Would you have voted for the Iraq War?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Nope. I protested the war at the time.

[Beet]

I mean, an argument could be made that (1) U.S. economic sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s killed as many Iraqis per year through crippling its health system and economy, as the war did, and (2) were Iraq not divided between Sunni and Shiite, and were the Iraqi army kept intact, overthrowing the regime could have been more humane than continuing the sanctions regime. But under no circumstances can you get I think, a scenario where an invasion is more humane than simply lifting sanctions and treating Saddam the way Gadhafi was treated in the 2000s.

[Mr. Morden]

But even if you disregard that, we know Saddam was not a nice man, but do you seriously think that if he had stayed in power he would have killed more people since 2003 than were killed due to the war and instability his removal caused?

There's a decent chance that if the status quo had continued until the Arab Spring era, there would have been a Syria-like civil war.  Between that and the sanctions, would more people have died than have died IRL?  I don't know.

There's also the question of what the US would have done if an Arab Spring-type insurgency arose in Iraq in either the 2000s or 2010s in a scenario where the US was still enforcing the no-fly zones.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I can't say one way or the other because my opinion on war and the use of US ground troops was so profoundly shaped by Iraq. 

[politicallefty]

No (D). I was against it from the start. I was in 10th grade at the time and my US History class actually debated the possibility of going to war in February 2003. The class ended up splitting into thirds, which worked quite well for the purpose of debate. One third was pro-war, one third was anti-war, and the remaining third was effectively the jury to determine who won.

[Indy Texas]

But even if you disregard that, we know Saddam was not a nice man, but do you seriously think that if he had stayed in power he would have killed more people since 2003 than were killed due to the war and instability his removal caused?

There's a decent chance that if the status quo had continued until the Arab Spring era, there would have been a Syria-like civil war.  Between that and the sanctions, would more people have died than have died IRL?  I don't know.

There's also the question of what the US would have done if an Arab Spring-type insurgency arose in Iraq in either the 2000s or 2010s in a scenario where the US was still enforcing the no-fly zones.

I've heard the argument that the Arab Spring would not have happened absent the Iraq War; I don't agree with that assertion, since the political landscape of the rest of the Arab World wasn't significantly altered by the Iraq War.

I honestly think that if Saddam had still been in power in 2011, Iraq by that point would have just been a Middle Eastern version of North Korea: politically isolated from its neighbors and the major Western powers, and economically disastrous due to external sanctions and internal kleptocracy. I could see him more or less preventing social media from taking hold in his country, which would have made it considerably more difficult for opposition groups to organize.

It would be interesting to see how Saddam would have reacted to the Syrian civil war, since he despised the Assads.

[TNF]

No (I/O)

[OSR stands with Israel]

Yes.

The best time to attack Iraq was in 1991 when we had 700,000 troops on the ground and nearly had the Republican Gaurd encircled and destroyed. They made up a lot of the insurgency from 2003-2008 and alot of ISIS but since they are completly destroyed Iraq doesnt fall into choas

[Dr. Cynic]

No then, No now.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Yes (R), but with hindsight, I probably would have voted against it.

[Mr. Illini]

Absolutely not

[© tweed]

I was a 12 yr old Democrat in tears on 03/19/03.

[Eraserhead]

Yes.

Why?

[NewYorkExpress]

No, unless the coalition presented involved more than token troops. and with a requirement that Congress (preferably the House and Senate intelligence committees) do its own fact-findings first.

The invasion was supposedly a "coalition", and yet many countries only sent the minimum, while sending support (if even that).

Taking out Saddam was a admirable goal, but it shouldn't have been done on the backs of only American troops, for a political calculus that made no sense.

That said if Bush had just said "we're going to get Saddam" rather than make some bullcrap about yellowcake uranium, I might have supported it.  It was the blatant lying about the motive that turned me off.

[Vosem]

At the time, almost certainly. Now, probably not. Voted Yes (R ). Still think the withdrawal was a bigger blunder, though.

[courts]

no at the time i thought the idea of iraq becoming a happy multicultural liberal democracy with mcdonalds everywhere was laughable

[Dancing with Myself]

I can't say one way or the other because my opinion on war and the use of US ground troops was so profoundly shaped by Iraq. 

^ This. I was  9 going on 10 when we hit Iraq when W was President.

If I was my age now around 2003 I'd probably have been against it.  Instead I'd would have wanted to focus on Al-Quaida and Bin Laden.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Yes (R).  Still not ENTIRELY convinced things would be better had we not ousted Hussein.

[Adam Griffin]

No. The ramp-up to the war was what largely made me a Democrat in the first place.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

With and without hindsight, no (R).

[Ebowed]

No. The ramp-up to the war was what largely made me a Democrat in the first place.

Likewise.

[Gustaf]

My view has always been that the sectarian violence in Iraq was inevitable and would have happened under any reasonable post-Saddam scenario. I generally suspect the US presence mitigated the harms of that violence.

[Smash255]

Considering I disagreed with the War Iraq at the time, easily no.

[RINO Tom]

Yes (R)

[jaichind]

No.  I was R at the time.  It was the Iraq war that made me change my identification from R as I was opposed to it from the beginning, even in 2002.  I did not vote for a GOP candidate (except judges) after 2003 until 2008.  Up until then every vote I ever cast has been for GOP.