It still matters who voted to invade Iraq. We can not forget. Aftermath is devastating.

[madfloridian]

When Democrats or Republicans try to excuse their vote for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, I find the excuses hard to accept.

First they used the weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq, the immediate justification

The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice- president), Donald Rumsfeld (defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: "The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."[/blockquote

They even sent a letter to President Bill Clinton.

But then gradually the reason changed to Middle East Democracy, even if it had to be at the point of a gun.

In 2005 the DLC changed the goal in Iraq to Middle Eastern Democracy.

In December 2005 a DLC Idea of the Week memo totally changed and rewrote history when they declared that what happened in Iraq could happen elsewhere in the Middle East.

The United States must continue to use its still considerable influence to broker political compromises and help build national institutions based on the rule of law rather than factional interests.

......And if that can happen in Iraq, it can happen throughout the Middle East -- in Palestine, in Egypt, and even in Saudi Arabia.

In the end, that's the just and worthy cause we are fighting for in Iraq -- the cause our troops have suffered and died for -- and we urge Democrats in particular to look beyond our justifiable anger at the administration's many blunders and its stubborn refusal to admit them, and embrace that cause as our own.

It really did change us as a nation, and those who voted for it had to foresee at least some of the consequences.

Robert Fisk has written of Iraq and Afghanistan from his experiences there as a journalist.

From 2008.

Robert Fisk speaks of Afghanistan and Iraq. Wonders why we think we can win there?

We, of course, have been peddling this crackpot nonsense for years in south-west Asia. First of all, back in 2001, we won the war in Afghanistan by overthrowing the Taliban. Then we marched off to win the war in Iraq. Now – with at least one suicide bombing a day and the nation carved up into mutually antagonistic sectarian enclaves – we have won the war in Iraq and are heading back to re-win the war in Afghanistan where the Taliban, so thoroughly trounced by our chaps seven years ago, have proved their moral and political bankruptcy by recapturing half the country.

It seems an age since Donald "Stuff Happens" Rumsfeld declared,"A government has been put in place (in Afghanistan), and the Islamists are no more the law in Kabul. Of course, from time to time a hand grenade, a mortar explodes – but in New York and in San Francisco, victims also fall. As for me, I'm full of hope." Oddly, back in the Eighties, I heard exactly the same from a Soviet general at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan – yes, the very same Bagram airbase where the CIA lads tortured to death a few of the Afghans who escaped the earlier Russian massacres. Only "terrorist remnants" remained in the Afghan mountains, the jolly Russian general assured us. Afghan troops, along with the limited Soviet "intervention" forces, were restoring peace to democratic Afghanistan.

....And Obama and McCain really think they're going to win in Afghanistan – before, I suppose, rushing their soldiers back to Iraq when the Baghdad government collapses. What the British couldn't do in the 19th century and what the Russians couldn't do at the end of the 20th century, we're going to achieve at the start of the 21 century, taking our terrible war into nuclear-armed Pakistan just for good measure. Fantasy again.

Joseph Conrad, who understood the powerlessness of powerful nations, would surely have made something of this. Yes, we have lost after we won in Afghanistan and now we will lose as we try to win again. Stuff happens.

I found this article written by Fisk in 2010 as President Obama was pulling our troops from Iraq. It's not a pleasant read, but Robert Fisk never worried about that.

US Troops Say Goodbye to Iraq

When you invade someone else's country, there has to be a first soldier – just as there has to be a last.

Yes, officially they are there to train the gunmen and militiamen and the poorest of the poor who have joined the new Iraqi army, whose own commander does not believe they will be ready to defend their country until 2020. But they will still be in occupation – for surely one of the the "American interests" they must defend is their own presence – along with the thousands of armed and indisciplined mercenaries, western and eastern, who are shooting their way around Iraq to safeguard our precious western diplomats and businessmen. So say it out loud: we are not leaving.

