“Yup. Defending is the key. I fail to see how occupying a foreign country qualifies as “defending”. Looks darned offensive to me.”

I am not about to give a history lesson of the events leading up to the Iraq war. It was clearly (based on all of the facts) defensive. Saddam had WMD’s. We know this as fact because he used them on his own people. He was a brutal dictator responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people and he supported groups that identified their main objective as wiping the US off the face of the earth. The church is based in the US so without a free US the church will be negatively impacted.

You cite that after Christ came to earth “we have been shown a better way”. Are you implying that we are not to fight and kill even to defend truth? In case you forgot, some of the early church members formed the mormon battalion. They were sent to fight for truth and right. Were they too evil?

I don’t care much for Rich’s ranting either.

But I don’t give these guys the leeway you do either.

Let me summarize it for you:

The Bush administration.

It’s not always wrong.

It’s not always dishonest.

But it is, always, incompetent.

We’ve had six years of these doofuses clowning around with our national destiny and it’s high time someone took the car keys away.

Then the Revolutionary War, in your opinion, should never have occurred. I wonder what the consequences would have been re: the Restoration of the Gospel.
Be careful how you respond, because contradictions will be too easy to pick out given your line of argument.
Be careful also how you interpret the Constitution and its amending documents, since the arguments you seem to put forth have alternative interpretations as well. Quoting scripture to appear righteous won’t work either.
And just as an addendum, lying down and doing nothing while your enemy plans your demise carries very serious consequences as well – eternally.

Do you really think that taking Saddam out has given us an opportunity to preach the gospel in Iraq? This guy was about as non-Muslim as they come. What’s rushing in to fill the power vacuum we created HATES Christianity. That will be some feat, selling Mormon theology to Islamic Jihadists.

Jack said:

I’ll put my money on a good dose of capitalism being the economic salvation of Iraq.

Capitalism isn’t a sure-fire way to democracy. Just look at what’s happened in Russia. While there are several folks getting filthy rich over there at the moment, your average Russian is far worse off than ever. A lot of money that’s being made in Russia is leaving the country and ending up in Swiss bank accounts, and not getting recycled into the local economy.

Yeah, some oil revenue may “trickle down” (after the Exxon execs bleed it off into their multi-billion dollar US bank accounts) into the local Iraqi economy, but it also may not. At this point it’s only wishful thinking. Meanwhile, millions of Iraqis have fled their homes as civil war rages. The country is an absolute mess, getting worse. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put that humptydumpty back together again.

Let’s suppose that you’re right about western corporations one day dominating the oil industry in Iraq. What is likely to happen if such is the case? Well I’ll tell you what I think is likely to happen. Even if the west were to own 2/3′s of the oil industry there would be such an incredible up-swing of commercial growth in local appendaged industries that the country would be economically tranformed practically overnight. This would mean better infrastructure; better education; better health care; etc.

This is what was happening in Venezuela 25 years ago until they foolishly kicked the Amreicans out. And now, after a continual downward spiral, they’re stuck with the likes of Chavez. And how much oil money do you think he is making available to the public?

Surely it would be a terrible thing if the war in Iraq were being fought merely over oil; over money. But as no one is able to prove that such is the singular underlying motive, I’ll put my money on a good dose of capitalism being the economic salvation of Iraq.

Yup. Defending is the key. I fail to see how occupying a foreign country qualifies as “defending”. Looks darned offensive to me.

And I note, for what it’s worth, the Nephites’ military campaigns were far more successful prior to the visit of the Savior in 3rd Nephi than they ever were afterwards. After the Savior’s visit, they had been given a higher law. We, too, are under that higher law, so, in my opinion, citing scriptural wars entered into prior to the coming of the Savior in the flesh as some kind of example of righteousness are no longer of any consequence to us whatsover. We have been shown a better way, and we are damned insofar as we refuse to follow it.

As sad as it is, innocent people die.

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.” — Thomas Jefferson

Thanks for the edit. That bit was too much for me and I couldn’t call it back. Thanks again.

Admin.: You’re welcome, Larry. Sometimes we are just carried away…

Why are you on this blog if you aren’t LDS? Just curious to know why you care so much about LDS issues if you are not LDS.