Iraq is Burning

[B-Man]

it's sad that we had to lose so many more Americans over neocon lies. They took advantage of Americans' trust and good nature

 

Looking Back at Iraq : It is historically inaccurate to say the war was cooked up by Bush alone.

by Victor Davis Hanson

 

So who lost Iraq?

 

The blame game mostly fingers incompetent Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Or is Barack Obama culpable for pulling out all American troops monitoring the success of the 2007–08 surge?

 

Some still blame George W. Bush for going into Iraq in 2003 in the first place to remove Saddam Hussein.

 

One can blame almost anyone, but one must not invent facts to support an argument.

 

Do we remember that Bill Clinton signed into law the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 that supported regime change in Iraq? He gave an eloquent speech on the dangers of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

 

 

In 2002, both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to pass a resolution authorizing the removal of Saddam Hussein by force. Senators such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Harry Reid offered moving arguments on the Senate floor why we should depose Saddam in a post-9/11 climate.

 

Democratic stalwarts such as Senator Jay Rockefeller and Representative Nancy Pelosi lectured us about the dangers of Saddam’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. They drew on the same classified domestic- and foreign-intelligence reports that had led Bush to call for Saddam’s forcible removal.

 

The Bush administration, like members of Congress, underestimated the costs of the war and erred in focusing almost exclusively on Saddam’s supposed stockpiles of weapons. But otherwise, the war was legally authorized on 23 writs. Most of them had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction and were unaffected by the later mysterious absence of such weapons — which is all the more mysterious given that troves of WMD have turned up in nearby Syria and more recently in Iraqi bunkers overrun by Islamic militants.

 

{snip}

 

The 2007–08 surge engineered by General David Petraeus ended much of the violence. By Obama’s second year in office, American fatalities had been reduced to far below the monthly accident rate in the U.S. military. “An extraordinary achievement,” Obama said of the “stable” and “self-reliant” Iraq that he inherited — and left.

 

Prior to our invasion, the Kurds were a persecuted people who had been gassed, slaughtered, and robbed of all rights by Saddam. In contrast, today a semi-autonomous Kurdistan is a free-market, consensual society of tolerance that, along with Israel, is one of the few humane places in the Middle East.

 

In 2003, the New York Times estimated that Saddam Hussein had killed perhaps about 1 million of his own people. That translated into about 40,000 deaths for each year he led Iraq.

 

A Saddam-led Iraq over the last decade would not have been a peaceable place.

 

We can also imagine that Saddam would not have sat idly by the last decade as Pakistan and North Korea openly sold their nuclear expertise, and as rival Iran pressed ahead with its nuclear enrichment program.

 

Nor should we forget that the U.S. military decimated al-Qaeda in Iraq. Tens of thousands of foreign terrorists flocked to Anbar Province and there met their deaths. When Obama later declared that al-Qaeda was “on the run,” it was largely because it had been nearly obliterated in Iraq.

 

Launching a costly campaign to remove Saddam may or may not have been a wise move. But it is historically inaccurate to suggest that the Iraq War was cooked up by George W. Bush alone — or that it did not do enormous damage to al-Qaeda, bring salvation for the Kurds, and by 2009 provide a rare chance for the now-bickering Iraqis to make something out of what Saddam had tried to destroy.

[truth on hold]

who said Neocons were unique to either party? Geesh, what a moron

[DC Tom]

who said Neocons were unique to either party? Geesh, what a moron

 

Yeah, !@#$ those liberal Democratic neocon RINOs.

 

[truth on hold]

Yeah, !@#$ those liberal Democratic neocon RINOs.

 

neocons = new conservatives = their roots are in the democratic party

 

Joe Lieberman (Democrat at the time) sponsored the Bill authorizing war. Judy "smoking gun" Miller, at the time writer for the liberal NY Times. etc etc etc

 

The neocon pervasiveness in government and the media is what made them so insidious and effective

[B-Man]

neocons = new conservatives = their roots are in the democratic party

 

Joe Lieberman (Democrat at the time) sponsored the Bill authorizing war. Judy "smoking gun" Miller, at the time writer for the liberal NY Times. etc etc etc

 

The neocon pervasiveness in government and the media is what made them so insidious and effective

 

I have little interest in what term your fevered little mind uses............neocon, liberal, anything.

