Way before George Bush took his eye off the ball in Afghanistan and decided to invade Iraq in what eventually drained this nation of thousands of troop lives and over a trillion dollars, Senator Bernie Sanders warned of the dangers of invading Iraq.
Too bad Bush didn’t listen.
The Bush family cannot do anything wrong, no matter what the rest of the country thinks, no matter what the rest if the world thinks. And that sentiment was demonstrated in a recent interview when Jeb Bush said his brother George was absolutely right to invade Iraq, and that he, Jeb, would have done the very same thing too, even “knowing what we know now.”
In an interview on Fox, Jeb – a potential candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 – acknowledged that even “knowing what we know now,” he would invade Iraq just as his brother did back in 2004.
“I would,” Jeb said. “And so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody.”
But as I mentioned above, the vast majority of Americans and the world disagree with the Bush family on this one, even some in the higher echelons of the Republican party. Laura Ingraham – another candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 – concluded that Jeb Bush must be insane.
“You can’t still think that going into Iraq, now, as a sane human being, was the right thing to do,” Ingraham said on her radio show. “If you do, there has to be something wrong with you.”
But it should come as no surprise that “knowing what we know now,” Jeb would still invade. In another bombshell recording, Jeb told a group of donors that his brother George, the same former president who authored the failed foreign policy of the Iraq war, was one of his top foreign policy advisers.
This is not a joke people. These Bush (es) just don’t get it. Although everybody see the fault in starting a war based on lies, Jeb is prepared to walk in his brother’s footsteps again even given what we know now.
Maybe Laura Ingraham is right. Maybe there is something insane about that family.
Don’t call them stupid, just call them Fox News watchers… well, maybe they are stupid for watching Fox!
In a Public Mind poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University released Wednesday, more than half of Republicans — 51 percent — and half of those who watch Fox News — 52 percent — say that they believe it to be “definitely true” or “probably true” that American forces found an active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq.
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Thirty-two percent of Democrats, 46 percent of independents, 41 percent of people who reported to watch CNN and 14 percent of MSNBC viewers answered similarly.
Overall, 42 percent still believe that troops discovered WMDs, a misleading factor in the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. It was later found that Iraq did have individual stockpiles of chemical weapons, but there was no active WMD program in the country.
Back when bush invaded iraq on false pretense and with false information, no one on the right questioned his motives. Bush was right they thought, and the conservative and Republican media did all they could to push the weapons of mass destruction lie as a valid reason to invade.
President Obama, then a Senator from Illinois, objected to the invasion and referred to it as Bush’s distraction from a disastrous economy.
Well now that there is a legitimate threat to Iraq’s security called ISIS, President Obama has ordered targeted air strikes to selected targets and the same Republicans and conservatives who pushed Bush’s false narrative, are now questioning Obama’s reasoning, saying that Obama is bombing Iraq to cover up what they call, a failed economy.
This was Rush Limbaugh’s theory:
“He didn’t vote for it,” Rush said of Obama. “He made a speech before it even happened condemning it, that Bush was just dredging it up as a distraction. He makes a speech at the Democrat convention in 2004, called it a dumb war, continued with that theme, and now look where we are. Would it be too cynical to suggest that Obama might be bombing Iraq to distract us from his numerous problems? I mean, we’ve got an immigration disaster taking place. Our economy is a disaster. Obamacare is a disaster.”
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I thought it was a lot more but the official numbers are in, and the results show that President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit journalism groups.
“In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003,” reads an overview of the examination, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
According to the study, Bush and seven top officials — including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice — made 935 false statements about Iraq during those two years.
The study was based on a searchable database compiled of primary sources, such as official government transcripts and speeches, and secondary sources — mainly quotes from major media organizations.
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.
The Crucifixion of Tomas Young (TruthDig)
h/t – dangerousminds
Glenn Beck is suffering from a mental disorder that allows him to switch back and forth between personalities based on the news of the day. Today, he’s praising Liberals and saying they were right to oppose the Iraq war, tomorrow he is sure to praise the Republicans for invading Iraq.
In his latest show, Beck lambasted the Republican party for their gung-ho attitude towards a re-invasion of Iraq, and admitted that he was wrong, he made a mistake in being in favor of the war!
“From the beginning, most people on the left were against going into Iraq. I wasn’t. At the time I believed that the United States was under threat from Saddam Hussein. I really truly believed that Saddam Hussein was funding terrorists. We knew that. He was funding the terrorists in Hamas. We knew that he was giving money. We could track that. We knew he hated us. We knew that without a shadow of a doubt. It wasn’t much or a stretch to believe that he would fund a terror strike against us, especially since he would say that. So I took him at his word.
Now, in spite of the things I felt at the time when we went into war, liberals said: We shouldn’t get involved. We shouldn’t nation-build. And there was no indication the people of Iraq had the will to be free. I thought that was insulting at the time. Everybody wants to be free. They said we couldn’t force freedom on people. Let me lead with my mistakes. You are right. Liberals, you were right. We shouldn’t have.”
Then, sounding like a true liberal who has had enough of the wars, and stealing a line from Richard Martinez, the California dad whose son was killed in a recent shooting attack, Beck echoed the Not One More slogan, saying, “I have more of a chance of hacking off my loyal listeners and audience by saying this. but so be it: Not one more life. Not one more life. Not one more dollar, not one more airplane, not one more bullet, not one more Marine, not one more arm or leg or eye. Not one more.”
Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi! It the cry of the right-wing media led by Fox News and parroted by Congressional Republicans like John Boehner and Darrell Issa!