Instead, the millions of American soldiers who have passed through Iraq have brought the Iraqis a plague. From Afghanistan – in which they showed as much interest after 2001 as they will show when they start "leaving" that country next year – they brought the infection of al-Qa'ida. They brought the disease of civil war. They injected Iraq with corruption on a grand scale. They stamped the seal of torture on Abu Ghraib – a worthy successor to the same prison under Saddam's vile rule – after stamping the seal of torture on Bagram and the black prisons of Afghanistan. They sectarianised a country that, for all its Saddamite brutality and corruption, had hitherto held its Sunnis and Shias together.

..... But the sickness continued. America's disaster in Iraq infected Jordan with al-Qa'ida – the hotel bombings in Amman – and then Lebanon again. The arrival of the gunmen from Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp in the north of Lebanon – their 34-day war with the Lebanese army – and the scores of civilian dead were a direct result of the Sunni uprising in Iraq. Al-Qa'ida had arrived in Lebanon. Then Iraq under the Americans re-infected Afghanistan with the suicide bomber, the self-immolator who turned America's soldiers from men who fight to men who hide.

Anyway, they are busy re-writing the narrative now. Up to a million Iraqis are dead. Blair cares nothing about them – they do not feature, please note, in his royalties generosity. And nor do most of the American soldiers. They came. They saw. They lost. And now they say they've won. How the Arabs, surviving on six hours of electricity a day in their bleak country, must be hoping for no more victories like this one.

[EndElectoral]

1. It is inexcusable to forget this vote considering lives lost and costs

[ElliotCarver]

9. Let us not forget that from the catastrophe many many fortunes were made

[arcane1]

10. Hillary herself has called Iraq a "Business Opportunity"

How convenient.

[pangaia]

30. THAT IS IT !!!!!!!! THAT is the only reason any of it happens.

Disaster Capitalism at its finest.

[RufusTFirefly]

43. Money to be made destroying the place. Money to be made rebuilding it.

Hey! What's not to like?

[pangaia]

56. And money made on health care for the victims.

[RufusTFirefly]

57. Good pt. The hits just keep on coming, don't they.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder how some of these people sleep at night, but I have a hunch that they sleep just fine.

Cognitive dissonance is mighty handy, but it can have unwanted side effects. Sociopathy is more reliable.

[daleanime]

2. Hell yes....

[madfloridian]

61. It always will.

[HooptieWagon]

3. Biggest foreign policy blunder in US history.

Hillary was outspoken in favor of it. Bernie was outspoken against it.

[madfloridian]

16. I agree.

[arcane1]

4. That's why John Kerry will always be a blood-stained liar in my opinion.

Not only did he vote for this crime, all the while pretending to be fooled by Bush's lies, he said that if he had been president at the time, he would've also invaded Iraq.

He can go fuck himself daily until his rich ass dies. I won't miss him.

[roody]

13. Tom Harkin also.

[karynnj]

28. He never said he would have evaded Iraq -- he specifically said he wouldn't

One place where he said he wouldn't was his Sept 2004 speech at NYU.

[arcane1]

46. He absolutely said he would invade. I'll dig up the debate transcript.

[arcane1]

47. "Well, let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq."

KERRY: Well, let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat. Believed it in 1998 when Clinton was president. I wanted to give Clinton the power to use force if necessary.

But I would have used that force wisely, I would have used that authority wisely, not rushed to war without a plan to win the peace.

I would have brought our allies to our side. I would have fought to make certain our troops had everybody possible to help them win the mission.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/text-of-bush-kerry-debate-ii/

[Carolina]

50. I lost all respect

for Kerry because of that vote. In summer 2002, he spoke here in SC and afterwards mingled with the crowd. I will ever forget the talk my friend and I had with him about W ginning up war against Iraq. We begged him to thwart W at every turn and he looked at us as nothing peons and said Iraq was a threat. We retorted something to the effect of how so after 11 years of horrific UN sanctions and he walked off.

Then in 2004, we saw him become a verbal contortionist trying to explain and justify his cowardly, politically motivated vote.

BTW, his rich wife, the former Mrs. Heinz (widow of the republican senator from PA) acted like Leona Helmsley, genuinely disdainful of having to mingle with the little people, the unwashed masses!

