Iraq: What was accomplished?

[Bobl]

Billions unaccounted for. Mass exodus of most Christians. Elevation of Iran's status in the mideast, despite the fact that they are Persian, and not Arab.
Many deaths and disabilities.
Have I missed something? Informed debate, please. No flaming or political posturing. Facts wanted. I was never there...

[Meddle]

Bush got his rocks off. Other than that, not much.

[Detroitej72]

Iraq: What was accomplished?


Well, for starters, George W. Bush rode that horse to re-election, even though the U.S. Economy was starting to plummet.

Remember the "orange alert" on the terrorism scale before the 04 elections?

Not so much as a rat crossed over the boarder between Mexico and the U.S., yet the code was risen high every other day.

Yes, American's are folks of a short mind.

Even today, on this vary board, you will read Neo-con, and Republican Apologists trying to "hannitise",[[read, indoctrinate) and force you to become part of the "ditto-head" nation.,

What was accomplished in Iraq was to ensure the neo-con, Military-Industrial Complex remains in power.,

[Danny]

Team America has accomplished NOTHING for the Iraq War. It turned out to be a liberation front rather than finding weapons of mass destruction problem. It's from poor Brittish Intelligence that alerted the Bush Administration and also alerted the United Nations the Saddam Hussien has WMD's. He used it before to kill thousands of Chaldeans in 1988. In 2003 The UN along with France and Russia told President Bush to wait until we get a resolution in so we can sent our UN inpectors to Iraq and find the WMD's. Bush was impatient, petition Congress to declare war against Iraq and it did. Team America 'shock and awed' all the Iraqis men, women and children. Later we won the war, put our American flag in Baghdad, but no WMD agents were found. Team America had to occupy an Islamic Land with no government. Hundreds of soldiers were getting killed, ambushed and kidnapped by insugents. Team America even shoot to kill any Iraqis who defy their orders. Team America found Saddam Hussien hidding like a coward in the underground bunker. he was tried for crimes against humanity and was executed. Later the violence went down, a new 'Americanesque Iraqi government was established along the a Americanesque Style Iraqi Army and Marines. Our mission is done so Team America is about to pack up and leave. The U.S. have created another America called the 'United States of Iraq.'

The Iraq war was a total blunder for President George W. Bush Jr. and was a total blunder to most republicans and fewer democrats who voted for the declaration of war.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Because politics are full of tricks.

Neda, I miss you.

[oladub]

Iraq: What was accomplished?


Well, for starters, George W. Bush rode that horse to re-election, even though the U.S. Economy was starting to plummet.

Remember the "orange alert" on the terrorism scale before the 04 elections?

Not so much as a rat crossed over the boarder between Mexico and the U.S., yet the code was risen high every other day.

Yes, American's are folks of a short mind.

Even today, on this vary board, you will read Neo-con, and Republican Apologists trying to "hannitise",[[read, indoctrinate) and force you to become part of the "ditto-head" nation.,

What was accomplished in Iraq was to ensure the neo-con, Military-Industrial Complex remains in power.,

So was President Obama "hannitised",[[read, indoctrinated) and forced to become part of the "ditto-head" nation, or was he always a neocon or some demo-con variation? Either would explain why he plans to keep 50,000 US troops in Iraq, has expanded the US presence and death tolls in Afghanistan, increased the bombings in Pakistan, and even lobbed a few bombs into Yemen all without a Congressional declaration of war. Obama has always voted for all such things when W Bush asked him to also. It wasn't like there weren't peace candidates with Kucinich, Paul, and Nader running for President.

Aren't we still on "orange alert"? I would disagree that "not so much as a rat crossed over the boarder between Mexico and the U.S." We do know of people and drug trafficing crossing the Mexican border. Hezbollah seems to have a base in the Paraguay area and is making connections with drug gangs along the Mexican border for its own purposes. All the more reason to have the Army defending the Mexican border instead of the Iraqi border but you are right that the "the neo-con, Military-Industrial Complex remains in power".

Danny, No one voted for a 'declaration of war'. Congress, instead, unconstitutionally authorized the President to do whatever he felt best in a dereliction of it's duty.

[GOAT]

I think many corporations made a lot of money on the taxpayers dime. Soldiers got a taste of combat and many had to die doing it. Other than that.....nothing.

[Mikeg]

It brought an end to the Gulf War and the Iraqi regime's repeated violations of the cease-fire agreement they had signed in March of 1991.

[Fury13]

Dubya got to say, "Hey, Daddy, looky what I did. I finished what you started! I got Saddam! See, Daddy?"

[Mikeg]

Dubya got to say, "Hey Saddam, I finished what you started!"

[Ray1936]

Good practice for our eventual invasion of Mexico.

[barnesfoto]

The mistakes of Vietnam repeated, billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives wasted, permanent physical and mental damage to hundreds of thousands, The War Pigs and their cronies enriched, decades of bills for all of us to pay off.

[Meddle]

Good practice for our eventual invasion of Mexico.

Don't you mean invasion BY Mexico?

[Ray1936]

Don't you mean invasion BY Mexico?

Nope, counter-attack. Hopefully we'll be as successful as Pershing was in finding Pancho Villa.

[Patrick]

It brought out the worst in our country from our polticians down to the cable talking heads.

[Jimaz]

I think many corporations made a lot of money on the taxpayers dime....

Which I believe was all that was ever intended to be accomplished from the very beginning.

