With five years in this violent occupation of Iraq, I thought I would read a bunch to see what we've accomplished. Saddam Hussein is dead, but we were just looking for regime change. Well, $504,000,000,000 went into this so far... War on Terror was it? Then when no WMDs were found, it became OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM Spending an average of $100 BILLION per year is pretty impressive. Oh wait... Over 30,000 Iraqi military dead. Over 100,000 Iraqi citizens dead. Almost 4,300 US military lives lost because we were lied to. I don't think we could accomplish anything worth that. Oh, and just before that, we did lose a bunch of freedoms. "Patriot" Act. HA!
I couldn't really find anything good that could possibly justify what's still going on, so allow me to show you these:
Christopher Dickey- Newsweek: "To put the best face on the new Middle East, you'd have to use a magic mirror that would hide the oceans of blood spilled and the vast mountains of money spent by this administration. You'd have to ignore that old talk about making Iraq a beacon of hope and democracy for the region. You would need to forget the false premises presented to the public as justification for the invasion: that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was in league with Al Qaeda.
"In the real world of the present, however, things are not so neat. U.S. military power is spread thin, and much of the hugely expensive American arsenal is irrelevant to modern warfare. Our economic power has been greatly weakened, our diplomacy is in disarray, and our loose ideology -- what President Bush used to call his 'freedom agenda' -- has been disrespected by authoritarian allies like Egypt and discredited by Washington's refusal to recognize the elected Hamas government in the Palestinian territories."
John F. Burns- New York Times: "At the fifth anniversary, the conflict's staggering burden is a rebuke to any who hoped [Saddam] Hussein's removal might be accomplished at acceptable cost. Back in 2003, only the most prescient could have guessed that the current 'surge' would raise the American troop commitment above 160,000, the highest level since the invasion, in the war's fifth year, or that the toll would include tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed, as well nearly 4,000 American troops; or that America's financial costs, by some recent estimates, would rise above $650 billion by 2008, on their way to perhaps $2 trillion if the commitment continues for another five years. Beyond that, there are a million or more Iraqis living as refugees in neighboring Arab countries, and the pitiful toll of fear and deprivation on Iraqi streets.
Jacques Charmelot- AFP: "Five years after US-led invasion troops swept through Iraq, feared dictator Saddam Hussein is dead and an elected government sits in Baghdad -- but Iraqis remain beset by rampant violence, political stalemate, economic woes and the humiliation of a foreign occupation.
"[F]ear of Saddam's hated secret police has been replaced by a new terror, with Iraq still being hit on a daily basis by insurgent attacks and Sunni-Shiite violence where victims are counted in scores.
"In the five years since the United States unleashed its 'Shock and Awe' operation, violence has killed tens and probably hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and well over 4,000 members of the US-led foreign forces.
"Independent website Iraqbodycount. org estimates the number of civilian deaths at up to 90,000 although other figures, including Iraqi government and UN statistics, are much higher.
"What are the results? US credibility has been eroded in the Middle East; the influence of Iran, Washington's nemesis, has grown; and the price of oil has spiked to record levels, with negative repercussions on the global economy."
Before you attack me, I DO support the troops. I support them coming home. They are not fighting a just cause. I have had friends come home from Iraq. One career Army friend broke his back. Another is not the man that left.
Even in the beginning when the war started, I didn't know the point of it. Now after five years, I still don't know the WHOLE PURPOSE OF IT. I feel sorry for the next president because they have alot of cleaning up to do after Bush. I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY WENT INTO THE WAR. That's Insane. I know some people that went to Iraq and didn't know why they was there!
DOING THE DAMN THING!!
Steven Mufson- The Washington Post: "We may not know the real motivations behind the Iraq war for years, but it remains difficult to distill oil from all the possibilities."
Mufson outlines the two dominant oil-based theories:
"Version one: Bush, former Texas oilman, and Vice President Cheney, former chief executive of the contracting and oil-services firm Halliburton, wanted to help their friends in the oil world. They sought to install a pro-Western government that would invite the major oil companies back into Iraq. 'Exxon was in the kitchen with Dick Cheney when the Iraq war was being cooked up,' says the Web site of a group called Consumers for Peace.
"Version two: As laid out in an April 2003 article in Le Monde Diplomatique, 'The war against Saddam is about guaranteeing American hegemony rather than about increasing the profits of Exxon.' Yahya Sadowski, an associate professor at the American University of Beirut, argues that 'the neo-conservative cabal' had a 'grand plan' to ramp up Iraqi production, 'flood the world market with Iraqi oil' and drive the price down to $15 a barrel. That would stimulate the U.S. economy, 'finally destroy' OPEC, wreck the economies of 'rogue states' such as Iran and Venezuela, and 'create more opportunities for 'regime change.'
"American consumers are paying for this turmoil at the pump. If the overthrow of Hussein was supposed to be a silver bullet for the American consumer, it turned out to be one that ricocheted and tore a hole through his wallet."
-Sonja :)
"Democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive."
It hurts so much seeing your family and loved ones packing thier bags and living to go to Iraq,knowing that probably it's the last time you ever see them.They risk their lives for no reason at all. Iraq was not our problem to deal with.Well i'm sure glad will be having a new President next year.Loads of cleaning to do.Hopefully this time it's a good president who cares for his/her country.
i could not agree more. the major problem we are having in this country is political amnesia. now we are being told that we have to fight the over there so that we do not fight them over here. ... Do you get the rhyming of the words?Dahhhhh You remember the other one, America will stand down when Iraqis stand up???
All the architects of this war are either making money by writing books or on TV telling us how good the news is from Iraq.
We are spending a whopping 150 billion dollars a month, which i wonder what it could do to uplift lives in the middle east where we have unemployment is 40-60%. Way to go W, you are doing a "heck" of a job
king xixa