I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again.

No. Neither.

Americans, yes. Political leadership, no.

Absolutely not.The only ones who benefitted were (still are) political leadership ... and the Illuminati (if there really is such a thing and you can pin it down and identify it.)

This is the reason why your prediction does not apply to Iran (nor does it apply to several other nations). The invasion of Irak was a win/win situation for all of the investors. This is why they gave the finger to the UN and invaded Irak illegally. There were no negative consequences 'in the bank'.

 

If the reason for invading Iraq was to topple an obliviously despicable dictator why didn't the US invade the Islamic revolutionary state of Iran at the time? Or Syria for that matter. Current president Assad's father had murdered over 10,000 people in Hama in the 80's as a response to anti-government mass street protests.

The fact that the the US still remains a close ally and arms supplier with Saudi Arabia, a state currently bombing the third world nation of Yemen into the stone age, shows that the US has a particularly selective outlook when it comes to Middle Eastern 'human rights' initiatives. This is the same Saudi Arabia who have used their oil wealth to fuel the madness in the Syrian war since 2011.

Was Iraq a threat to the US at the time: No
was Iran a threat to the US at the time: Yes

Were Iraqis responsible for 9/11: No
Were Saudis' responsible for 9/11: Yes

Did Iraq have a weak military and large oil reserves: Yes % Yes
Did Iran have a weak military and large oil reserves: No & Yes
Did Saudi Arabia have a weak military and large oil reserves: No & Yes

Did the US intervene in the Congolese war, the bloodiest war since WW2 with over 4m deaths, which was raging at the time of the Iraq invasion: No

Conclusion: The US did not invade Iraq on humanitarian grounds and now the region is in flames. Have no doubt, the genesis of ISIS began on the day Donald Rumsfeld disbanded the Iraqi police and armed forces creating a sectarian bloodbath in Iraq. This lead to the Sunnis tooling up and emerging out of Fallujah as the largest and best funded terrorist organisation the World has ever known.

 

We support many dictators past and present. If they give us something we want. All dictators are evil in some manner. So, the hypocrisy here is perhaps due to the act of ignore-ance. The conscious act of ignoring the truth. Or it might be insufficient education as to what reality is.

Yes, liberals, genuine ones, would try to keep us from war mongering, but there are so few liberals in DC. We have two parties, of an oligarchy, which is a war monger, both of them. One party, with two heads.

 

What truth is that? Besides you looking for an echo chamber.

To bad your hope wont be happening anytime soon.

 

No one stated that the veteran you are quoting in your OP is a liberal or likes evil dictators. What this thread is and blatantly so is full of crap. America isn't in any type of decline by any measure of substance. Economically or Militarily. You criticize the other poster for lacking in mental faculties. I find your blanket self creating America hating narrative just as lacking in substance and certainly not objective. Our media does the same thing. Someone will state X and the media will literally say " so what you really mean is" Y. They actually say that phrase change the narrative in a live interview! Your doing the equivalent here. Your opinion is quite lacking and shallow in this one sorry. Particularly in regards to President Trump. I will explain.

I agree with the OP quoted article. Every word. I have several if not many long detailed objective posts on these forums that say exactly what he did and more. In regards to our entire geopolitical gambit in the ME being not just misled but criminal. I disagree with Mircea on that a President can not influence geopolitical goals as well. Yes they are plans encompassing decades but our Deep State IE the State Dept lifers that hatched this up were wrong. Bush went along with this ME plan and began the madness.....and Obama and Hillary both perpetuated it. Obama could have stopped it. We could have stopped at Iraq but he was to weak and Hillary who is the physical embodiment of our failed foreign policy for eight years made it even worse.

So in the span of 20 years we have destroyed three countries. I'm throwing in Libya as well.
I am not a callous man but let's say I support these plans. It's my country and we are stronger than any other on the planet 5x over so fk it let's do it. Let's say I'm heartless and don't care about millions of people being killed or displaced. Let's say that because my country has a plan that is going to make us stronger, and more prosperous.

Oh WAIT. There has never been any pay off. None. Only costs.. Trillions of dollars, my dollars spent, thousands of my soldiers maimed or killed and we aren't any safer. There was no MWDs, and Al Qaeda was a well chained up dog of KSA until we destabilized the entire country of Iraq. So purely from a callous selfish American I am not happy!

It is not even within my limited scope of mental ability to even imagine like a horror movie the cost these actions we have taken have had on Iraq, Syria and Libya. I am not a stupid man and I am well informed. Yet I still can't even imagine the price those peoples have faced because of our actions in the ME. I can't because if faced with it.. I think any sane man of just average moral compass would go insane. Many Americans are like this. We can't face it so we watch CNN and FOX news. To be appropriately protected.

