Wolfowitz says US botched Iraq war

[eagle1462010]

Misreading that these countries rule by theology and not democracy was the major fuck up. Misreading the thin line of balance between Sunni and Shia sides was another major mistake.

Leaving cold Turkey another major mistake.

Iraq letting go the remaining prisoners from Camp Bucca a World Class Fuck up.

Add in the Arab Spring.......ignited by FOOD RIOTS..............when the price of food went through the roof during the global financial melt down..........

Pandora's Box has been opened.

 

[Muhammed]

Monday morning quarterbacks are hilarious.

Yeah, it's not like people ever objected to it and we're called Terrorist Sympathizers for saying it was a bad idea.

There were NEVER any protests or words of disagreement. #AlternativeFacts

In other words, you think Hussein and AQ should have been handed a monopoly.

Here's the thing with you. The war has cost thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and countless years. But you, thinking of the big picture, instead seem to only take umbridge with those who said the bad idea was a bad idea. The idea was still bad but the fact that people told you seems to ruffle your feathers.

Boo fucking Hoo

You Hussein apologists are pathetic.

 

[flacaltenn]

Monday morning quarterbacks are hilarious.

Yeah, it's not like people ever objected to it and we're called Terrorist Sympathizers for saying it was a bad idea.

There were NEVER any protests or words of disagreement. #AlternativeFacts

In other words, you think Hussein and AQ should have been handed a monopoly.

Here's the thing with you. The war has cost thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and countless years. But you, thinking of the big picture, instead seem to only take umbridge with those who said the bad idea was a bad idea. The idea was still bad but the fact that people told you seems to ruffle your feathers.

Boo fucking Hoo

Who was it calling the "invasion" a bad idea exactly? Except every Libertarian and maybe a dozen congress critters. The problem with the opponents of the war on the Dem side is -- they had NO GUTS to end the god awful "containment" policy of 11 years that including starving the Iraqis and bombing them every day. The graft and corruption of Oil for Food at the UN? Remember all that?

Those opposing the war on the Wash DC front had NO INTENTIONS of dropping the containment and tossing the keys to Iraq back to Saddam. Only Libertarians were staunch in favor of that.

So 11 years -- AT LEAST 250,000 DEAD from "containment" and no plan to END THAT = Not sincerely solving any problem..

 

[eagle1462010]

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Flashback: the 1991 Iraqi revolt

Betrayed

The uprising was partly fuelled by the disastrous defeat of Iraq's security forces and their forced retreat from Kuwait.

People were convinced that the army would never be weaker or more demoralised.

But crucially, the rebels were convinced that they had the backing of the US, who would come to their aid to help oust Saddam.



Many Shia feel that they were betrayed by the US administration who failed to intervene after appearing to endorse a popular rebellion.

In February 1991, as US forces were crushing the Iraqi army and driving it out of Kuwait, former US President George Bush broadcast a message telling Iraqis that there was another way for the bloodshed to stop.

"That is for the Iraqi military and the Iraqi people to take matters into their own hands, to force Saddam Hussein the dictator to step aside..." he said in the Voice of America broadcast.

As the uprising spread throughout the country however, US officials insisted it was never their policy to intervene in Iraq's internal affairs nor to remove Saddam Hussein's regime from power.

The History Guy: The No-Fly Zone War (1991-2003)

The original intent of these zones was to protect the rebellious Iraqi minorities (Kurds and Shiite Muslims) in northern and southern Iraq, respectively. The Coalition was permitted to fly warplanes over these zones to prevent Saddam Hussein's government from using military aircraft to attack these minorities. As time progressed though, the No-Fly Zones became a means for the Allies to force Iraq to comply with UN and Coalition demands, often related to the status of the weapons inspectors.

 

[eagle1462010]

They were slaughtered............................after we prompted them to fight Saddam.........

The No Fly Zones were in response to this slaughter.............

The Oil For Food Program was intended to an attempt to allow food to be bought for the People of Iraq. Saddam used some of this but never gave the food to the people. The reason for the Starvation rests on Saddam NOT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

The Shia that rose up felt betrayed......................just as they felt betrayed when we left Cold Turkey in Iraq under Obama. We stood by and watched them get systematically slaughtered..............The World Did nothing................except the No fly zones............


We had 500,000 troops there in the first Gulf War.....................and being in the service then........everybody wanted to end it then........How it would have turned out who knows..........but we had over 3 times the number of forces available then than in the second invasion.

 

[Markle]

Clinton said Bush should not be faulted if banned weapons of mass destruction aren't found.

"I don't think you can criticize the President for trying to act on the belief that they have a substantial amount of chemical and biological stock. . . . That is what I was always told," Clinton said.