 

The point is, if you had bothered to read (and comprehend) the article, you would give up on that ridiculous "lied us into" B.S.

 

but we know you won't.

 

.

[truth on hold]

I have little interest in what term your fevered little mind uses............neocon, liberal, anything.

 

The point is, if you had bothered to read (and comprehend) the article, you would give up on that ridiculous "lied us into" B.S.

 

but we know you won't.

 

.

Smoking gun? NO

WMDs? NO

Saddam working with Al Qaeda? HARDLY, AL QAEDA HATED SADDAM

 

1,000's of Americans died in vain on false pretense? SADLY, YES

[IDBillzFan]

it's sad that we had to lose so many more Americans over neocon lies. They took advantage of Americans' trust and good nature

 

Hillary Clinton is a neocon?

[truth on hold]

 

 

Hillary Clinton is a neocon?

Hillary is whatever's most convenient at the time for her political career.

[DC Tom]

Hillary is whatever's most convenient at the time for her political career.

 

Well, we agree on at least one thing.

[GG]

Hillary Clinton is a neocon?

 

Don't worry, before this debate is over, her name will be Hillary Clintonstein.

[DC Tom]

Don't worry, before this debate is over, her name will be Hillary Clintonstein.

 

And our first black Jewish poor female gay president.

[Nanker]

Allow me to beat up on JFK and LBJ for their hand in getting 58,000 Americans killed in THEIR WAR in Vietnam.

[GG]

 

 

And our first black Jewish poor female gay president.

 

Finally releasing The Jerk sequel?

[Tiberius]

It was Bush's war, he was the leader that pushed the country into that disaster using 9-11 and the fear around to make it seem like we had to invade or we die. It wasn't anyone else but the Bush administration that argued that drones with chemical weapons, yellow cake, aluminum tubes, mobile weapons labs, al-quid was working with Saddam, etc were real dangers and an immediate threat.

 

Bush's war, Bush's legacy

 

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEVxbmY61TbgMABELBGOd_?p=mission+accomplished+bush&fr=ipad&fr2=piv-web

[Nanker]

[truth on hold]

 

Good video, as I said earlier the system of checks and balances broke down, still exists today, and extends right thru to the corporate ass kissy media. The only way to prevent it from happening again is calling them all out and making them pay at the ballots. Here's another good video, its directed at Bush, but really applies to all of the lackies in media and government

 

Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Reacts to Geor…:

Edited June 27, 2014 by Joe_the_6_pack

[Tiberius]

 

Many quotes taken out of context, sure many people thought that Saddam was a bad guy but there were other solutions put forward. Those people were supporting a get tough policy on Saddam that went short of war and even Hilliary Clinton said she approved Bush's War resolution only to give Bush a baragaining chip to force Saddam to allow even more inspections. Who was the last person to order Hans Blix out of Iraq? It wasn't Saddam Hussein.

 

 

This was the war that no one wanted more than Bush.

[DC Tom]

Many quotes taken out of context, sure many people thought that Saddam was a bad guy but there were other solutions put forward. Those people were supporting a get tough policy on Saddam that went short of war and even Hilliary Clinton said she approved Bush's War resolution only to give Bush a baragaining chip to force Saddam to allow even more inspections. Who was the last person to order Hans Blix out of Iraq? It wasn't Saddam Hussein.

 

Then read the Congressional Record and get the context yourself.

[Tiberius]

 

 

Then read the Congressional Record and get the context yourself.

I don't need to Tom, I lived through it, remember it and don't need a Conservative propaganda video to remind me. Even many of those people that voted for the authorization on the assumption that Bush would exhaust all options before going to war and get most of our allies lined up. That didn't happen

[DC Tom]

I don't need to Tom, I lived through it, remember it and don't need a Conservative propaganda video to remind me. Even many of those people that voted for the authorization on the assumption that Bush would exhaust all options before going to war and get most of our allies lined up. That didn't happen

 

Then apparently you do need to.