But who was screaming Iraq! Iraq! Iraq! Oh, you don’t remember Iraq? That’s the war Bush and Cheney led the United States into, based solely on a lie, a made up story, falsehoods, intentionally telling inaccurate information with the intent to deceive, you know, liar liar pants on fire!
Yes, that war.
So back to my question. Who exactly from the right-wing media was screaming from the hilltops that we need to bring out troops home, as they dropped one by one in the fields of Iraq? Was Fox, or anyone in the conservative media, or anyone in th Republican congress denouncing the lies that started a war that ended up killing hundreds of thousands of people?
No. Their voices of dissent were nowhere to be heard. As a matter of fact, they were the ones making excuses for why we were there in the first place. They were the ones defending the lies and the falsehoods and the made up stories, simply because… a Republican was in the White House.
These people are not “patriots!” When the troops – the true patriots – were dying by the thousands in a war started based on intentionally misleading information, these Republicans and their Fox News Republican media machine were the ones pushing for more patriots to die! For American troops to remain and continue the fight, simply because their ideology matched the people running the government.
Four people died in Benghazi. Yes, that too was a tragedy. But according to a phrase by President Obama, there is no there there, and continuing to beat this dead horse when you were silent when thousands more gave their lives because of your lies, is a tad bit hypocritical, don’t you think Fox News? Or maybe the question should be, do you think?
But I digress.
John Stewart made this video on the Fox and Republican hypocrites and their Benghazi fascination. “I commend you for finally getting in touch with your inner outrage, because if I remember correctly from the previous decade, it was an emotion you did not seem comfortable addressing or expressing,” he said.
Video
It’s like we have our very own war going on right here in America. And the NRA and Republicans in Congress are doing everything possible to keep things that way.
More than ten years ago, in March of 2003, American-led forces began their invasion of Iraq. Since then, 4,409 American service members died in the Iraq War.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, by contrast, occurred less than six months ago. As of this writing, according to data published by Slate, 4,539 people have been killed by guns in the United States.
President Obama was joined by the First Lady for a joint address this weekend, as they both wished the American people a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. The couple especially thanked the men and women in the military, as some of them come home from the war in Iraq while others still serve in other areas of the world.
“This holiday season at the White House,” the First Lady said, “we wanted to show our thanks with a special holiday tribute to some of the strongest, bravest, and most resilient members of our American family – the men and women who wear our country’s uniform and the families who support them.”
The President continued, thanking the troops for their service, and expressing his joy with the families of those returning home for the Christmas holidays.
For many military families, the best gift this year is a simple one – welcoming a loved one back for the holidays. You see, after nearly nine years, our war in Iraq is over. Our troops are coming home. And across America, military families are being reunited.
Another promise kept, as Republicans continue chastising the president for following through on his word to end the unpopular war.
“After nearly nine years of war, tens of thousands of casualties –including 4,500 dead — and more than $800 billion spent, the U.S. military on Thursday formally ended its mission in Iraq and prepared to leave the country,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
New York Times: “The tenor of the farewell ceremony, officially called ‘Casing the Colors,’ was likely to sound an uncertain trumpet for a war that was launched to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction it did not have and now ends without the sizable, enduring American military presence for which many officers had hoped. The tone of the string of ceremonies culminating with the final withdrawal event on Thursday has been understated in keeping with an administration that campaigned to end an unpopular war it inherited.”
In all fairness, the decision to leave Iraq was made between the Bush administration and the leaders of Iraq. But this important little fact means absolutely nothing to Republicans, as they continue accusing this president of wrongly bringing this war to an end.
Finally.
It’s not often I’ll agree with Ron Paul. The Republican/Libertarian has, by the very nature of his ideology, suggested that the only role government should have is an invisible one. He also criticizes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, fought for an end to all regulations on businesses, and as recently as the last Republican debate, suggested that airlines are best equipped to stop terrorism. All things I strongly disagree with.
But on his website, Ron Paul wrote about his feelings on the 10th year anniversary of September 11th, and something he said had me nodding in agreement. He said;
We should never forget those in our government who used the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history as an excuse to launch completely unrelated wars, to do unprecedented damage to Americans’ historic liberties, to run roughshod over the Constitution, and to betray the Founders’ vision by savaging some of our most deeply held values.
A clear swipe to the Bush Administration who, instead of using the opportunity of September 11th to get the terrorists responsible for killing almost 3,000 people, preached fear to the American people and began a war with Iraq, a country that had no link to the destruction caused by Osama Bin Laden.
The war in Iraq ended up costing the lives of thousands of American troops, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and over $1 trillion. But war is a business, and someone made millions from the decision to use September 11th as the reason to invade Iraq.
Dick Cheney – the Vice President in Bush’s Administration, and one of the most influential voices for the war in Iraq – was CEO of a company call Haliburton. Dick Cheney insisted that he severed all ties with Haliburton in 2000, but after the war started in Iraq, Haliburton was awarded no-bid contracts worth millions for “rebuilding Iraq.”
In 2004, Cheney appeared on Meet The Press and was asked about his relationship with his former company, to which more denials were given. But Time Magazine uncovered internal Pentagon emails proving that Cheney was not being the least bit honest. According to the report, the emails showed that these no-bid contracts were going through Cheney’s office. From the report;
The e-mail says Feith approved arrangements for the contract “contingent on informing WH [White House] tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w VP’s [Vice President’s] office.” Three days later, the Army Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton the contract, without seeking other bids.
So yes, in this particular case, I wholeheartedly agree with Ron Paul. The war in Iraq was not one of necessity, but one of choice. There were billions of dollars to be made, and no-bid contracts by unscrupulous government officials was the way to do it.
And the lives lost in the process? Cheney recently said that if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn’t change a thing. In other words, in war you lose some then you lose some more. But the profits gained… priceless!
