We can disagree on those things, but what I will not countenance is the characterization that Bush outright lied, and the coupled accusation by the likes of Code Pink and MoveOn.org, that he lied to line his pockets with war profits.
It isn’t a matter of optics for me.
I spent a good deal of time facing off with Code Pink from 2004 to 2012, which is the last time I encountered them. Most of that time was counter-protesting them in support of the troops when they set up camp outside Walter Reed in Washington, DC, and other times were at various anti-war protests such as “The Gathering of Eagles” and so on. When I take the stand that they are spittle-lipped, vile, unhinged, good-for-nothing anti-American scumbags, I know of what I speak.
I have spent many hours listening the vomit that they characterize as speech, and reading their vile and hateful signs (held up outside a hospital with horribly maimed soldiers inside who could see them from their windows) and many of those solders took the time, when they could walk, to make their way out to us and made a point of telling us how much it hurt them to see the Code Pink people standing there with those hateful signs, chanting their vicious slogans.
I thank the DC Chapter of Free Republic for taking me in and allowing me to be part of their team.
If Code Pink wanted to make their points of disagreement on the war, I have spoken to many who have disagreed with me, and we were able to discuss those differences passionately and heatedly, but I won’t have discourse with people who made a policy of standing outside a hospital containing soldiers who had lost limbs, and worse, and holding up signs like “ENLIST HERE TO DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY” and so on. (They learned to stop bringing those signs, over time)
As for the popularity or unpopularity of wars, wars are unpopular, and even WWII was unpopular. I was going through my fathers effects last night, and there was an entire newspaper from December 1944 there. There was a distinct shortage of war news in there, which means people on the civilian front didn’t feel like reading it any more. And that war was shorter than Iraq.
The point is, you do it because it is the right thing to do, or it isn’t. In the wake of 9/11 where we just had 3000 Americans murdered in the most public and shocking way, people all over this country wanted our government to do something about it. That is undeniable. I presume you lived through that time as I did.
One can take issue with prosecuting the war for a variety of reasons, but the fact that something had to be done is indisputable and undeniable. Instead of sending in troops should we have carpet bombed them? Nuked them? There are many here who think that we should have. I disagree. The Soviets tried that approach in Afghanistan. Regardless of what Code Pink says, the USA wasn’t the Nazis or the Soviets.
And if Bush had just sent in a few cruise missiles (the timidity of which led directly to 9/11 in the eyes of the man responsible for bringing it about) perhaps we wouldn’t be having debates today about nuking or not, since if weakness invites aggression (as it clearly does) then a timid response after 9/11 might have led to a terrorist gas attack. Or worse.
But that is all conjecture.
Point is, I believe that in the immediate shadow of 9/11 the administration did the best they could with the information they could get, which coming out of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, was not 100% dependable no matter how it was sliced.
If you believe Bush knew there was solid proof that no WMD existed in Iraq anywhere, and that even if they did, they would never fall into the hands of any terrorists anywhere, then I would be glad to hear that solid proof, because I haven’t heard it.
And I have heard and seen plenty of solid evidence that there WERE indeed WMD stores in Iraq at some point in time (we have some Freepers here who saw with their own eyes). And that is enough for me. Our military certainly thought there were WMD when they went in. And that is justification enough.
That things didn’t turn out as people hoped is not a surprise, nothing is a given. But just surrendering without trying, as Bush could have done (but didn’t) and Obama DID is going to render a fairly predictable outcome.
I already said there's no way to prove whether Bush lied or not, short of Bush coming out and admitting to it. Trump is speculating. All the arguments about the war are water under the bridge. It's done, it's still unpopular, and being against it won't hurt Trump.
As far as Code Pink goes, agreeing with a few of their talking points isn't the same as signing up for their whole agenda. I for one never supported them, they were obviously unhinged. But I was never confident in the Bush administration's panglossian plans for democracy in the middle east.
Rude, crude Trump's simple plan to invade and take their oil is far nore realistic. That would cut islamic terror off at the knees.