceivably threaten us, we spend more than 20 times as much as all of them put together.  Besides wasting all that money, the effect is that--as the old saying goes--when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.  It's just too easy for any American president to order out the bombers.  So long as there aren't too many American casualties, there is no downside to using bombs in place of diplomacy or compromise.

We already have international agreements and treaties whose purpose was originally to prevent or avoid war. And these treaties have the force of law in the US.  Bush just ignored them, just as he did our own domestic laws.  If a president can simply choose to ignore laws, there's no point in passing more laws.   The FISA law (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) was written to reform domestic spying after Nixon misused the CIA. It would have prevent many abuses of the Bush administration--if they'd been bound by it.

The only real reform is for the American people to better inform themselves and take a more active part in their government.  Democracy is a participatory process, not a spectator sport.  It might also help if we could get over our 'anti-intellectualism', our distrust of anyone who seems to know what he's talking about.

I forget who said it but truer words were never spoken: We get the government we deserve.

Answer 2

we need to restructure the government - we need to outlaw pay outs for votes.

the presidency has become king - george has loaded the office of president down with too much power for anyone to give up.

our present form of government is broken beyond repair - everyone knows it and some what that power - the people are just heart sick - we know we have fallen.

Answer 3

Decode this lyrics " One moment in time"

Back in the past after the Liberation of Freedom for the good of mankind from world war two.

Luke 24.44-45, 47-49

Answer 4

The US government is the worst, most corrupt government there is...

... except for all the other ones which are worse.

Fortunately, we have non-violent means to address change in government, including both laws and politicians.  Some of those means are cyclical called elections and some are reserved for gross crimes and incompetence such as impeachment and recall elections.  Never should politics be the reason for the latter two means.

To know the ground truth about Iraq and Afghanistan visit my blog: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DfkctJU7d...