the war was right, how it was conducted was wrong.
we shouldn’t have sent in ground troops, but instead leveled the place from 1,000 miles away.
“...he tried to kill my Dad!” W
The only winner was Iran.
I was there 20 years ago. It wasn’t worth it after we caught Saddam. That should have been the end.
“All were Republicans who supported the war in 2002, 2003 and beyond.”
There is the problem
People need to learn to oppose wars before they happen, rather than afterwards when the outcome is not what they expected. FR was overwhelmingly supportive of the war when it was happening.
My unanswered question about all of this is, why did we have such a bad intelligence about these weapons of mass destruction?
Are the CIA and other intelligence agencies just that inept that they were fooled by someone that Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction?
Who exactly planted the seed in the minds of our intelligence agencies that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
Who stood the gain from us starting a war of choice in Iraq? And were they the purveyors of false information to our intelligence community?
Simply was not. At the time Iraq and Saddam Hussein was the biggest threat to the 9/11 Saudis and their grip on Arabia. Bush, who’s family made a fortune in the oil business colluding with the Saudis, dutifully invaded Iraq, destroyed the threat , got over 8,000 Americans killed, tens of thousands more maimed and severely damaged the American economy. Violent Islamic fundamentalist sprang from the ruins of Iraq including Saudi funded ISIS. The mess made possible the election of the America hating Obama. The American nation continues to suffer.
That this question is even being posed, two decades later, reveals just how much the neo-Con "endless war" rot has eaten away at the body politic in this country.
If, after all this time, people can't get a question this easy correct truly suggests that there's no hope. Drunk, fat, and clueless is no way to go through life, GOP.
No, it wasn’t.
Getting rid of dictatorships and nation building are two different things and to nation build, one must grind the existing culture to dust.
We don’t have the stomach for that so half measures got half assed results and alot of blood and treasure wasted.
The real culprit was B.J. Clinton, who allowed Saddam Hussein to completely violate his terms of surrender in Gulf War I for 8 long years.
I would have liked to oppose that war. But the antiwar protesters ere so obviously weirdo’s, and had the issues all wrong
It was not a war or oil
It was not an exercise in American Imperialism
It was not that G.W. Bush was just a war-monger
I believe that Bush believed everything he said.
I just thought the war in Iraq was the wrong thing to do at the time.
Afghanistan, possibly. Osamma bin Laden was the defense minister there. But, I’d have probably nuke them until they glowed and called it a day. Kabul would have been more radioactive than Chernoble. Then, the next annihilate every other major city in the place the next day so survivors have no place to go. Finally drop about 1,000,000 Jack Chick tracts on the evils of Islam for them to read.
We should have made Afghanistan the example and watched Iraq fall in line
No. Stop the war mongering for banker’s gain.
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 think James Earl Jones said it best, we should’ve stayed and finished the first gulf war in 1990-1991.
Nope.
Unless destabilizing the entire region was the goal.
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?
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.
It was right decision...for Iran.
From conflicts in my lifetime, I assert that US operations can effectively be maintained for no more than two presidencies before collapsing into operational morass and strategic failure.
Actual defense would be a different thing, but otherwise the plan must include the endgame and handoff to local or regional control. That of course doesn’t feed the industry so…