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Posted by on Mar 24, 2016 in Blog, Politics | 6 comments

13 Years Ago the Wars Began

 

030402-N-5362A-004 Southern, Iraq (Apr. 2, 2003) -- U.S. Army Sgt. Mark Phiffer stands guard duty near a burning oil well in the Rumaylah Oil Fields in Southern Iraq. Coalition forces have successfully secured the southern oil fields for the economic future of the Iraqi people and are in the process of extinguishing the burning wells that were set ablaze in the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Operation Iraqi Freedom is the multi-national coalition effort to liberate the Iraqi people, eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and end the regime of Saddam Hussein. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Arlo K. Abrahamson. (RELEASED)

 

Thirteen years ago this week, United States armed forces invaded Iraq under false pretenses.  Whay are we still there?

 

America’s ill-advised invasion of Iraq combined with the emergence of a reckless new doctrine hellbent on regime change, as well as our ongoing intervention in the affairs of the greater Middle East lit the fuse on a ticking time bomb.  That prolonged carelessness has exploded into a global nightmare with no morning reprieve, nor any viable solution.  Not only isn’t there an exit strategy for American involvement.  We’ve plunged blindly into the abyss.  Perpetual conflict and living with the threat of terror appears to be our destiny.  We will end up paying for this tragic mistake for decades.

The initial ground invasion and aerial bombardment of Iraq, followed by a badly bungled pseudo-civilian-led occupation which was poorly designed by incompetents who lacked any understanding of the vast differences between our two cultures and who were woefully unaware of the centuries-old Shi’a-Sunni conflict, actions made far worse by a clueless clique of Bush-era neoconservatives with cozy ties to war-mongering Blackwater-style opportunists looking towards the Iraqi conflict as a profit center, triggered a tragic series of catastrophic events.  The terrible decisions made back in March 2003 have since led to hundreds of thousands of deaths on all sides of the international conflict, millions of displaced refugees from Syria and other countries flooding into the west, trillions in American national treasure squandered leading to our own debt crisis, regional stability fractured, and ultimately the creation of the most radical and dangerous terrorist organization of modern times which now makes everyone living or visiting anywhere in the world into a prospective target and possible victim.

ISIS, which thrives on fear and chaos can rightfully boast — mission accomplished.

Given the distractions of our daily lives, it’s easy to forget the United States of America remains very much at war — perhaps even permanently so thanks to this ill-conceived entanglement.  It’s easy to forget the high costs of our political ineptitude and the immeasurable pain endured by thousands of veterans who returned home wounded, both physically and emotionally.  It’s easy to ignore the sickening quagmire unleashed upon innocent civilians in places like Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, which includes families trapped in the middle fleeing invaders on all sides — everyone plentifully armed with American-made weapons supplied by death merchants who have made quite a financial killing indeed during this seemingly never-ending conflict.  It’s easy to reduce the complex problems of the Middle East into cheap applause lines at campaign rallies packed with idiotic sycophants, most unable to locate Iraq on a map.  It’s easy to act brave when the fact is — most of those screaming the loudest for the blood of our enemies are gutless cowards looking for proxies to execute their own measure of futility and frustration.  These people aren’t patriots.  They’re parasites.

Indeed, 13 years ago, on March 20, 2003, the United States launched an unprovoked invasion of Iraq.  Overthrowing a despotic dictator with inferior military capabilities and diminished popular support proved to be like shooting fish in a barrel.  Winning the war was relatively easy.  The military campaign and conflict lasted just 21 days.  While the overwhelming majority of Americans cheered the Bush Administration for achieving such a decisive military victory so quickly, a smaller percentage of us who were vocally critical of the invasion were acutely aware and fearful of a far more alarming reality — that the Iraq War wasn’t over, not at all.  Saddam Hussein’s demise meant that our responsibilities within the region had only just begun.  Exemplifying appalling arrogance and cultural naivete which has since led to the rise of a terrorist organization now carrying out attacks just about everywhere —  from Nigeria to Paris to San Bernardino to Brussels to where ever the next imminent strike will be — America has recklessly whacked a hornets’ nest, resulting in a disastrous political, military, economic, religious, cultural, and social fallout which shall become a plague upon human civilization, potentially for decades.

Let us not overlook all this on the 13th anniversary of our troubles.  Instead, let us remember and reflect.

Everything that’s happened since 2003 was connected to the fateful decision to invade Iraq under a fabrication of lies that were known to be exaggerations if not outright falsehoods by just about everyone within the inner circle of the George W. Bush White House.  Iraq’s political and social disintegration, the rise of ISIS, the civil war now raging inside neighboring Syria, the refugee crisis threatening the economies of Western Europe, the immeasurable human toll of mass suffering, the senseless destruction and obscene waste of resources devoted to invasion and occupation owe their roots to the United States sticking its nose into a regional crisis where it had no business, no understanding, nor any credible experience as an honest broker for peace and stability.

