Heres my take:

Personally I have never felt "unsafe" in this country. Its probably a mix of where I live (mid-western city (Denver) 1/2 and small resort town (Aspen) the other 1/2) and my views on the world. Even the day of 9/11 I never felt unsafe. Maybe I am or was wrong, but I do not and never have. However, I feel like our likelyhood of being attacked has increased since the Iraqi war. Why? Heres why.

After 9/11 most of the world was on our side. Some people felt like we sort of had it coming (which I believe to some extent) but overall they realized the bastards that did it needed to pay. Thus came the Afghani war which I, and almost all of the world supported. There, we were getting rid of a threat (though the threat hasn't been completely eliminated: Wheres Osama?) and a theocratic, women hating regiem. If there is good motivation for a war, that was it.

Then came the Iraqi war, which is what pissed people off. First, we go to war without the support of the United Nations. Why was this bad? Because most of the remaining credibility of the UN was lost by doing this. If they can't stop the leader of the western world from doing something, whats the good? This pissed off the Europeans, european muslums, and many well-educated people in the Middle East, and for good reason. Second, the war appeared/s oil-driven and imperialistic in nature. Salty has proven that it was not oil-driven, however that does not matter when that is how the war appears to the rest of the world. Europe and the Middle East could not understand the connection. "Osama attacked them and now they are attacking Saddam? WTF?" The Bush administration did a very poor job of tring to link the two together, and most everyone could see right through it. Then came the whole WMD issue, which was being (beieve it or not) helped by the inspectors. Iraq had not created WMD's since the Gulf War. This also angered the Middle east and has lead more people to become more radical. Then finally now that we are there, we are stuck. The insurgants want us gone, and the more people that die, and the longer we are there the more insurgents that rise up.

Here in simpler terms is what many European/Mid Easterns think of when they think of the Iraqi war:
-Faked by the bush admin under the pretense of WMD's
-Driven by Imperialistic Desires/Oil-wishes
-Driven by a Imperialistic ***-hole, ingnore everyone but the US of A, leader
-Creating more terror worldwide

Some of those may not be true, but that is how it is viewed. While I was in spain in a small mountain refugio i had a political discussion with a guy there and he put it like this (after the london bombings)
"We see these bombings in the western world now: We got attacked in Madrid, you on 9/11, and now london. But there are bombings EVERY DAY in Iraq right now! Saddam was bad but was it really worth it to possibly destabalize and terrorize a entire country? Now you, and the rest of the world are stuck in a hole. You can't pull out or the whole area goes down, but you are causing so much pain for the Iraqi people, as well as the world."

Then comes the arguement of "we havn't been attacked since 9/11. But how much of that is increased security, and how much is the Iraq war? We wern't attacked between the Iraq war and 9/11 either. So, that arguement may work, but really dosn't because there are no facts proving weather the Iraqi war caused this.

And finally is the Anti-american sentimant that was increased much by the Iraqi war. A friend of mine living in Dubai since 2002 told me that since the war, the Anti-americanism there has grown incredibly, making it at times scary to live there. Though there is a diffrence between Anti-american and terrorist, one leads into the other.

So are we safer? My opinion is that due to the Iraq war in particular, we are less safe. However, with the new security measures put in place since 9/11, we are more safe. Do they balance out? With the lack of attacks, the security measures probably come out ahead.
-Jeff

 

^^ Props for eloquently stating the situation post-9/11. I wish I could say it's time to bring the boys home, but that would only destabilize the area further.

Iraq has truly become a loose-loose situation. I will be schocked if another hawk becomes president in the next election.

 

because of the fine men and women willing to put their lives on the line in various clandestine services.

Who recv no praise, acknowledgements, etc...

that and dumb luck, and stupid enemies pretty much..

oh and of course the sf folks

intel means dick with out trigger pullers

 

What do u mean by Hawk? I haven't heard that term before. Does it mean Rep?



And +1 on the props. Well stated Jeff.

 

Hawk as in war hawk is what I think he meant.