'Operation Iraqi Freedom'
Why are we there? I've done two tours in OIF I and OIF III, and I still can't understand. We were told that there were 'weapons of mass destruction', and yet none have been found . It should have been very easy to pull up a receipt with both a date and a name on it - because we gave Saddam weapons of mass destruction, back when Iran was our enemy. These very same WMDs used on the Kurds were a direct result of the sharing of technology by U.S. labs, and even may have been produced by same. Even prior to the invasion of Kuwait which prompted Desert Storm, Saddam had every reason to believe that the U.S. would support him, if transcripts of meetings can be believed.
In the weeks and months leading up to the latest invasion, it was quite obvious that the U.S. would invade no matter what Iraq did, before Hans Blix even left the country. It became a one-sided issue of ego; no WMDs had been found, but accepting this would put us in the wrong for asserting that there was, so there was no choice but to invade to try and save face. So, when "WMDs" were not found even after the invasion, the government propagated lies, concentrating on the fact that Saddam was a brutal dictator and insinuating that Iraq was somehow involved in 9/11.
* Saddam was a brutal dictator, but there are many of his ilk all over the world that we have done nothing about. Maybe because their countries don't have oil?
* Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 whatsoever. Back when we were convinced there were WMDs..the government didn't even insinuate this. Now half the country is convinced they had something to do with it.
Quite simply, we fucked up. The Iraqis loved us when we deposed Saddam, but not for long after. We have nearly 20,000 confirmed American deaths now, because of a debacle which we created. Does it not dawn on people that a nation which can produce twenty thousand deaths (with no end in sight) against the most technologically adavanced military on earth could very well have deposed Saddam themselves if they had taken a notion to? Saddam's army was a joke.
General Smedley Butler had it right: war is a racket. We (the military) are little more than mercenaries sent hither and yon to die at some politician's whim. We need to get back in the business of national defense, rather than an armed horde to advance partisan interests.
I don't see that 20,000 deaths and well over three hundred billion dollars is a fair price for liberating some shitheads that don't want us there in the first place. I can certainly think of a lot better uses for a sum which is greater than the entire Gross National Product of Russia. Mark my words, in less than 30 years after we pull out we'll be right back there fighting the exact same assholes again.
We do the troops an intolerable injustice by sending them to die for an incomprehensible network of LIES.
In the weeks and months leading up to the latest invasion, it was quite obvious that the U.S. would invade no matter what Iraq did, before Hans Blix even left the country. It became a one-sided issue of ego; no WMDs had been found, but accepting this would put us in the wrong for asserting that there was, so there was no choice but to invade to try and save face. So, when "WMDs" were not found even after the invasion, the government propagated lies, concentrating on the fact that Saddam was a brutal dictator and insinuating that Iraq was somehow involved in 9/11.
* Saddam was a brutal dictator, but there are many of his ilk all over the world that we have done nothing about. Maybe because their countries don't have oil?
* Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 whatsoever. Back when we were convinced there were WMDs..the government didn't even insinuate this. Now half the country is convinced they had something to do with it.
Quite simply, we fucked up. The Iraqis loved us when we deposed Saddam, but not for long after. We have nearly 20,000 confirmed American deaths now, because of a debacle which we created. Does it not dawn on people that a nation which can produce twenty thousand deaths (with no end in sight) against the most technologically adavanced military on earth could very well have deposed Saddam themselves if they had taken a notion to? Saddam's army was a joke.
General Smedley Butler had it right: war is a racket. We (the military) are little more than mercenaries sent hither and yon to die at some politician's whim. We need to get back in the business of national defense, rather than an armed horde to advance partisan interests.
I don't see that 20,000 deaths and well over three hundred billion dollars is a fair price for liberating some shitheads that don't want us there in the first place. I can certainly think of a lot better uses for a sum which is greater than the entire Gross National Product of Russia. Mark my words, in less than 30 years after we pull out we'll be right back there fighting the exact same assholes again.
We do the troops an intolerable injustice by sending them to die for an incomprehensible network of LIES.
posted by Soulend at 11:07 AM
<< Home