In every war there are always profiteers, even the Civil War and WWII. Americans both those who own businesses and those who work for them have profited from war.

I know Haliburton is making money(though I don't remember a lot of companies even wanting to bid the job), and the private contractors as well as U.S.civilians no working in Iraq are also making 2-3 times the income they made here doing the same job over there. So yes a lot of people are making money from the war against terrorism, but I don't think we invaded Iraq for profit. The access to Iraqi oil isn't a high enough return on the investment.

I would have to disagree with you on the Iraq had no threat of real WMD's issue. Did we know that Sadam didn't have access to chemical weapons, no we knew he had them and used them in the past, logoic would dictate that he would still have them available. The one thing we didn't know is where they were, and still don't. We do know that Sadam was seeking the material to make nukes, all of our enemies are, especially those in the ME. They aren't seeking nikes so they can build an ICBM and reach America, they want nukes to be able to threaten their neighbors and forve the U.S. and the rest of the West into maling economic concessions just as NK has done. They understand that the West has lost its collective nerve to fight for anything that might result in them not being liked or bloodshed. The last round of economic concessions by the west to NK proved that, this is why Iran wont back down. Had we given NK the nukes they are after, Ahmadinejad would be complying with the UN and the West, and the newly elected Pres. of France would not be considering war w/Iran as a possibility.

Sadam pushed the hand of the UN by not complying with UN sanctions over and over again, all he had to do was allow the UN inspectors unfettered access as he was required to and he would still be in power.

I do understand the principle of looking at history from both sides of the story to understand where you enemy is coming from, however the losers side of any conflict is always shaded by their holding a grudge. There are people in England, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Russia, and even members of our Southern states still hold a grudge and resent losing the fight with the Colonies or the U.S.(or within). We can spend all of the time we want trying to understand why certain groups hate the U.S., but it wont help us solve the problem. We can't stop supporting Isreal, some European nations have pulled back a little on their support, but if push came to shove they would support Isreal again. People think that if we stop buying the ME oil their hatred of us will go away, not at all. As soon as we stop buying their oil, their economies will dry up, only furthering their resentment for the West, nd they will continue to breed terrorists. The only solution for peace in Me, for solving the issues brought on by Colonialism and the creating the state of Isreal is through them becoming real democracies. Simply holding an election or putting "Democratic............" in front of a nations name doesn't make them a democracy. Regardless of why you think we got involved, whether it be WMD's, liberating the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator, establish a real democratic gov. in a muslim nation, or purely for money, we have the chance to actual cause a paradigm change in ME culture. A chgange that will bring peace to the region, not just with the West but with each other.

We are also not an occupying force in Iraq, if we were we wouldn't be going house to house fighting insurgents, we would sin0ply level an entire city block, portion of teh city, or the entire city. We aren't fighting the Iraqi people that much anymore, in several areas the Iraqi born insurgents are fighting along side coalition troops to rid Iraq of Al Queda. They have realized that their only hope for peace lies with the U.S. and the new gov. of Iraq., and not Al Queda. We have started turning the corner on Iraq, we have to give it more time, and unfortunately that means putting our soldiers in harms way. As I have said before we as a nation have moved all in in Iraq whether we want to be or not.


What better way of making ammends of this history then giving them the very thing the West takes for granted, real democracy and real freedom.