"Saddam Hussein has yellow cake uranium" GW Bush

"I don't recall" Ronald Reagan about Iran/Contra

"I am not a crook" Richard Nixon

The only thing worse than someone who changes his mind, when presented with additional information, is someone who doesn't

I'll quit kidding around and get to the point. We should not interfere in a religious based conflict in Syria and Iraq. ISIS is not a threat to the US. Also, the government of Iraq made it quite clear they did want US troops when they refused to sign a status of forces agreement.

If we halt our meddling in the attempted establishment of a caliphate, ISIS will soon reach the Shia holy sites in Karbala. Either this or an attack on Baghdad will trigger an armed response by Iran. Thus ISIS and Iran will move into a mutual destruction scenario and greatly reduce the ability of either to project outside of SW Asia.

WWI was mentioned earlier in this thread. I am more than willing to debate the actions of President Wilson and manipulation of the media that drew us into the war. I see the issue of the RMS Lusitania has been thrown up. Don't forget Germany had warned Britain and the Lusitania was transporting munitions and sub components. Germany gave this warning prior to the sinking:

Notice!
Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
Imperial German Embassy
Washington, D.C. 22 April 1915

Spexxvet - You are aware Iraq had 550 tons of yellow cake uranium stockpiled? In 2008, the US facilitated the transfer to Canada. Also prior to the OIF, Italian military intelligence created false reports of attempts by Iraq to purchase yellow cake from Niger. These reports were fed to the US on at least three separate occasions and to Great Britain, thus creating a second source falsely verified by allied intelligence agencies.

I trust snopes.com, who reports that the yellow cake, of which you speak, was not WMD, it was reactor-grade uranium, stored (and under UN supervision) since 1991. There was no need to lose 3,000+ Amercians and add trillions to the national debt for that.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/yellowcake.asp

ISIS has done a lot more to the US did than Saddam Hussein ever did to justify the first two "interventions." That said, getting back in is a major mistake. The only way the people in the region--Kurds, Turks, Saudis, etc. will fight as if their necks are on the line is for their necks to actually be on the line. We can't win it for them, and it's wrong on principle to try.

Yellowcake (urania) is yellowcake. It has to be refined to be used as fuel or WMD. BTW, Snopes is not the end all authenticator. It's a couple of people using Google

Paul Bremer and other extremists said otherwise last week. Bremer said we should spend maybe another ten years solving this problem. Deja Vue Nam. He was reciting the Domino theory without describing it by name. Either we stop them there or we must stop them here.

Bremer, who massacred many of the 5000 American soldiers (on direct orders from Rumsfeld), has no problem massacring another 5000 for no useful purpose. You would think he learned why his CPA order #1 and CPA order #2 violating the most basic military principles defined 2500 years ago. Nope. He still says that was correct. He blames others for a resulting insurgency.

Bremer publically denies his ignorance because he is not a moderate; because he is an extremist. Same types also created Nam.

The original mistake was defined here over a decade ago: Exit Strategy. And here in 2003 Gen'l Wes Clark says Deja vue Nam - if we listen again to wacko extremists who also said, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter." And who cannot account for $billions - pallets of $100 bills - shipped to Iraq.

And it has been under the supervision of the UN since king george I.