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Republicans: Now is the time to admit you were wrong about the Iraq War
The Week ^ | 06/20/2014 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted on 06/20/2014 6:21:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Hillary Clinton is doing it. Glenn Beck did it too. And Dick Cheney? Not so much.

This is the season for admitting you were wrong on Iraq in 2003. And all Republicans who either regret their vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq, or who were silent on foreign policy matters back then, should take this occasion to step up and say they'll never make the same mistake twice. To them I say: Do it for the sake of your conscience, and if not that, at least for the sake of your career.

In the Obama years, Republicans have habituated themselves to being noncommittal on policy questions. They are for cutting the budget, somehow. They are for repealing ObamaCare and replacing it with, well, something. They want tax reform, but let's not get into the details now.

In some ways, this makes political sense. Don't give your opponents targets to hit. But the damage that has been done to the Republican brand on foreign policy is not repairing itself. Obama's faults and flubs in that area aren't giving the GOP an advantage either.

So say it loud and proud: Iraq is a mess. We helped to make it that way. But we have no business putting American treasure, honor, and lives between ISIS and Nouri al-Maliki.

There's no better time than now, when the die-hard hawks are urging "re-engagement." Some of you were not in national politics at the time. South Carolina's Mark Sanford once said that he was against "preemptive war." Now that he's back in Congress, he should take the occasion to shout that out.

(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2016election; alqaedaspring; blametheneocons; cutandrun; dnctalkingpoints; election2016; fuathyrio; glennbeck; hillaryclinton; hitlery; iraq; obamalegacy; prodictator; proislamist; republicans
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To: Mr Rogers

Guess we were supposed to keep the Iraq No Fly Zone for an eternity then. Even under the no fly zone Saddam launched an attack on the Kurds.


21 posted on 06/20/2014 6:38:11 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: Reddy

I like Beck at times but he needs to shut up. Even if I thought liberals were right about ONE or TWO things I would not give them ANY credit because they will lie about the other 98 things they’re wrong about.

These liberals were all over the map about Iraq, especially after 9-11.

These same liberals that are supposedly right about Iraq would have supported the same war, with the exact series of events, had Clinton or Obama conducted it with MSM press support. So there is no need to help them. If you want to change your mind on Iraq then do so, but don’t give these evil people any credit.


22 posted on 06/20/2014 6:38:32 PM PDT by CommieCutter ("For an idea to be too simplistic, it must first be proven wrong" --Thomas Sowell)
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To: SeekAndFind

What I find remarkable is people forget we WON this war....we left Iraq in relative peace, as much as you can achieve or expect....

Yes, it cost far too much blood and treasure, but we won dispite the democrats best efferts to undermine it...

The current situation there is a direct relationship to Obama failed foreign policy blunders....mainly with his failed Arab Spring initiatives....


23 posted on 06/20/2014 6:39:45 PM PDT by Popman ("Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God" - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: SeekAndFind

What I find remarkable is people forget we WON this war....we left Iraq in relative peace, as much as you can achieve or expect....

Yes, it cost far too much blood and treasure, but we won dispite the democrats best efferts to undermine it...

The current situation there is a direct relationship to Obama failed foreign policy blunders....mainly with his failed Arab Spring initiatives....


24 posted on 06/20/2014 6:39:45 PM PDT by Popman ("Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God" - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Iraq war was always wrong and always unwinnable. It was premised upon lies and utopian fantasies. Obama’s a piece of Shiite, but Iraq is Bush’s disaster and will always have his name on it.


25 posted on 06/20/2014 6:42:51 PM PDT by Romulus
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To: CommieCutter

Glenbeck so desires to be loved by the Liberals.


26 posted on 06/20/2014 6:43:18 PM PDT by MNDude (In Heaven pizza is from Chicago and there are no politicians. In Hell...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Iraq has/had a chance. Now, let’s talk about your two heroes Hillary and Obama and their destruction of the government in Libya. That clusterf**k was screwed up right from the start and it’s only getting worse.


27 posted on 06/20/2014 6:44:31 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind

Attacking Iraq was overwhelmingly justified.

We removed one of histories worst dictators who was a threat to our security.

Rebuilding Iraq was a add on and a risk. We knew it might not work.

Obama is to blame for not negotiating the status of forces agreement which would have given the Iraqi army intelligence and probably prevented the Isas take over.


28 posted on 06/20/2014 6:45:23 PM PDT by garjog (Obama: bringing joy to the hearts of Terrorists everywhere.)
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To: SeekAndFind

this is the moment that obama withdrew the troops for...


29 posted on 06/20/2014 6:46:28 PM PDT by Homer1
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To: MNDude
"Glenbeck so desires to be loved by the Liberals."

More $$$$$

30 posted on 06/20/2014 6:47:23 PM PDT by FlJoePa ("Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good")
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To: MNDude

Yeah..I don’t know what his deal is.


31 posted on 06/20/2014 6:47:49 PM PDT by CommieCutter ("For an idea to be too simplistic, it must first be proven wrong" --Thomas Sowell)
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To: SeekAndFind

I supported going into Iraq. Where GWB and I parted company was that I didn’t support staying there to rebuild Iraq or take on the impossible task of trying to bring about democracy there.

Right now, except for a very clear national interest, I don’t support liberating or saving muslims.


32 posted on 06/20/2014 6:49:17 PM PDT by umgud (I couldn't understand why the ball kept getting bigger......... then it hit me.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Why?

Because Ubama fumbled the ball?

33 posted on 06/20/2014 6:49:51 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government." --Tacitus)
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To: SeekAndFind

Bulls**t. Now? Why now? Because you [author] say so? I think it would be a much better time, oh, say, 73 days from now. Yeah, I like that date better.

I would say now is the time for you [author] to admit that finding the WMDs that GWBush “lied” to you about which you are so damn smart to say were “never there” but despite the wonderful and thorough (and ironically named) “UNinspection” are “actually there” and seeing that they are now in Jihadi hands which was the primary reason for our invasion of Iraq, now that this scenario has indeed become a reality...perhaps now is instead the time for you to admit that you cannot accept any kind of disparate view from your own because of your own diverse, egalitarian, yet bonehead blind idiocy and inability to come up with a single original thought.


34 posted on 06/20/2014 6:50:17 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (At no time was the Obama administration aware of what the Obama administration was doing)
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To: Reddy

“I heard Beck recently say with my own ears that he came out for homosexual marriage before zero did.”

I wonder how he squared his “conversion” with his Mormon faith?
Guess he and Reid have formed another “offshoot.”


35 posted on 06/20/2014 6:50:41 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What chemical weapons? Saddam didn’t have any.


36 posted on 06/20/2014 6:50:45 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Haven't you lost enough freedoms? Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Yeah, just ask the media.


37 posted on 06/20/2014 6:51:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2Million for ANY 2016 pro-2nd Amendment candidate.)
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Comment #38 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

It was right to attack any person or group or nation that aided and abetted the persons involved in 9/11 or those who underwrote, supported, or aided them.

That is my conclusion, but it isn’t my conclusion only. It is also the conclusion of the US Congress that voted in session a joint resolution containing roughly those words.

Reprisals should have been launched and people and nations taken down.

It was in nation building that I objected to the strategy.


39 posted on 06/20/2014 6:54:44 PM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Will the Kenyan admit that Obamacare is a disaster?


40 posted on 06/20/2014 6:56:36 PM PDT by Libloather (Embrace the suck)
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