It has been a decade and a half since the United States went ahead with what proved to be a very ill-advised invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq. Despite warnings from the world community, including experts at the United Nations who urged Americans to hear the message that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD's) in Iraq, the Bush White House insisted that they had those WMD's, and clearly implied, relentlessly implied even, that there were some links between Iraq and the September 11th attacks, which there were not. Later on, almost to a man and woman, the Bush administration themselves would deny that there were links to Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the attacks, although that did not stop a majority of Americans from believing it even after the reports of the Bush administration denying links.
Not too long ago, I read an article about a poll that showed that a majority of millennials would approve of the Iraq invasion even knowing what they know now. More recently, I saw a similar poll among Americans in general that revealed that the country was still split in half over the invasion, with well over 40 percent of Americans still feeling that the invasion, and the subsequent long war that resulted, were a good and necessary thing.
Again, keep in mind that this is after the fact. If Americans were paying attention, they would have seen that no WMD's were ever found, and that no links were ever discovered between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks. They would also have seen that well over 100,000 Iraqis died as a result of that war, and that countless tens of thousands of others were injured. More than 4,000 Americans were killed, with again, tens of thousands, presumably, being injured. And the war cost the United States at least 2-3 trillion dollars, not to mention it's good name and trustworthiness for many around the world. On top of it, it did not display American military might as much as it underscored the limitations of the American military's capabilities when waging a war thousands of miles away.
Yet, almost one of every two Americans still show no regret over what may very well have been the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history.
Such is the sorry state of affairs politically in this country.
A lot of people subscribe to the mentality that you cannot ever admit to any kind of a mistake. I am guessing that this has a part to play in why we collectively seem unable to admit to this invasion having been such a horrendous mistake.
Frankly, though, I think the country would be so much better off, and so much more respected and trusted around the world, if it finally did admit to making a mistake in Iraq. I am suspicious about pointing the finger at faulty information from Britain or any other nations, because the Bush administration was aggressively pining for that war, and let us not forget that almost everyone top ranking official in the Bush White House had gotten rich off of oil. Some of the video footage leaked afterwards clearly pointed to greed for oil profits being off the charts, with corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater, among others, being very public with their greed, and revealing just how much they benefited from the war in Iraq.
Maybe Americans are not paying attention, but the rest of the world sure is. They remember all too well, and that is why their trust in the United States was seriously shaken. Now, with Donald Trump having been elected into the White House, there is still more validity for the rest of the world to approach the United States with cynicism. What they see is a problem, but only Americans seem to not understand that.
It would help if we collectively at least could admit to it having been a mistake. But since we seem so incapable of this, at least on a national scale, than the problems and divisions that defined that era continue to be relevant, and the blue state-red state divide continues to deepen.
Let us remember the Iraq fiasco. It seemed like a good idea to post these two thought-provoking articles, one on the consequences of the invasion and revealing just how damaging it was (and how no one here in the United States was really ever held accountable), and the other, much older, article revealing a link between big oil corporations and the Iraq invasion. We need to remember, and we really should examine this sorry, shameful chapter in American history.
15 Years. More Than 1 Million Dead. No One Held Responsible. The War in Iraq's latest anniversary passed in all-American silence. BY CHARLES P. PIERCE MAR 21, 2018:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19547603/iraq-15-years-george-bush/
Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq By Paul Bignell Monday 18 April 2011
I think most people who care know it was a mistake, but would rather avoid the subject. Given the chance, we would put Iraq back together, the way it was and deal with the nasty regime. It was a very bad adventure with a lot of lessons learned. But we should indeed mark the anniversaries. Thanks for this post!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think most people know it was a mistake, too. And even more people likely will concede that mistakes were made along the way, or in the execution of the war. I hope we do learn something from that, and at the very least, we should not forget. That was why it seemed so important to recognize the anniversary. Thanks for commenting, Bruce Coltin!
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