If you are at all interested and we should all be watching the game play out in Iraq……I have been writing for years that the US has an outdated foreign policy……..and that it would eventually come back and bite us in the ass.
Can you feel the hot breath of a snapping beast about now?
Then wake up and smell the manure gathering about our collective feet……
The boys with the long noses are back in action…..the Iraq Pack (Colbert’s term….wish I had thought of it) those individuals that spent so much time back in 2002 and 2003 making us chomp at the bits to go after Saddam…..all th lies….the yellow cake thing…the aluminum tubes….the illustrations of mushroom clouds and the biggest piece of crap was that Saddam had teamed up with Al-Qaeda…..and most of us bought it hook line and sinker….the mouths of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the first lady of bullsh*t, Condie…
And after 10 years of relative silence….they are back and claiming damn near the same things that they lied about in 2003…….amnesia or just megalomania?
First, our ex-VP had much to say about Iraq and what to do……..
You have to hand it to Dick Cheney. How many people, knowing what has happened in Iraq over the last 12 years, would dare to write an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal containing this line: “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many” — and not be talking about George W. Bush?
Cheney was the war’s chief propagandist, who told the American public more spectacular falsehoods than anyone, including Bush himself. Cheney was the one who told us in 2002 that “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” (in case you have forgotten)
“You’ve got to go back and look at the track record. We inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody’s mind about the extent of Saddam’s involvement in weapons of mass destruction. We had a situation where, after 9/11, we were concerned about a follow-up attack. It would involve not just airline tickets and box cutters as the weapons, but rather something far deadlier, perhaps even a nuclear weapon.”
Is he really that clueless?
Then there is Bremer the ex president of the provisional Iraqi government before elections…..when interviewed by CNN’s Erin Burnett……
Bremer penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal under the headline “Only America Can Prevent a Disaster in Iraq,” in which he argued for some form of U.S. troops on the ground there. After 4,490 American lives lost and $1.7 trillion spent, Burnett asked him, “How can you advocate any more people, any more lives going to risk for that country?”
“Because it’s in our interest,” Bremer responded matter-of-factly, going to elaborate that the U.S. cannot allow Iraq to become a home base for terrorists like those that constitute the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
American lives mean NOTHING to these toads……..
Ever notice that John McCain’s comments on every war scenario is….”blah blah….airstrikes….blah blah blah blah….airstrikes….blah blah…..” You know the more he talks the more I feel like he could very well be our next problem…….I feel like his pro war rhetoric is just instigating the next 9/11…..
There you have a couple of the Iraq Pack….making the case to return to a war footing in Iraq…….even though the American people are dead set against a return of our forces in Iraq….the GOP still tries to make the case for intervention…..and they are still using the same tactics and lies they did originally…..even though the American people are on to them…..I am waiting for there to be some sort of proof that WMDs are being considered….that would be the broken straw needed for our return to the region……
Now ask…….how long before the media starts acting as the spokesperson for intervention? This will be the key.
These people are in denial and delusional a dangerous combo…..they will say or do anything to get the country to overreact and thus they can say they were right all along……..it is all about their legacies….not the security of the country.
Yes, I know….everyone is aware of what is happening in Iraq and each one of us has an opinion of just how to deal with the situation. I have been monitoring the media very carefully….after they played an important part n selling the original invasion of 2003…..I just wanted to see what they will do this time around…….
The prez has said that there would be no American combat forces sent to Iraq……..and then he announced that there would be 300 “advisers sent to help the Iraqi army……(say that to a Vietnam vet and see the smile creep across their face)………
Here is why they are smiling…..Special Forces are combat troops…..that is their main function……so it is a lie to say that NO combat forces will be sent to Iraq.
As the first time Americans went into Iraq…..the media is playing the public like a two dollar drum……..the one story that I was following………
The facility outside Baghdad where Saddam Hussein cooked up his chemical weapons is now in the hands of extremists trying to take over the country, reports the Wall Street Journal. The good news is that the al-Muthanna facility has been mothballed for so long that US officials don’t think militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria will be able to make any use of it. The takeaway quote from a State Department spokesperson: “We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials.” (Saddam is believed to have made sarin, mustard gas, and other poisons there during his war with Iran in the 1980s.)
The UK Telegraph talks to an expert of its own with a similar take, along with a sliver of worry: “It is doubtful that ISIS have the expertise to use a fully functioning chemical munition, but there are materials on site that could be used in an improvised explosive device,” he says. “We have seen that ISIS has used chemicals in explosions in Iraq before and has carried out experiments in Syria.” US officials tell the Journal that remaining chemical weapons stocks are sealed in bunkers at the site and would be useless even if accessed. Still, one Pentagon official says the US might have tried to remove them had it known the Iraqi government would so swiftly lose control. The site is about 45 miles northwest of Baghdad.
In case they need to make a good reason for intervention…..WMDs would be a good place to start….it was a good start in 2003…..it may work yet again if handled properly…….
Now let’s look at just how the Iraqi government was caught off balance for this situation to have a great start……a story that most have not heard…..it is important and should have been reported immediately…………
Atheel Nujeifi, who headed Nineveh province, accused the Shiite premier of causing widespread anger at the central government that allowed the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant to capture the provincial capital last week.
He said Mr Al Maliki “never listened” to repeated warnings about the deteriorating security situation around Mosul.
In an interview with The National, Mr Nujeifi painted a picture of escalating chaos in the days before Iraq’s second-largest city fell to the militants.
Widespread Sunni anger burst into the open in January when militants captured the western city of Fallujah, another Sunni stronghold.
That enabled ISIL militants to stage a blitzkrieg takeover of Mosul that began on June 9 and ended with the militant group seizing control of the city and looting more than US$400 million (Dh1.47bn) from banks in the area, Mr Nujeifi said.
He claimed to have warned Mr Maliki and his military advisers “several times” about ISIL’s rise, including during a meeting of provincial governors in Baghdad in January, at about the time Fallujah was seized by militants.
During the meeting, he slipped the prime minister a note urging him to reconsider his approach to handling Nineveh’s deteriorating security situation and listen to military commanders near Mosul who were raising alarms about the security situation.
Maybe someone is listening in Washington….there seems to be a push to make Maliki more inclusive in his government to bring in more Sunnis……but now I would like to hear an answer to the question…..what are the choices if Maliki does not succumb to the pressure from DC?
I do not know your feeling about what should be done to contain the situation in Iraq….but I suggest that you keep an eye on the media…..they will lead the way to whatever decision is made……and the selling of whatever action they decide is appropriate……