Was there Al-Queda in Iraq before the US invasion?

[BanginJimmy]

1% is out of reach but in the 5-3% is quite feasible. The problem is some people are unable to have the proper education in order to succeed. Some poor areas have badly funded schools, where the majority of high school students don't go to college, because of the lack of equipment, adequate facilities, staff, etcetera. Some people are limited by their environments. I recently read in the news, that a Clayton county in Georgia is going to lose their diploma accreditation, they still get a diploma, but it wont be worth ****. All of the children that are unable to move out, or attend a private school practically have their future messed up already. This will be the first county to EVER lose their diploma accreditation. Link if you don't believe me: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...ykids0217.html

Our horrible school system, especially in the south, is a definate problem. I wish we could goto a voucher system to bring up the quality of education, but there are those, teachers unions, that like to keep their jobs secure and allowing private schools to compete fairly with govt schools would be the end of their jobs. Several counties have lower per student budgets than the US. They also have higher student to teach ratios so both of the "solutions" that people have come up with are proven not to be the case. Maybe our real problem is that this country has too many crutches for the lazy. Where in other industrialized countries you starve if you are too lazy to get a job, this country rewards you with a paycheck. Maybe a drastic cut in those crutch programs will enduce more people to become self sufficient.

To take this a bit further though. Those people that are in horrible schools have oppertunities to make good wages. It may take a bit longer to do, but in time those lower class people could move into the middle class in 1 generation. The next generation would then be able to send their kids to better schools which will allow them unlimited growth.

[DrivenMind]

The people you claim to have detained are none other than the middle eastern variation of a religious fundamentalist, which apparently everyone fails to realize is the same type of person who's currently running our country.

I'm not saying something good won't come out of our presence in Iraq, but what I am saying, is that whatever comes out of this shameful waste of human life, will be in the best monetary interest of the United States; for that, and that reason alone, I will never support this war, as it simply illustrates the hidden agenda in place in this "war."

[mad3nch1na]

Yea to prove his point all you have to do is wear a t-shirt to the airport with what APPEARS to be Arabic words on it, and I swear to God you're gonna go through hell. Technically, according to the patriot act a "terrorist" is anyone who incites terror. If any one is a terrorist it would be ourselves. We must focus on terrorism in our own country. How can we call our selves a great nation, when our youngest and smartest go on killing rampages for no reason?

[sararose]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/alq...dam/index.html

Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon Says

March 13, 2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military's first and only study looking into ties between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda showed no connection between the two, according to a military report released by the Pentagon.
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The report released by the Joint Forces Command five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq said it found no "smoking gun" after reviewing about 600,000 Iraqi documents captured in the invasion and looking at interviews of key Iraqi leadership held by the United States, Pentagon officials said.

The assessment of the al Qaeda connection and the insistence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were two primary elements in the Bush administration's arguments in favor of going to war with Iraq.

The Pentagon's report also contradicts then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said in September 2002 that the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are, in fact, al Qaeda in Iraq."

Although other groups, like the September 11 commission, have concluded that there was no link between Hussein and al Qaeda, the Pentagon was able to analyze much more information.

The documents cited in the report do reveal that Hussein supported a number of terrorists and terrorist activities inside and outside Iraq.

"The Iraqi regime was involved in regional and international terrorist operations prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq," according to the report.

Most of the terrorism was aimed at keeping Hussein and his Baath party in power, according to Pentagon officials.

"State sponsorship of terrorism became such a routine tool of state power that Iraq developed elaborate bureaucratic processes to monitor progress and accountability in the recruiting, training and resourcing of terrorists," according to the report.

The report cited such examples as training for car bombs and suicide bombings in 1999 and 2000, both of which U.S. and Iraqi forces have struggled to contain since the rise of the insurgency in summer 2003.

[0p7!mu5]

whoa....

[Spektrewing386]

personally, i dont believe that al-qaeda was in iraq with the iraqi government hosting them. Saddam was a strictly secular type of ruler and was paranoid up the ass. He would have viewed any terrorist organization in his country as a serious threat to his power.

[BanginJimmy]

personally, i dont believe that al-qaeda was in iraq with the iraqi government hosting them. Saddam was a strictly secular type of ruler and was paranoid up the ass. He would have viewed any terrorist organization in his country as a serious threat to his power.

Al-Qaeda was not in Iraq prior to the US invasion. Iraq did horbor, finance, and train hezbollah, islamic jihad, and a few other groups whose purpose was the destruction of Israel.