When we vilify our enemies

TowerOfBabel: Sometimes, actions do speak louder than words. Our decisions drove them to action.
It will take a lot of words to overcome past mistakes, but it will happen if there is as much dedication towards diplomacy as there is military.

Blackflag: Well there has been. We REBUILT those countries when we could have let them rot. Supplied them with governments, ideals, security training, weapons, money, so much money.

TowerOfBabel: Well there has been. We REBUILT those countries when we could have let them rot. Supplied them with governments, ideals, security training, weapons, money, so much money.
We destroyed these countries governments before we rebuilt them. As I said, sometimes actions do speak louder than words. We forced change, when we should have been convincing people to accept it voluntarily. Every sorry soul who died in the power vacuum we left behind is on us. It is time to atone for our sins. The time for vain justifications is long over.

Blackflag: Well there has been. We REBUILT those countries when we could have let them rot. Supplied them with governments, ideals, security training, weapons, money, so much money.

Blackflag: Well we got rid of a dictator who was killing his own people and a militant fundamentalist government that was topping the list of human rights violations so...

TowerOfBabel: You need to stop refreshing when you have a reply open, or it will keep replicating your past post.

Blackflag: Wait what?

TowerOfBabel: Well we got rid of a dictator who was killing his own people and a militant fundamentalist government that was topping the list of human rights violations so...
A dictator who killed people........... with our weapons. Saddam Hussien killed people in the 80's, and that is a very hard act to forgive, and we never did.

George H.W Bush once said something I highly respect after the Gulf War. Paraphrasing, "As much as I would love to oust Saddam Hussien, the consequences for his removal are far more severe than the benefits." Did we really save anyone after his removal, because it looks like we unleashed even more chaos in an already unstable country?

I truly doubt the motivations behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but those doubts are beside the point.

I did a poor job of restating my point in the last post. We forced change on a country that wasn't ready for it.
We should of been persuading the populace to want to change. We caused so much death and destruction through our ignorance.

Blackflag: Oh I agree totally.

Hindsight is 20/20 and our meddling in the region has caused its present chaos.

TowerOfBabel: Then you don't totally disagree with how I would propose aiding the Middle East? I view words, public opinion, and information as the leading weapons of waging a war. Perhaps we need to dedicate more time to advancing these peaceful means.

Blackflag: I don't disagree. The problem is I'm just not sure what kind of solutions will work on ISIS. I don't have a solution presently.

TowerOfBabel: That statement shows more wisdom than you might think.