10 Years Ago

[Irvine511]

George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, along with the cautious backing of Congress, decided it would be a good idea to invade Iraq under the pretense of disarming Saddam of his WMDs lest they be sold to Al Qaeda and used to terrorize western cities.

Now, a decade later, as the nation looks back at what is the consensus worst foreign policy mistake since Vietnam (if not the Spanish American War), we hear a lot of "we were all fooled" or "we all got it wrong."

Wrong.

Some of us didn't get it wrong. Some of us read past the third paragraph of the NYT Judith Miller articles. Some of us saw through Chalabi. Some of us knew the darkness of Dick Cheney and the scared, inept president he puppet mastered. Some of us were out on the streets marching, yelling, and pleading for you to listen to us and to see that the traumatized American public was being ruthlessly manipulated by an administration hell bent on recreating reality itself.

It became the disaster we predicted.

[Pearl]

The Last Letter

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran
To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

Truthdig - The Last Letter

I remember hoping and wishing that the US troops would actually find the WMDs. I hated to think the soldiers were going to war over nothing. I also feared the war would lead to more 9/11s in the U.S.

I also hated all the tension between those for the war and against the war. Whether in school, at work, or even waiting on line at the bank - the slightest mention of Iraq stirred trouble. Understandable because emotions were running high, but it such an ugly, ugly time.

I probably leaned far too much in support of the war. Well no, not really. I was supportive of the troops and I really wanted the WMDs to be found so their efforts were not totally in vain. But the WMDs were a lie and now our troops are either dead, wounded or suffering from PTSD. The Iraqi people hate us now and the Muslim world is suspicious of us even more. Even worse, after 9/11 so many other countries were on America's side and were willing to support and fight with us. Once the idea of invading Iraq came up, that all went down hill.

What a waste. A fucking waste.

[trojanchick99]

I remember feeling sick to my stomach watching the news that day. I knew in my gut this was just a ploy to punish Saddam for the original Gulf War. I remember being so disappointed in Congress for letting this happen.

[mikal]

I'm just glad that we got our revenge on Iraq for 9/11. I know it was a long war and many died, but justice was served!

[deep]

maybe Saddam had nothing to do with 911,
it is too bad we never got a chance to question him at GITMO

[Diemen]

Resolution 1441, guys.

[Irvine511]

Ten Years After
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Ten years after it began, the Iraq war still haunts the United States in the nearly 4,500 troops who died there; the more than 30,000 American wounded who have come home; the more than $2 trillion spent on combat operations and reconstruction, which inflated the deficit; and in the lessons learned about the limits of American leadership and power.

It haunts Iraq too, where the total number of casualties is believed to have surpassed 100,000 but has never been officially determined; and where one strongman was traded for another, albeit under a more pluralistic system with a democratic veneer. The country is increasingly influenced by Iran and buffeted by the regional turmoil caused by the Arab Spring.

In 2003, President George W. Bush and Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, used the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to wage pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein and a nuclear arsenal that did not exist. They promised a “free and peaceful Iraq” that would be a model of democracy and stability in the Arab world. While no one laments Saddam’s passing and violence is down from peak war levels, the country is fragile, with grave tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and Arabs and Kurds that could yet erupt into civil war or tear the state apart.

A State Department travel warning last month described Iraq as dangerous, with numerous insurgents, including Al Qaeda in Iraq, still active, and said Americans were “at risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence.” On Tuesday, a wave of car bombings and other attacks in Baghdad killed more than 50 people and wounded nearly 200.

Yet none of the Bush administration’s war architects have been called to account for their mistakes, and even now, many are invited to speak on policy issues as if they were not responsible for one of the worst strategic blunders in American foreign policy. In a video posted recently by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Wolfowitz said he still believed the war was the right thing to do. Will he and his partners ever have the humility to admit that it was wrong to prosecute this war?

President Obama opposed the Iraq war from the start and has been single-minded about ending it, withdrawing the last combat troops in 2011. American influence in Iraq has greatly declined since then and Mr. Obama’s attention, like that of most Americans, has shifted to other priorities. Iraqis are responsible for their own future. But the country is a front line in the conflict between moderate Islam and Al Qaeda, not to mention its role as an oil producer. It requires more sustained American involvement than we have recently seen.

Iraq is a reminder of the need for political leaders to ask the right questions before allowing military action and to listen honestly rather than acting on ideological or political impulses. Mr. Bush led the war, but Democrats as well as Republicans in Congress endorsed it. Iraq also shows the limits of America’s influence in regions where sectarian enmity remains strong and where democracy has no real history.

That experience is informing American policy judgments more generally. It has affected decisions about Syria, where President Obama has been right to move cautiously. For a long time the Syrian opposition was divided, and it was hard to know which group, if any, deserved help. It also made sense not to rush into another costly war in another Arab country that could fuel new anti-American animosities and embroil the United States for another decade.

But with the Syrian conflict in its third year, the fighting has already spilled over the borders, destabilizing its neighbors, even as Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels play a bigger role. The reasons for opposing direct American involvement in Syria remain strong, but the United States needs to calibrate its policies continually and should not allow the Iraq experience to paralyze its response to different circumstances.

The lessons of Iraq, however, seem to fade when it comes to Iran. Many of the conservatives who strongly supported the charge into Iraq are fanning calls for United States military action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. President Obama has also been threatening “all options” if negotiations to curb Iran’s ambitions are not successful, and many lawmakers seem ready to take action against Iran soon.

The Iraq war was unnecessary, costly and damaging on every level. It was based on faulty intelligence manipulated for ideological reasons. The terrible human and economic costs over the past 10 years show why that must never happen again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/op...n.html?hp&_r=1

[PhilsFan]

I was 12 years old and in sixth grade. That's pretty strange.

[dazzledbylight]

don't blame me, I was out in the stret with friends protesting

what a fucking croc that was, and sooo many people dead, injured traumatized.
birth deffects arer through the roof in Iraq because of the armouur-piercing bullets that contain some radioactive element thast gives it that albility. TBI & PTSD among other injuries here at home gah!

[Jive Turkey]

Depleted uranium is only mildly radioactive (not significantly). The only reason it's used in armour piercing rounds (and as armour itself) is because it's so dense. If they weren't using depleted uranium, they'd be using some other heavy metal and the health effects would be the same. People are just afraid of the word uranium

[deep]

sure laugh all you want, I believe the yellow cake memo

in one of Saddam's palaces they found these empty containers in a trash heap out back

Yellow_Cake_

[Jive Turkey]

That was so lame it was funny. Gold star to deep

[Dfit00]

It's a common tradition for the US to exploit and attack other countries for its own benefit.

[elevated_u2_fan]

Originally Posted by Dfit00

It's a common tradition for the US to exploit and attack other countries for its own benefit.

Something no other country is guilty of, of course

[The_Pac_Mule]

It's a common tradition for the US to exploit and attack other countries for its own benefit.

What benefit? Oil?