That is what I have been saying since day 1. On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 9:56 AM, Brian Bednarek <[email protected]> wrote:
> We NEVER should have went in there in the first place!!! > > On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 9:56 AM, Travis <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Cartoon by NetRightDaily.com >> <http://netrightdaily.com/2014/08/cartoon-stable-iraq/> >> Who Lost Iraq? >> >> By Thomas Sowell <http://freedomsback.com/author/thomas-sowell/> >> >> June 9, 2015, 7:05 am >> >> >> >> After the pro-Western government of China was forced to flee to the >> island of Taiwan in 1949, when the Communists took over mainland China, >> bitter recriminations in Washington led to the question: “Who lost China?” >> China was, of course, never ours to lose, though it might be legitimate to >> ask if a different American policy toward China could have led to a >> different outcome. >> >> In more recent years, however, Iraq was in fact ours to lose, after U.S. >> troops vanquished Saddam Hussein’s army and took over the country. Today, >> we seem to be in the process of losing Iraq, if not to ISIS, then to Iran, >> whose troops are in Iraq fighting ISIS. >> >> While mistakes were made by both the Bush administration and the Obama >> administration, those mistakes were of different kinds and of different >> magnitudes in their consequences, though both sets of mistakes are worth >> thinking about, so that so much tragic waste of blood and treasure does not >> happen again. >> >> Whether it was a mistake to invade Iraq in the first place is something >> that will no doubt be debated by historians and others for years to come. >> But, despite things that could have been done differently in Iraq during >> the Bush administration, in the end President Bush listened to his generals >> and launched the military “surge” that crushed the terrorist insurgents and >> made Iraq a viable country. >> >> The most solid confirmations of the military success in Iraq were the >> intercepted messages from Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq to their leaders in >> Pakistan that there was no point sending more insurgents, because they now >> had no chance of prevailing against American forces. This was the situation >> that Barack Obama inherited — and lost. >> >> Going back to square one, what lessons might we learn from the whole >> experience of the Iraq war? If nothing else, we should never again imagine >> that we can engage in “nation-building” in the sweeping sense that term >> acquired in Iraq — least of all building a democratic Arab nation in a >> region of the world that has never had such a thing in a history that goes >> back thousands of years. >> >> Human beings are not inert building blocks, and democracy has >> prerequisites that Western nations took centuries to develop. Perhaps the >> reshaping of German society and Japanese society under American occupation >> after World War II made such a project seem doable in Iraq. >> >> Had the Bush administration pulled it off, such an achievement in the >> Middle East could have been a magnificent gift to the entire world, >> bringing peace to a region that has been the spearhead of war and >> international terrorism. >> >> Germany and Japan had been transformed from belligerent military powers >> threatening world peace for more than half a century to two of the most >> pacifist nations on earth, in both cases after years of American occupation >> reshaped these societies. Why not Iraq? >> >> First of all, Germany and Japan were already nations before the American >> occupation. There was no “nation-building” to do. But Iraq was a collection >> of bitter rivals — Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, for example — who had never >> resolved their differences to form a nation, but were instead held together >> only by an iron dictatorship, as Yugoslavia once was. >> >> Replacing German and Japanese dictatorships with democracy after World >> War II was a challenge. But both countries remained under American military >> governments for years, slowly gaining such self-governing powers as the >> military overseers chose, and at such a pace as these overseers deemed >> prudent in the light of conditions on the ground. >> >> American authorities did not rush to set up an independent government, >> able to operate at cross purposes because it was “democratically elected” >> in a country without the prerequisites of a viable democracy. >> >> Despite the mistakes that were made in Iraq, it was still a viable >> country until Barack Obama made the headstrong decision to pull out all the >> troops, ignoring his own military advisers, just so he could claim to have >> restored “peace,” when in fact he invited chaos and defeat. >> >> This is only the latest of Obama’s gross misjudgments about Iraq, going >> back to his Senate days, when he vehemently opposed the military “surge” >> that crushed the terrorist insurgency, as did Senator Hillary Clinton also, >> by the way. >> >> >> >> >> __._,_.___ >> ------------------------------ >> Posted by: "Beowulf" <[email protected]> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> Visit Your Group >> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmajM0M251BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MzM5Njk3MTk-> >> >> >> [image: Yahoo! Groups] >> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJlNG5mdjJ0BF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQzMzk2OTcyMA--> >> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> >> • Unsubscribe >> <[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms >> of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> >> >> __,_._,___ >> >> >> -- >> -- >> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. >> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum >> >> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ >> * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. >> * Read the latest breaking news, and more. >> >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "PoliticalForum" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > > -- > brine > http://brineb.blogspot.com/ > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. 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