The current situation in Afghanistan is undeniably linked to the 1990-1991 Gulf War. This earlier conflict could have been prevented if then President George H.W. Bush had told Saddam Hussein that Iraq would be blasted back into the stone age if the Butcher of Baghdad even considered invading Kuwait before it happened. Saddam definitely would have backed down if he had been threatened with retaliation before he made that disastrous decision. But the first Bush administration misjudged him and mismanaged the situation to allow a minor crisis to grow into a major one. Even though the president had been a former director of the C.I.A., he was clueless or pretended to be clueless when dealing with this situation. Maybe he thought that involving the United States in a war would make him more popular than using diplomacy to prevent one. His approval ratings did hit an all-time high just after the war before the collective failure of his foreign and domestic policies led to his defeat in a landslide in 1992.

Before the Gulf War, Osama Bin Laden had actually been an ally of the U.S.-supported mujahedeen fighting to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan during the 1980's. However, U.S. involvement in the Gulf War made him an enemy of ours for life. In his mind, nothing could justify the increased U.S. military presence in the area, so he and his supporters have worked for our destruction ever since. 9-11 never would have happened if we had used diplomacy to prevent the Gulf War.

As we know now, the second war in Iraq was started by outright lies of former President George W. Bush and his administration so that their friends and allies in the defense industries could make billions destroying and rebuilding the country needlessly, like Dick Cheney's company, Halliburton, did with their no-bid contracts. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq despite endless lies saying there were.

Now we have seen that the administrations of Bush 1 and 2 have caused twenty years of wars in the Middle East, made us a target for terrorists, and wasted trillions of dollars of your money. Don't let Republicans to destroy our foreign policy once again.  Support the truth. Tell your leaders what they should be doing to prevent the mistakes of the past from happening again. It's not our duty to rebuild Gaza or to try to resettle the Palestinians living there. The only place they want to be resettled is on property in Israel they claim and only the Israeli government can do that. There are up to two million Palestinians already living in Israel today, so resettlement can work. A peaceful solution fair to all sides should be implemented.