>Let's backup and remember the situation back then. 9/11 was still in our thoughts and faulty intelligence led both our congress and our president into the faulty belief that a war in Iraq was justified and even necessary to protect America. We now know that the intelligence was WRONG, but you cannot accurately state that the U.S. ran into a war without thinking at the time. It was seriously considered everyday by most Americans and voted on by our congress.

Well, not seriosely enough in that case. More accurate wld be to say
that post 9/11 euphoria played role in decision to attack Afganistan.
Strong/wise leadership role is prevent public euphoria from yielding wrong decisions, not to fuel it.

>Other than the damage done to Iraq, the next most serious concern is how to prevent the same thing from ocurring again. Most Americans (until now) thought such a thing would never happen here. Now we know better and no one trusts our leadership today.
>Keep in mind as well that many Americans did not believe the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq even given the intelligence (and Colin Powell's briefing) at the time. Today, many Americans believe the U.S. should not enter any conflict unless the threat is here, inside our borders, on our own land. That is similar to the attitude of the public during WWII before the Japanese attacked and why there was little support for our participation in WWII up until then.

World has evolved from ww2 situation. US should be leader in promoting
legality, peace and prosperity for all, in post coldwar world. In a recent past and at the moment USA is rocking world boat in a very bad way, where in fact it had power (Power=responsability?) to stear it twd calm seas.
Playing exorcist in the middle east is not something that will bring any good any way it turns.
Will take few more US governments to put things back in order, provided
that American public is higly aware and loud enough in demanding radical change of course aiming twds peace and reconcilliation.
I am sure that great majority of ordinary Americans wants peace and prosperity for themselves and the rest of the world, but somehow this is not materialised (just yet) in having government leading this way.
I believe this change will happen soon enough.

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>>>>>If my grandfather was still alive I would make sure he understood how you Europeans feel about our participation, but alas he is not so he will never know.
>>>>
>>>>If my two grandfathers were still alive, I would do the same. I guess I could count my wife's grandpa, who stormed the beaches at Normandy, but that is a minor detail. Any yahoo can do that. It takes a real man to sit on a message board and throw eggs at Americans day after day.
>>>
>>>If the US hadn't been so determinedly isolationist, my maternal grandfather might have lived a lot longer instead of being murdered at Auschwitz. We should be embarrassed about how long it took us to get into World War II.
>>>
>>>Tamar
>>
>>Millions died in Europe durring WW2. But You cannot blame US for not
>>jumping the gun right away. They went into the war after being attacked. Nothing to be ashamed of. More likely proud for what they have done back then.
>>
>>Nowadays however, they do it without giving it second tought. Doubt to menu people will be proud of that 15 years from now.