Yet despite the preponderance of failure, we remain both ignorant and defiant.

Consider this:  A recent national poll revealed that 53 percent of all Americans support ground forces being deployed to both Iraq and Syria in order to combat ISIS.  Coincidentally, that’s the same percentage of Americans who are also opposed to allowing Syrian refugees to enter the United States.  Baffling isn’t it, that launching yet another ground invasion (an act that would inevitably lead to even larger numbers of refugees fleeing the conflict) receives an identical percentage of public support?

Another poll question showed a whopping 60 percent of young people who are aged 18-29 support military action against ISIS.  Yet, the exact same percentage who were polled say they’re opposed to personally joining the fight, or allowing a loved one to enlist and be deployed into a combat zone.  Gee — war is so easy to launch with other people’s children, friends, and loved ones, isn’t it?

Americans have become hopelessly blind and deaf to our hypocrisies and paradoxes.  Sizable numbers of the electorate cheer wildly when a certain presidential candidate who has never been anywhere near a war zone and who took a draft deferment when he was called to serve in the military, promises to torture suspected terrorists and carpet bomb villages filled with alleged sympathizers.  We stand and applaud terrible acts of war like a touchdown have been scored or a home run has been hit.  The threat of unleashing violence evokes standing ovations.  That’s an easy proposal when the killing is performed by people whom we don’t know, and the victims (many innocent) are anonymous and very different from us.

It’s far easier to send soldiers off to battle who we don’t know at all, and will never know, numbers on charts, some who are destined to become statistical tombstones.  The real truth is, each time we cheer another pointless excursion somewhere in the Middle East, in effect, we are sentencing someone else’s husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, co-worker, friend, roommate, colleague, nephew, niece, and neighbor to a flag-draped coffin or a lifetime of disfigurement.  Those who bang the drums of war the loudest are almost always those who are unwilling to step up, take a risk, and make any kind of sacrifice.  They are cowards — every one of them.

Afghanistan has become the longest war in American history, followed by the Iraqi conflict which could be rekindled at any moment given the hostility posed by ISIS within that territory.  We have virtually nothing to show for all the painful sacrifices and endless horrors.  We can’t point to a single situation that is better now or cite a problem that’s been solved anywhere in the Middle East.  Yet despite the overwhelming evidence and so much troubling history, half the American population still wants to have yet another go at it, this time attacking the mystical dragon known as ISIS with what would amount to the third ground invasion of Iraq since 1990.

Apparently, history doesn’t matter.  Our own history has become irrelevant.  We’ve learned nothing over the past 13 years.  So long as we don’t personally have to enlist and do the dirty work ourselves, war remains a widely popular and immensely profitable proposition.  We’ve reduced ourselves to mobs cheering the chariot races at a modern-day war carnival.

How many more years, how many more lives, how many more resources, and how much of our precious national treasury will be obliterated on these perpetually unwinnable conflicts before we finally recognize the wisest of all the unattractive options, is to simply get the hell out of the Middle East?  Let’s try something different.  Let’s allow the centuries-old tribal hatreds to play themselves out.  Meanwhile, we can devote the gargantuan sums now wasted overseas to rebuilding our domestic infrastructure and funding security here at home.

Indeed, this is an anniversary unworthy of celebration but starving for attention.  America’s endless intervention into the affairs of the Middle East has become both a drain and an embarrassment.  Let us make a vow that at this same time next year, there will be no 14th anniversary of America’s disastrous meddling into a region where we’ve produced nothing but chaos and suffered little more than repeated failure.

Here’s to the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Iraq war who deserved a better fate.  Thirteen years of an unwinnable war has now been 13 years too long.

It’s time to end this madness.

READ:  Preposterous Historical Revisionism in the Middle East

6 Comments

  1. >>>>”no any credible experience as an honest broker for peace and stability.<<< Lil typo. FYI – Man! You have very few typos EVER! I dunno how you do it.

    But Hey! Ron Paul said this how many years ago?

  2. Another great post. Amazing to me that no matter how bad things are in M.E., buffoons like Cheney have nothing but admiration for the decisions they made and “weigh in” on current affairs as though Americans should value their opinion.

  3. 60% of americans are COWARDS

  4. @Nick I think you wrong.

  5. Thanks for the information nice website for me

  6. Excellent article! well-written and insightful. I admired the distinct viewpoint. Anticipating more content along these lines. Bravo for the writer.

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  1. Preposterous Historical Revisionism on the Middle East Mayhem | Nolan Dalla - […] TAG: How Bush mismanaged the Iraq War from the start […]

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