It's interesting to note how much the hawkish voices have faded over the years.
Here's one vet who had it figured out long ago:

Attachment 7140
Bill Moyer attends George W. Bush speech

Click the link to learn how Moyer's sincere intent has since been perverted by the usual bunch of liars. Who are these liars who are so confident of their unaccountability?!

Never fear to vote to keep liars out of power!

[jerrytimes]

Not that I agree with the war or that we should have been there, because it was a total waste, but aren't the Iraqi people allowed to vote and pick their leaders now, and I also believe they have other freedoms that they never had before.

It was still a waste of American money and lives though.

[Jimaz]

Backpedaling in an attempt to reestablish a foothold is a sure sign of the overreach of a former stance.

[Mikeg]

Speaking of "Backpedaling":

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force - if necessary - to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."
Sen. John F. Kerry [[D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002.


"585 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the last year, 3,354 have been wounded and there's no end in sight. George Bush sold us on going to war with Iraq based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction."
Sen. John F. Kerry [[D, MA), March 26, 2004.

[barnesfoto]

Our friends from a certain sick cult are always eager to point out the dems who foolishly bought into the hype, but who gets credit for coming up with the IDEA?


The Project for a New American Century:

The PNAC was co-founded by William Kristol and Robert Kagan in 1997, with roots in the 1992 Pentagon. PNAC's original 25 signatories were an eclectic mix of academics and conservative politicians, several of whom have subsequently found positions in the presidential administration of George Walker Bush. PNAC is noteworthy for its focus on Iraq, a preoccupation that began before Bush became president and predates the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In 1998, the group wrote a letter to President Bill Clinton, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott [[then Senate Majority Leader) and Newt Gingrich [[then Speaker of the House of Representatives), demanding a harder line against Iraq. By then, the group had grown in numbers, adding individuals such as former Reagan-era U.N. Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, and long-time Washington cold warrior/pro-LikudRichard N. Perle.
According to William Rivers Pitt, "Two events brought PNAC into the mainstream of American government: the disputed election of George W. Bush and the attacks of September 11th. When Bush assumed the Presidency, the men who created and nurtured the imperial dreams of PNAC became the men who run the Pentagon, the Defense Department and the White House. When the Towers came down, these men saw, at long last, their chance to turn their White Papers into substantive policy."[1]
Several original PNAC members, including Cheney, Khalilzad and the Bush family, have ties to the oil industry. Many other members have been long-time fixtures in the U.S. military establishment or Cold War "strategic studies," including Elliott Abrams, Dick Cheney, Paula Dobriansky, Aaron Friedberg, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen, Donald H. Rumsfeld, John R. Bolton, Vin Weber, and Paul Dundes Wolfowitz. It should not be surprising, therefore, that while the group devotes inordinate attention to Iraq, its most general focus has been on a need to "re-arm America." The prospect of mining oil riches may explain part of the group's focus on Iraq, but this motivation has been buried under the rhetoric of national security and the need for strong national defense.
To justify a need to "rearm" the country, however, reasons must be found. In the more peaceable world of the late 1990s, with no rival super-power in sight, Iraq and "ballistic missile defense" against "rogue states" were the main games in town. The group's links to advocacy for ballistic missile defense came through Donald Rumsfeld, who in 1998 chaired a bi-partisan commission on the "US Ballistic Missile Threat" and Vin Weber, a registered lobbyist for Lockheed Martin and other Fortune 500 companies.

more: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php...erican_Century

On a bright note, times have changed. The sick cult that only a few years ago portrayed Saddam Hussein as the greatest threat to America now defends their fiasco by criticizing the dems who were foolish enough to listen to republicrite lies. Their cult has localized their fear pimping [[and portrays guys from Mexico and Central America who sneak into the country desperate for jobs mowing lawns or hanging drywall as the greatest threat to America).
They shriek about trespassers, conveniently forgetting that trespassers on a boat called the Mayflower established what is now our nation.
Pedro and Rafael are the new Saddam and Osama Bin Laden.

[ejames01]

Is someone really arguing that the Iraq War was a good thing because "democrats voted for it"?

[Ravine]

Dubya got to say, "Hey, Daddy, looky what I did. I finished what you started! I got Saddam! See, Daddy?"

Bingo!!
That was my "take" at the beginning, and I have seen no cause to amend that "take."

[Meddle]

I've said all along that the invasion was planned and the strategy laid out on paper before Dub ever filed the candidacy papers. It was his whole purpose for running.

All he had to do was find a reason he could sell to the world. When he couldn't find one, he made one up.

[Ravine]

It brought an end to the Gulf War and the Iraqi regime's repeated violations of the cease-fire agreement they had signed in March of 1991.

What Gulf War? The one said to be enjoined in defense of Kuwait? You don't really believe that the insecure, imperialist fanatics in that part of the world [[as opposed to the ones right here) will ever stop attacking each other, do you?

[jackie5275]

I think many corporations made a lot of money on the taxpayers dime. Soldiers got a taste of combat and many had to die doing it. Other than that.....nothing.

I don't think it was many corporations, but those that have, had some kind of connection to Cheney. Also, getting Saddam was a key factor for Bush.

[gibran]

this was a neoCON folly..part for a new world order, part for lucrative contracts, part because of AIPAC?Israel's anger at paying for suicide bombers [[even though that wa minimal) and part for oil... in the end it was our intervention[[pressure) and our brave soldiers that stepped in and up to hold off the poor planning and lack of support initially... The limited success goes directly to our military not the the authors of this war.

Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney, Kristal, at al should be tried for treason...lying to our public and getting us into a war that will have financial consequences for a generation..and where is Israel's financial support or the oil monies from Iraq paying for this? Send in the crickets.