- Former President Clinton Wednesday, April 16, 2003

"Could Be One of the Great Achievements of This Administration" The vice president said he’d been to Iraq 17 times and visits the country every three months or so. "I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society" he said. "It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences."

- Vice President Joe Biden (D) Feb. 10, 2010

How has the war President Barack Hussein Obama said we SHOULD have been fighting going? How is the Middle East going now that President Obama is President? Oh, Afghanistan just crossed 2,330 American fatalities. Seventy percent of whom died since President Obama took office.

 

[eagle1462010]

Clinton said Bush should not be faulted if banned weapons of mass destruction aren't found.

"I don't think you can criticize the President for trying to act on the belief that they have a substantial amount of chemical and biological stock. . . . That is what I was always told," Clinton said.

- Former President Clinton Wednesday, April 16, 2003

"Could Be One of the Great Achievements of This Administration" The vice president said he’d been to Iraq 17 times and visits the country every three months or so. "I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society" he said. "It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences."

- Vice President Joe Biden (D) Feb. 10, 2010

How has the war President Barack Hussein Obama said we SHOULD have been fighting going? How is the Middle East going now that President Obama is President? Oh, Afghanistan just crossed 2,330 American fatalities. Seventy percent of whom died since President Obama took office.

They have Selective Memory.

 

[Lakhota]

Wolfowitz, Bush, and Cheney should be in prison pounding rocks.

Both Bush presidents gave us ISIS - especially Bush 43. Not only did Bush 43 lie us into Iraq - his daddy, Bush 41, lied us into the First Gulf War by suckering Saddam into invading Kuwait. The Bushes cost America much prestige, blood and treasure.

Bush 41 suckered Saddam into invading Kuwait by giving him the "green light" via April Glaspie.

It is now more than fifteen years since that fateful meeting on July 25, 1990 between then-US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie and President Saddam Hussein that the Iraqi leader interpreted as a "green light" from Washington for his invasion of Kuwait eight days later.

TRANSCRIPT: Is the US State Department still keeping April Glaspie under wraps?

Bush 43 conjured up lies to invade Iraq a 2nd time. He was planning to invade Iraq before 9/11.

The Downing Street Memo

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Perhaps some of you need to read a good book on the Gulf War and subsequent Iraq War so that you will not continue this endless parade of "stupid" I always hear coming from both sides.

The reason we did not take out Saddam in the Gulf War is because no one wanted to do that. The Arabs in the coalition wanted Saddam out of Kuwait, but still wanted him in power as a counter to Iran. Most ignoramuses do not realize that our troops never invaded Iraq in that conflict with the intention of holding Iraqi territory. The Arab members of the coalition made that fact absolutely clear. President George H.W. Bush was caught between a rock and a hard place, so our troops packed up and headed home in 1992, only to return 11 years later.

People tend to forget that there was almost 18 months between 9/11/2001 and when the invasion took place in 2003. There was a great deal of water under the bridge and selective memories like to gloss over that fact.

Our military was initially greeted as victors for a significant period of time in 2003. Long-term memory losses by people who were otherwise occupied at the time seems to make them forget that Iraq was well on it's way to democracy, but our failure to force our terms on the Iraqi's own self-determination allowed Sunnis to limit participation b the Shiites fomenting centuries of religious hatred to flair into a civil war between militias from each side.

Far too many of you on both ends of the political spectrum are woefully ignorant of the realities that shaped those conflicts. As a veteran of the Gulf War, I have the honor of saying "I was there", so you can remain wallowing in your parroting of talking points, but most of you likely are clueless as to the big picture.

Was it botched? The war was not botched. It was a masterful stroke of military genius unlike anything seen before in human history. As other posters have said, we lost the peace.

 

[JBond]

Wolfowitz Says U.S. Botched Iraq War - The Daily Beast

REALLY!!!!?????

I agree obama screwed up royally. Who the hell announces the date they are cutting and running? Just unforgivably dumb. Obama's failure to negotiate a continuing SOFA was a planned disaster. It coninsided with his Arab Spring and financing of the JV teams.

 

[eagle1462010]

Perhaps some of you need to read a good book on the Gulf War and subsequent Iraq War so that you will not continue this endless parade of "stupid" I always hear coming from both sides.

The reason we did not take out Saddam in the Gulf War is because no one wanted to do that. The Arabs in the coalition wanted Saddam out of Kuwait, but still wanted him in power as a counter to Iran. Most ignoramuses do not realize that our troops never invaded Iraq in that conflict with the intention of holding Iraqi territory. The Arab members of the coalition made that fact absolutely clear. President George H.W. Bush was caught between a rock and a hard place, so our troops packed up and headed home in 1992, only to return 11 years later.

