Posted on 03/22/2023 7:56:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
“Jut because Sadam Hussein was executed doesn’t mean that there were no 9/11 related terrorists in Iraq. Remember Abu Al Zarqawi? he was just one of the many, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS”
None of those were 9/11 related.
One of the worst mistakes we made was not realizing that removing Saddam would unleash anarchy and empower 100 different terrorist groups.
I was fooled into being totally for it. But before Saddam was hung and the insurrection had begun, I expressed that we should put him back in power to keep Iran out. Our war in Iraq was a giant victory for Iran.
Now looking back, Bush I gave us Gulf 1, which gave us 911, which gave us Gulf 2, Afghanistan, Arab Spring, expanding NATO, Deep State, etc., ad nauseum, and now Ukraine, which brings us to thermonuclear wsr.
It was a failure, in nearly every regard
By taking out Saddam, Iraq was turned over to Shia/Iran influence.
But in another twist, Saudi Arabia (who we were ostensibly protecting from Saddam) now has a peace treaty with Iran - brokered by China! A sign of the present neocon/Biden utter stupidity, but also a slap in the face to the USA
Muqtada al Sadr, whose life was only spared when Al-Sistani advised the USA not to kill him, formed the Madhi Army (which killed hundreds of Americans) and now controls the largest political party in Iraq. He and Shia factions even chased the US Consulate out of Basra in 2018
The Sunni-awakening, funded by the USA, then morphed into ISIS.
We were accused of waging a war for oil - but who is largest operator in Iraq’s largest oilfields? China National Petroleum
I see ZERO gains for all our blood and treasure
And if you can imagine it possible, our “elites” in DC are making even bigger blunders in Ukraine.
No
“I believe that Bush believed everything he said.”
I also believed in what Bush did back then, and I think that context is lost.
We saw in the 1990s the collapse of the communism and the end of many Asian and Latin American dictatorships and all of those nations by 2003 had emerged as America friendly free-market democracies.
It really seemed like if you remove the despots people around the world would chose the American way of life.
What destroyed that progress was Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. The same year as the Iraq War America began embracing radical social values.
Being Western was no longer about having a washing machine and freedom of speech, it was about embracing values that most of the world considered an anathema.
I think James Earl Jones said it best, we should’ve stayed and finished the first gulf war in 1990-1991.
And probably the rapture.
Bingo! That is it in a nutshell.
We did much better in Germany and Japan post-WWII. The troublesome distinction, of course, is that Germany was not surrounded by Nazi states and Japan stood alone with its militaristic history - they were not surrounded by fellow-believers and it was much easier to crush those cultures to dust.
How to deal with Iraq after the shooting stopped was/is more problematic and, aside from the courage to take forceful steps, was perhaps beyond our current beliefs and skill set.
Nope.
Unless destabilizing the entire region was the goal.
We also had to occupy German and Japan for years, before they were able to be independent again.
You think we’ll ever occupy Russia like that?
I’m having a serious case of “Mandela Effect” here. I and several other people I know remember reports and eyewitness accounts of WMDs being found in Iraq. For a while it seemed like there was a new stash being found every week. Yet the media continually insists those WMDs never existed.
Anybody else remember it that way?
To make the invasion legal, an imminent threat to American lives, or a plausible belief of it, was needed. White House legal council informed W he needed an imminent threat to invade, and the WMD stories started one week later. The invasion to get Saddam had nothing to do with bad intelligence.
When the neocon warmongers in the deep state want a war, they’ll do whatever it takes to get it.
Just as they are now doing in Ukraine.
Bush blames “faulty intelligence”. The fact is HE put neocons at the head of every intelligence agency, the Pentagon and even every office in the White House.
Then he played dumb.
“I was leery about how the Iranians would benefit from it.”
I always thought we should have done regime change for Iran instead.
It was right decision...for Iran.
One of the inspectors said...Unless they take us to them, we’ll never find them.
He wasn’t playing
He wasn’t playing
“Just as they are now doing in Ukraine.”
You would have supported Adolph over his invasion of Poland? Oh well.
I saw an interview with the guy would was the Iraqi defense minister on 9-11. He said had to wake Saddam Hussein up and break the news of what had happened. Saddam said, “So what? We had nothing to do with it!” The general said, “But we’re gonna be blamed for it!”
I think Iraq was playing a dangerous game. They wanted the world, and especially Iran to think they had big stockpiles of chemical weapons when they didn’t (Though they did have some.) as a deterrent. So they kept giving the inspectors the runaround trying to look guilty when they were not. It caught up with them because they faked it too well.
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