Should Other Nations Help in Iraq?

[AngryABCGirl]

Bush called for help from the UN and abroad on Iraq even though he was saying no a few months ago. Now I think Mongolia and Thailand are sending troops to Iraq and they're trying to get Japan to? I'm not sure, I was watching it on CNN and they posed the question, do Asian nations have any obligation to help the effort in Iraq now, does anybody besides the coalition.

On my flight back to LA, taking off from Toyko, there were a number of Japanese soldiers on the flight, which gave me kind of a bad feeling because there's a lot of controversey in Japan on whether they should send troops and how they can avoid engaging in combat becuase they are forbidden by their constitution to fight unless it's defending Japan in Japan. The men looked at least in their late 30s to 40s, probably with famillies, sad if they're really going to the mess the US got itself in.

[SunWuKong]

sad if they're really going to the mess the US got itself in.


US basically dictates Japanese foreign policies.

[hooligan]

no, heck no, it was a unilateral decision for the us to invade iraq. we've got to fix this ourselves. the situation in iraq is running some weird parallels with vietnam. (i had to make the correlation, sorry).

[pfc beansprout]

i say fuck no too....sorry...we didn't ask for help when we went in, now we're (bush) cryin for it...fuck that, make this issue break the back of this bullshit president.....WMD anyone, anywhere???

[hooligan]

i say fuck no too....sorry...we didn't ask for help when we went in, now we're (bush) cryin for it...fuck that, make this issue break the back of this bullshit president.....WMD anyone, anywhere?

in my pants

[Emperor_Mike]

National interests should dictate whether or not nations will intervene in Iraq. Somehow, given my relatively broad run-ins with foreign policy theory, I don't think any government is willing to put their soldiers in the line of fire on the account that it's "the right thing to do."

[BeTheReds]

Bush called for help from the UN and abroad on Iraq even though he was saying no a few months ago. Now I think Mongolia and Thailand are sending troops to Iraq and they're trying to get Japan to?


Not trying, Japan is already there. The prime minister forced the resolution through that Japan should send troops months ago. They have sent one company of troops I believe. Japanese troops arrived in Iraq in July.

Koizumi is doing his best to stay close to Bush. Maybe he feels that it is better to kiss America's ass and be number 2 than is is to kiss China's ass and not matter anymore.

[Ogumo]

This is americas war. Not a japanese war. Or thai war. Iraq is no threat to japan. Sigh...this is probably like you said bethereds to kiss the ass of america...

[VV o n g B a]

i say fuck no too....sorry...we didn't ask for help when we went in, now we're (bush) cryin for it...fuck that, make this issue break the back of this bullshit president.....WMD anyone, anywhere???
actually, we DID ask for help (or at least the appearance of it) going in. its just that no one wanted to give it (and understandably so).

still, as much as i didn't like the way bush went into iraq, we're ARE there, and it would be to all our benefit if we got other ppl to pay for the occupation. i'm not saying they have an obligation to do so, but just that it would benefit us as US citizens (or even those simply staying in the US w/o citizenship). otherwise, our deficit balloons to even more epic proportions and our military starts recruiting fewer and fewer young ppl which weakens us as a nation. we can conceivably kick bush outta office next year (if this nation isn't full of a bunch of dumbasses), but systemic weakeness in our economy and military could take a LOT longer to get over.

[nudel]

the whole thing is a mess. in the end, how many soldiers can france and germany send. what is the quality of other nations soldiers. too many cooks in the kitchen can cause a ton of problems. doesn't seem right that we do the dirty work and have to split the booty with other nations. also people don't know what war is anymore, they have this diluted sense of it. when you go to war, you destroy everything, men women children. you demoralize the population. this is what we did to germany and japan. kind of like a soldier in boot camp. demoralize them, break them, and then build them back up to what you want. the whole notion that war can be clean is ubsurd. surgical strikes are usless. this "clean" warfare allows for military conflicts to be too easy. if people understood that war = total destruction, we wouldn't be in a situation now. and the people complaining about the time away from home for soldiers is also ubsurd. nobody wants their friends and family members to come in a bag, but they are soldiers. they are professional killers in the military. the military is not a democracy. in the days of the grandparents, soldiers were sent off until the war was finished. ok now, thats what i think.

[Faithless]

no, heck no, it was a unilateral decision for the us to invade iraq. we've got to fix this ourselves. the situation in iraq is running some weird parallels with vietnam. (i had to make the correlation, sorry).

I hear you, but this thing is getting costly, and we need the economic relief.

This should be a poll too. :)

[AliBabaIncorporated]

doesn't seem right that we do the dirty work and have to split the booty with other nations.
What booty? Gas prices down? Any Iraqi historical artifacts now on display at the Smithsonian for our edification? Iraqi slaves to do all those dirty jobs over here that "Americans won't do?"

Even those evil oil companies who allegedly started the whole war are getting screwed here. Only one who might be said to be "benefitting" is Bechtel, but I wouldn't exactly call having your engineers and installations blown up as a benefit.

[Ogumo]

the whole thing is a mess. in the end, how many soldiers can france and germany send. what is the quality of other nations soldiers. too many cooks in the kitchen can cause a ton of problems. doesn't seem right that we do the dirty work and have to split the booty with other nations. also people don't know what war is anymore, they have this diluted sense of it. when you go to war, you destroy everything, men women children. you demoralize the population. this is what we did to germany and japan. kind of like a soldier in boot camp. demoralize them, break them, and then build them back up to what you want. the whole notion that war can be clean is ubsurd. surgical strikes are usless. this "clean" warfare allows for military conflicts to be too easy. if people understood that war = total destruction, we wouldn't be in a situation now. and the people complaining about the time away from home for soldiers is also ubsurd. nobody wants their friends and family members to come in a bag, but they are soldiers. they are professional killers in the military. the military is not a democracy. in the days of the grandparents, soldiers were sent off until the war was finished. ok now, thats what i think.


I agree. I must also say that japan and germany were burned to the floor. But america rebuilt them both. This was over 50 years ago. Now america is not good at building nations anymore. Look at afghanistan...it will be the same with iraq. I think the americans are just putting these people in a more worse situation...truth i cannot even say americans...all the nations involved will become responsible.

[sii-mon]

i dont agree with war, but glad the dictator has been dethroned, ill take my hat off to who ever sorts out the aftermath of iraq...what a mess..!