I so agree with you and your post

[bvar22]

75. I know....and the downfall for John Kerry is a really sad story.

At one time, he was an outspoken Liberal who forcefully testified before Congress about the atrocities and corruption of the Vietnam War ( and all wars). He was dignified, open, honest, and spoke truth to power.

When I saw him march across the stage at the Democratic Convention, salute, and say, "John Kerry reporting for duty", I knew we were in BIG trouble. It went downhill from there.
Oddly, the only bright spot in Kerry's campaign was John Edwards.

[Live and Learn]

5. I will NEVER forget. nt

[rhett o rick]

76. I will never forget standing in front of my TV watching the Democrats forsaking the American

people and supporting Republicans, supporting the MIC, fulling knowing the consequences. I will never forget this betrayal.

It was like being stabbed in the eye finally realizing that our two party system is a joke. How many got very, very rich from war profits? And Clinton brushes it off as a "mistake".

On that day I made a pledge to never support those traitors.

[Live and Learn]

82. +10,000 nt

[tecelote]

6. Will have to read the articles later but THANKS!

Our endless wars, in our name, are immoral and unjust.

How can we allow thousands to die for... ?

Why is it OK to profit from war now?

Why are Hawks more abundant now than when GW became President - why do we accept this?

Time to elect a revolutionary who will end these wars. It's the moral thing to do.

[bbmykel]

7. Never Forget!

I'm sorry this vote disqualifies anyone from being President in my opinion. John Kerry got a pass from me because we desperately needed to get rid of W. She cast the vote and she needs to live with the consequences.

[Kelvin Mace]

8. HRC blew off this isssue

saying, "A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS."

ISIS would not exist were it not for that misguided 2002 vote. If you don't vote to illegally invade sovereign nations, then you don't have to come up with a plan for defeating the terrorist groups that resulted from the illegal invasion.

Pretty goddamned simple concept, actually.

[jeff47]

11. But the 1M dead were brown people. So it's time to move on.

[roody]

12. Knr

[MisterP]

14. "embrace that cause as our own": it's not oil, it's not the contractors

they really want war: it's a positive good, a chance to get rid of the dictators and create a society in our image

remember that the neocons from Cranston and Kirkpatrick downward were all Dems (or ex-Trots)

[madfloridian]

15. Fisk was in Baghdad as the shock and awe began March 2003.

http://www.coldtype.net/Assets/Dispatch/Fisk.Bag.5.pdf

Within minutes, looking out
across the Tigris river I could see pin-pricks of fire as bombs and cruise missiles
exploded on to Iraq’s military and communications centres and, no doubt, upon the
innocent as well.

The first of the latter, a taxi driver, was blown to pieces in the first American raid on
Baghdad yesterday morning. No one here doubted that the dead would include
civilians. Tony Blair said just that in the Commons debate this week but I wondered,
listening to this storm of fire across Baghdad last night, if he has any conception of
what it looks like, what it feels like, or of the fear of those innocent Iraqis who are, as I
write this, cowering in their homes and basements.

Not many hours ago, I talked to an old Shia Muslim lady in a poor area of Baghdad.
She was dressed in traditional black with a white veil over her head. I pressed her over
and over again as to what she felt. In the end, she just said: “I am afraid.”
That this is the start of something that will change the face of the Middle East is in
little doubt; that it will be successful in the long term is quite another matter.

....The sheer violence of it, the howl of air raid sirens and the air-cutting fall of the
missiles carried its own political message; not just to President Saddam but to the rest
of the world. We are the super-power, those explosions said last night. This is how we
do business. This is how we take our revenge for 11 September.

Not even George Bush made any pretence in the last days of peace to link Iraq with
those international crimes against humanity in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania. But some of the fire that you could see bubbling up through the darkness
around Baghdad last night did remind me of other flames, those which consumed the
World Trade Centre. In a strange way, the Americans were – without the permission
of the United Nations, with most of the world against them – acting out their rage with
an eerily fiery consummation.

