What is going on in Iraq may be sectarian violence and Civil War, but the cause of that war is the lack of an American force of occupation. As most of the bad actors are actually jihadists imported from around the globe, just like those we fought during the hot war in Iraq.
A force of less than 15,000 would have been sufficient to maintain peace just as it has done so in Germany, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. World War II and the Korean Conflict have been over for more than a half century, yet we maintain tens of thousands of troops in Germany, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Okinawa and DOZENS of other countries as a stabilizing force for good. None of these countries are the possessors of the second largest KNOWN supply of easily retrievable crude oil. Yet we beet feet as soon as the idiot Obama could from the most geopolitically important regions in the World. Even after the hostilities where less than that of an average weekend in Chicago!
BTW our presence on in Korea is what is keeping the Kim Regime in check. The lunatics in Pyongyang would have over run the South decades ago had we ever pulled out. They would try if we left today.
The Iraq War was every bit as justified as the Afghanistan War and a damn site better run. Since the surge was complete the War was won. We simply had to maintain the peace, a much easier and less costly affair than what we are soon to be involved in in Iraq. I assure you WE WILL BE INVOLVED. No matter what the Mulatto Morons’ desire to stay aloof.
You don't win wars only to abandon the field to the conquered enemy!
Regardless if Saddam held weapons of mass destruction. He had the knowledge, means and history of their use. He harbored known international terrorists. He had practiced genocide against the Kurdish people. He was also in violation of International Law and dozens of U.N. Resolutions. HE was a cancer in the Middle East that had already inflicted millions of deaths on his own populous as well as to those of his neighbors.
He proved he was not going to stop his desire for expansion by launching two wars of conquest within fifteen years. He also threatened repeatedly to use military force including gas and chemical weapons against his neighbors including Israel a treaty bound Democratic ally of the United States.
As for Cambodia, that analogy is laughable as we abandoned Cambodia, the same as we abandoned the South Vietnamese, Laos & the ethnic Montagnards in Southeast Asia, much to our great shame.
WE caused the death of at least five millions by turning our back on South Vietnam and Ted Kennedy is very much to blame as he rammed through a resolution in the Senate to deny support to the South Vietnamese and act contrary to our legally binding treaty with that government.
Once we allowed the Communists to over run and murder their opponents in South Vietnam it was open season for the North Vietnamese, Viet Cong and Pathet Lao backed Khmer Rouge. We through the Veto proof Democrat House and Senate are directly responsible for the humanitarian disaster in Southeast Asia throughout the decades of the Seventies and Eighties. There feckless, cowardly actions still adversely effect the people of Southeast Asia today. To deny so is to deny reality of History!
Once again the entire affair, all the death and destruction can be laid directly at the feet of America and in particular the Democrat Party. Had we followed our treaty obligations,established a support force of Americans like we have in South Korea, South Vietnam would be making our cars, televisions and consumer goods just like the South Koreans, while the backward Communists in the North would be as advanced as the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea. Unable to feed, cloth or even light the streets at night.
All Obama’s Iraq policy has done is confirm the fact that America is the World best enemy and its’ worst ally!
Jim:
No my analysis is not wrong, it my view. You don’t like my view, fair enough. That is your view. I don’t like seeing American kids die for BS. Saddam did not attack America. Sorry. Again, Kim is killing political opponents by the thousands in North Korea, yet, do you suggest we invade North Korea? The US forces in South Korea are there to “prevent North Korea” from attacking the South, which is a totally different issue vs. Saddam killing political rivals in Iraq. When Saddam invaded another country, the US was correct in responding, when the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden attacked the US, the US was correct in responding.
No the Iraq war was not justified vs. Afghanistan. Iraq did not attack the United States, the Taliban in Afghanistan and is Al Qaeda allies did. Big difference. And as I said, Saddam after being pushed out of Kuwait was no different than dictators all over the world. Are you suggesting we attack all these dictators. You suggesting we invade Cuba again and try the Bay of Pigs thing again? You want to invade Venezuala and take out Chavez. You want to rid Sub-Saharan Africa of its dozens of dictators, who oppress citizens? How many damn wars do you suggest we fight?
The NeoCons sold a bill of goods what were lemons. Pat Buchanan had it correct, the United States sending its money and sons to fight other peoples wars is crap. Saddam could have been isolated. If the Iraqis wanted him gone, they could have spilled their own blood.
But give Saddam was taken out and now the crazies are running much of Iraq [ISIS], that is a different animal. They are attacking other countries and are a threat. Saddam after getting run out of Kuwait was not going to invade another country. He may have been a dictator, a brutal one, that killed political rivals, but he was not killing Christians for the mere fact they were Christian or other religious minorities.
I voted for Bush twice, but he and Chaney’s war on Iraq was FUBAR. And I am well aware we have troops stationed in Europe along with Korea, but they are there for defensive purposes. As for Vietnam, do you really think in hindsight that was a war the US should have fought. We are now trading with them for heaven’s sake. Ho Chi Min was a Marxist in terms of economics, but he was more of a Vietnamese Nationalist that wanted to unite Vietnam. He was not a Stalinist, sorry. 58,000 American boys fought bravely and I honor their service, but that was not a war that should have been fought, neither this last Iraq war.