Eleven years ago today, America went to war in Iraq on the false premise that there were weapons of mass destruction there, which did not exist!
It is clear that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld KNEW that fact, but they convinced Colin Powell to speak before the United Nations on a lie that he was not privy to, took advantage of his far greater stature than any of them had!
The Iraq War led to 4,400 American dead, and over 30,000 wounded, with many losing limbs or part of their skull, and many having mental and emotional trauma which continues today!
It led to the longest war in American history, except for the Afghanistan War, which was put on the back burner, and still goes on today, making both wars total failures, but another 2,000 killed in that war.
It did not create a stable Iraq, but killed at least many hundreds of thousands in Iraq, if not a million or more.
We spent a lot of treasure, helping to double the national debt under the Bush-Cheney regime.
We allowed ourselves to engage in war with Iraq, when Iran was the much bigger threat, and remains so in 2014.
We also gave the excuse for Vladamir Putin of Russia to invade and take over Crimea, as allowed under international law, because, after all, we had claimed the right to invade a sovereign nation in a war of choice, a preemptive war, making us no better than past aggressors, who attacked without a direct provocation.
Many feel that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld are international outlaws, and it is clear that if it were possible to arrest them, they could be tried on human rights abuse at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Netherlands!
Of course, that will not happen in reality, but this is not something that should be overlooked as an example of what happens when the wrong people are put into power, particularly with the reality that George W. Bush did not win the popular vote in the Presidential Election of 2000, but won the court case that was decided on party line vote in the Supreme Court, a majority which had been picked by Republican Presidents!
History will not judge the Bush Presidency well, and no matter what the Republican Party of 2014 does to sweep the past under the rug, the truth will win out, and it will not be pretty!
Professor,
I certainly will not be celebrating with a piece of yellow cake. ; )
“Eleven years ago today, America went to war in Iraq on the false premise that there were weapons of mass destruction there, which did not exist!
It is clear that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld KNEW that fact”
Good morning Ron. I feel it is important to add a few things to this wonderful post. There is one more politician that knew the Bush Administration was misleading Congress and the U.S. That person is the esteemed Senator from my state, Dick Durbin.
In September of ’02, Durbin was one of the first Democrats on the SSCI to question the administration’s request for a joint resolution authorizing a preemptive war on Iraq without a formal intelligence report. Durbin proceeded to request an NIE from the director of central intelligence on the status of Iraq’s WMD program. Because of his clearance, Durbin was one of a handful of Senators that was able to read the results of the report which was prepared on October 1st 2002.
Ten days later, Durbin sent an Amendment to the Joint Resolution. This amendment stated that the language should be changed from saying “Continuing threat posed by Iraq” to saying “An imminent threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction”.
Only 30 members of the Senate voted in favor of this amendment.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00236#top
On October 11, 2002, Durbin was one of 23 senators to vote against the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War and the bill passed.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237
Now since we have been discussing the 2016 POTUS elections, it would be remiss to not mention two key Senators in this process.
First is Joe Biden, who voted against Durbin’s amendment and in favor of the Resolution for War. Biden quickly became a critic of the war, and even stated that his vote was a “mistake”. Which doesn’t surprise me considering that he was reelected to his sixth term a month AFTER he voted in favor for the war in Iraq. These circumstances lead me to believe that Biden strongly considered his reelection before casting his “yea” vote the previous month. In my opinion this fact calls into question his character as some evidence points to Biden putting his political career ahead of his convictions, and thousands of American lives.
Second is Hillary Clinton who also voted against Durbin’s amendment, but in favor of the Resolution for War.
Now to contrast Biden’s position, Clinton never seemed to criticize our presence in Iraq. She only criticized the administration’s conduct in Iraq. This fact leads me to believe that Clinton is as big of a “war-monger” as any Republican. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and in my humble opinion, far from a true Progressive.
Wow, what an interesting perspective, JOB!