NOW that we have that sorted out let's talk about President Trump. < points finger > Your opinion or any other that does not like our actions in the ME need to get on the Trump train because and I know it's almost comedy.. A Real Estate tycoon and reality show star that is about as likable as the plague is all you've got! Right Away after Trump was elected and it continues..... Senior State Dept lifers the true psychopaths who cooked this whole mess up have been resigning or fired. Anachronisms. Idiots. One and all. Trump told Mattison he wanted a Deep State shake up and modernization and it's happening. Right before our eyes.

Yet here your opinion is shallowly attacking Trump supporters and Trump. Trump is just playing the board as it was left to him. He can't just knock all the pieces off and say I don't want to play.

So there isn't going to be a war with Iran. Limited engagement if they keep acting like idiots sure. They are a modern people and have a very educated and young majority. Much more so than Iraq was. Iran needs to stop playing our game. They should just stop all their shenanigans, stop countering our and Israel's provocations in Syria! .. Soon ISIS will be gone and the United States is running out of reasons to stay there.

Don't give us any.

 

And like Rome, we are cannibalizing society at home in order to fuel and fund the reach of empire abroad as a befuddled public retreats into fantastic delusions of grandeur.

 

Keep your eyes closed pard.

 

The election of Trump is slowing that down and I am hoping for some reversal as the progressive socialist one world order establishment is dwindling every day. I shiver at the consequences of any other top GOP or Dem winning the presidency. Thank God for the corrupt establishment because Bernie would have beaten Trump. He would have been the worst of all. Admitted Socialist. We needed an outsider. We kinda needed Trump. Someone obnoxious enough to piss them all off so they work together

One year in and I'm quite pleased at what has been accomplished and the tone that has been set.

 

A war of choice, and yet Rumsfeld argued AGAINST a proper build up and prep with the statement: "You don't go to war with the army you want, you go to war with the army you have."
Really? In a war of CHOICE?? Rummy, who protected Naval Air Station Anacostia, District of Columbia from hostile enemy forces in Maryland and Virginia, is suddenly an expert on war preparations. At least he wasn't a total chickenhawk, and he served.
But did he learn one ****** thing in his service? It appears not.
Colin Powell...sigh...I guess you could say that he was trying his best to be a good soldier but I have a hard time with the fact that he made the case for a war we never should have gotten into and I don't think history will be very kind to him. And it's too bad, because he is an otherwise honorable man.
And the chickenhawk brigade of the neocons, Elliott Abrams and the whole lot of em, they can all burn in Hell.

 

Yeah, it's all oh so different now isn't it.

 

No it's not but change has been effected. I just hope we dismantle ISIS and leave. Stop egging on Israel.. Rein them in some. Assad isn't going anywhere. We need to pull out of Afghanistan after making sure the Taliban who is the majority and not like ISIS at all understand what is required so we don't return... Then let those countries figure out their own problems.

I will support alot of aid in the rebuilding and resettlement home of displaced peoples too.

I don't like the United States my countries continued support of terrorists pretending to be Syrian revolutionaries. Israel needs to stop attacking Syria. Iran needs to go home. I want Assad to allow the Kurds to govern themselves up in Northern Syria. He will, he has before. That means Turkey and Iran need to withdraw completely. Erdogans fantasy about taking some of Northern Syria for Turkey isn't happening. He is really mad at the US right now for blocking him. If they don't leave we will use the Kurds as an excuse to stay.. to protect our ally that no one argues killed more ISIS than anyone. My government doesn't care about the Kurds. We are using them.

 

I agree that your government is using the Kurds, but I think that during that relationship a bond has been formed.
I do think the American people, think of Kurds as allies and wish to treat them as such.
How far they will be willing to take that I can't guess. not all the way I expect, but I think the genuine sympathy for them is there.

 

Its funny how almost everyone supported going to war but now they are against it.

Hypocrites.

 

Well said.

 

Spooky did.

Pay attention.

 

The more likely explanation is that you've stuck your head in the sand like so many other Americans. I cannot say I blame you. It's far more comforting than confronting the truth.

 

You still haven't figured out how links work.

Sad.

 

Links I understand

But I have not figured out how to read the anti trump rant without giving money to the odious NYTimes

 

So why did you falsely claim there is no link?

 

Now you're changing the goalposts.

Your statement was asinine.

 

Following your link adds no new information so there is no basis for a reply

 

But there is a link, contrary to what you claimed earlier. What happens after you click the link is not my responsibility.

Long story short: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson was Colin Powell's Chief of Staff. He helped sell the war in Iraq, which he admits was based on lies and fraud. Now the same people who gave us the war in Iraq are pushing for war in Iran, using the same fraudulent methods.

 

I am not blaming you for the greed of the NYTimes

But I wont take your word for this either

 

Your statement is an example of deluded thinking. That kind of thinking that, even with the luxury of historical hindsight, is stuck in the echo chamber of the Bush Administration and its untrue claims.