One of the problems with fabricating a war, and then being exposed for it later on, is that it becomes extremely difficult to take any allegations by the offending government, or almost any source, seriously thereafter.
Such is particularly the case with Iraq, where the absurd invasion of 2003 took place. It was meant to get rid of the most famous tyrant of his day, Saddam Huseein. But the White House, the British government, and many of the supporters for the cause of invasion and "regime change" loudly built up a case for the war on very trumped up charges, which makes it difficult to not be at least a little skeptical about allegations made by future US and British governments, or indeed, even any major news coming out of Iraq - particularly when it comes to efforts to get the rest of the world involved.
I know that ISIL, or ISIS, or the Islamic State, are not good guys. They may even be the most extreme regime, of sorts, that the Middle East has ever seen - and that's saying something!
The problem is you just do not know what to believe.
Are they really that bad? Or, is this another version of Weapons of Mass Destruction and 45 minute response time? Are they really, as I once heard them referred to as, potentially a "genocidal regime", or are such allegations hyped up, if not outright fabricated, much like the "yellow cake" charges, and other suggestions at the time that Saddam was the next Hitler or Stalin, for all intents and purposes, and posed such an imminent threat to world peace, that the invasion needed to take place ASAP. No time to really think about what we are getting into or the long term impact, as well as costs.
Just jump right in and go to war.
Of course, history cannot be changed. I was highly skeptical, as most people were at least outside of the United States) regarding just how much of a threat to the world Saddam's Iraq posed. But Bush and his cronies pushed for it, Blair went with it, and numerous other government agencies and corporations went along with it, too. They got their way, and many (but most likely not all) of their lies were exposed. The allegations upon which the justification for the invasion rested were balloons that popped loudly, and the effort that clearly went into the strategy to eliminate Saddam Hussein's regime was not matched by the same kind of effort with the occupation, the transition to democracy, or an exit strategy. The war went on and on. It was far, far longer than the days or weeks that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld infamously predicted. Iraq was a quagmire. It constituted a huge and embarrassing, not to mention highly visible, failure for American foreign policy, and the world took notice.
How could it fail to take notice?
True, now, we have a less brazen administration. We no longer have the president who boasts that we do not need a permission slip from the United Nations to invade Iraq. We no longer have the president who spread his arms and urged the terrorists to "bring 'em on", as if this were some wild west shootout, or something. As if the world was his oyster.
No, we do not have that president anymore, and I, for one, am thankful. But we do have the same system in place, and we do have a president in office that resembles that last president far too much. A president that kept in place many of the same destructive policies that he admittedly inherited and which were not unique to him, but which he also nonetheless failed to get rid of.. The same corporate interests that were in control back then are in control now. Defense still accounts for more than 50% of the government's budget. All of those weapons that we build, we intend to use, one way or another. Another war against an exaggerated threat might help to justify such a grossly bloated military budget. And if we go to war yet again, then we are proving, yet again, that the United States is by no means a peace-loving nation.
I know that this article is not from President Obama or the White House. But it is from the same media that remained so complacent during the Iraq war, that indeed went to such lengths to lend an aggressive chickenhawk White House some credibility in it's claims for war that were undeserved. That president back then is gone, but neither he nor anyone in his administration were ever truly taken to task for what they did, for how they lied in order to pursue an unjustifiable war of aggression.
Indeed, maybe this Islamic State really is the devil incarnate. maybe they are a genocidal regime, the Islamic extremist answer to the Nazis. Maybe they really are farming people for their organs.
Or maybe this is, yet again, a highly elaborate distraction, and the beginnings of yet another justification for an unjustifiable war. Surely, we will at least be spared the most obnoxious displays of chickenhawk behavior from the supposedly most responsible authorities in government. But if we get ourselves entangled in yet another conflict, in Iraq, yet again, of all places, then how stupid are we going to look as a people if things go wrong, yet again?
I know that the Islamic State and their fighters certainly do not look like angels at this point. But does that mean that we need to go to war in Iraq, yet again, to remove an evil threat?
Because it sure looks like that is where we are heading. Yet again.
And I, for one, am starting to think that no White House administration should ever again petition the American people for a military attack in Iraq. We fought against Saddam during the first Bush administration, dropped bombs on Iraq and imposed an economic embargo that apparently killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis while keeping Saddam in power, then went to yet another high profile war in Iraq under the second Bush administration under false charges. Iraq keeps growing more unstable, and we already showed that we are not interested in staying there long enough to make sure that stability has been established. We might have to be there forever to see that happen, and do we really want that?
Yet again?
Iraq envoy to UN: Islamic State might be harvesting organs. By CARA ANNA February 18, 2015:
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