People tend to forget that there was almost 18 months between 9/11/2001 and when the invasion took place in 2003. There was a great deal of water under the bridge and selective memories like to gloss over that fact.

Our military was initially greeted as victors for a significant period of time in 2003. Long-term memory losses by people who were otherwise occupied at the time seems to make them forget that Iraq was well on it's way to democracy, but our failure to force our terms on the Iraqi's own self-determination allowed Sunnis to limit participation b the Shiites fomenting centuries of religious hatred to flair into a civil war between militias from each side.

Far too many of you on both ends of the political spectrum are woefully ignorant of the realities that shaped those conflicts. As a veteran of the Gulf War, I have the honor of saying "I was there", so you can remain wallowing in your parroting of talking points, but most of you likely are clueless as to the big picture.

Was it botched? The war was not botched. It was a masterful stroke of military genius unlike anything seen before in human history. As other posters have said, we lost the peace.

I agree with most of what you have to say.

I understand that the coalition would have fell apart had we went in to finish off Saddam and the Republican Guard.

I understand that the International Mandate was to remove him from Kuwait only.

I understand that he didn't want us to be seen as occupiers in Iraq, and didn't want Mission Creep by doing so.......His own words.........

I agree that the battle strategy was bad assed.........

I don't agree that most of military personnel wanted to finish him off and get it over with.
I also stand by that Bush called for the people of Iraq to stand up and take out Saddam, and they did. They were slaughtered.......I stand by that as well.
In response to this the No Fly Zones were created to try to minimize the killing by Saddam after the War. Along with inspections that Saddam thwarted for a decade..........

I believe we shouldn't have ended the War so soon even though the objective was met, and finished off as much of the Republican Guard as possible before ending hostilities................and not called them to revolt only to leave their asses hanging in the air.

Perhaps we will agree to disagree on that.

Bush talks about why the decisions made near the end of this video.

 

[eagle1462010]

NewsMine.org - Bush called for 1991 shiite rebellion against saddam

But although Bush had called for the rebellion, his administration was caught unprepared when it happened. The administration knew little about those in the Iraqi opposition because, as a matter of policy, it refused to talk to them. Policymakers tended to see Iraq's main ethnic groups in caricature: The Shiites were feared as pro-Iranian and the Kurds as anti-Turkish. Indeed, the U.S. administration seemed to prefer the continuation of the Baath regime (albeit without Hussein) to the success of the rebellion. As one National Security Council official told me at the time: "Our policy is to get rid of Saddam, not his regime."

The practical expression of this policy came in the decisions made by the military on the ground. U.S. commanders spurned the rebels' plea for help. The United States allowed Iraq to send Republican Guard units into southern cities and to fly helicopter gunships. (This in spite of a ban on flights, articulated by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf with considerable swagger: "You fly, you die.") The consequences were devastating. Hussein's forces leveled the historical centers of the Shiite towns, bombarded sacred Shiite shrines and executed thousands on the spot. By some estimates, 100,000 people died in reprisal killings between March and September. Many of these atrocities were committed in proximity to American troops, who were under orders not to intervene.

In recent years Baghdad has shortchanged the south in the distribution of food and medicine, contributing to severe malnutrition among vulnerable populations. Some 100 Shiite clerics have been murdered, including four senior ayatollahs. Draining the marshes displaced 400,000 Marsh Arabs, destroying a culture that is one of the world's oldest, as well as causing immeasurable ecological damage.

The first Bush administration's decision to abandon the March uprising was a mistake of historic proportions. With U.S. help, or even neutrality, the March uprising could have succeeded, thus avoiding the need for a second costly war. (Bush's defenders insist the United States had no mandate to carry the war to Baghdad, but this is beside the point. The uprising started after the Gulf War ended, and the United States was positioned to easily down Iraqi helicopters and halt Iraqi tanks.)

 

[Political Junky]

Wolfowitz Says U.S. Botched Iraq War - The Daily Beast

REALLY!!!!?????

I agree obama screwed up royally. Who the hell announces the date they are cutting and running? Just unforgivably dumb. Obama's failure to negotiate a continuing SOFA was a planned disaster. It coninsided with his Arab Spring and financing of the JV teams.

Bush set the date.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Wolfowitz Says U.S. Botched Iraq War - The Daily Beast

REALLY!!!!?????

Well, either it's been reported wrong, or he's wrong. It wasn't the invasion that was botched, it was the post-war period. Now, it's botched in my eyes, but in the eyes of the right it seems to be more perfect every day. They got what they wanted, a refugee crisis, anger in Europe among their traditionally closest allies, they got their war against Islam, everything they wanted happened because the sent US soldiers out there to be killed for the profits of rich people.