[EndElectoral]

17. K&R

[AzDar]

18. Judgement.

[sarge43]

19. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind

Afghanistan is where armies go to die and empires commit suicide.

[madfloridian]

21. Well said. There is no winning in Afghanistan.

[sarge43]

27. G. Khan's army managed some success,

but that entailed near genocide of the Afghans. After his death his empire fell apart fairly quickly and any true control of the area.

Best to stay out of the place.

[WillyT]

20. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[blackspade]

22. Always a K&R for you!

[FloriTexan]

23. Kicking for the reminder....

Thanks for another great post!

[farleftlib]

24. Those who were "fooled" into voting for this debacle

should spend the rest of their careers cleaning bedpans in Walter Reed, not running for higher office.

[chervilant]

25. Excellent OP, madfloridian

Thank you so very much.

I don't know if there are still Hillary supporters posting derisive and dismissive comments to your vital and informative OPs--I must have them all on my IL. Still, I hope you know that many, many, many, MANY of us appreciate all of the work you do.

Go BERNIE!!!

#NotMeUs

[oberliner]

26. What else can one do but admit it was a mistake and apologize?

Do remember that 70+ percent of Americans supported the war at the time.

[RufusTFirefly]

34. Argumentum ad populum n/t

[oberliner]

40. I'm not actually trying to make an argument

I am just trying to say that the only thing a person can do after they have made a mistake is admit the mistake and apologize for it. A lot of people made that same mistake and are sorry that they did.

You can't un-ring a bell.

[RufusTFirefly]

42. I can't read her mind, but I think she knew what she was doing

It was a "judgment call" that demonstrated extremely poor judgment. The fact that others made the same call doesn't make that OK.

Some people learn from their mistakes. Sen. Robert Byrd provides a great example. He was haunted by his Gulf of Tonkin vote and didn't want to get fooled again. That's why he argued so passionately (and eloquently) against the Iraq War Resolution. In contrast, it took Clinton years to admit her "mistake."

[Carolina]

84. That speech

by Senator Byrd was such a beautiful, passionate plea for sanity, reason and deliberation.

That Democrats who had presidential aspirations like Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards and Kerry voted 'aye' spoke volumes about their political and moral cowardice.

I only voted for the D ticket in 2004 because I was desperate to get rid of W. But I was not happy with BHO's choice of Biden and I will never vote for Clinton. I loathe her.

She's all about herself and when the chips are down both now and in the 2008 primary season, she displays a nasty, bitter, sarcastic side that I find utterly obnoxious and repulsive. Moreover, she loves saying how she has fought all her life for this
or that (whatever the issue), but please tell me what she has DONE. Her senate votes for W's IWR, for the misnamed Patriot Act and for the bankruptcy bill are nothing to be proud of. And her tenure as SOS was a disaster. Consider Honduras, Libya, Syria ... Then she's pro TPP, fracking and GMOs. All this on top of Iraq and the Clinton legacy of NAFTA, the 1996 Telecommunicatiobs Act, the Welfare Reform (deform) Bill and the Gramm, Bliley, Leach Act overturning Glass Steagall.

So again, what has she done, what record is she talking about, is she proud of. She's a disaster with poor judgment.

[PoliticAverse]

37. Those 70% shouldn't be President either. n/t

[JoeyT]

81. Nothing, really.

Once you vote for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people because you think it might hurt you politically if you don't, you're pretty much beyond trusting. There are some screwups you can't come back from.

If someone said we should let an accused murderer go if he confesses and seems genuinely sorry, people would think whoever said it had lost their damned mind. Why would voting to kill a few hundred thousand because it's convenient be any different?

[oberliner]

83. Bernie Sanders voted for the authorization of force against Afghanistan

Tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed in that conflict.

Is everyone who voted for that bill akin to being a murderer? If so, that would be 97 percent of the members of Congress at the time (including Bernie).

[lastone]

29. one of the many reasons I trust Bernie's judgment

He was clairvoyant on the IWR and HRC was wrong - lied to by the criminals in the wh at the time or not, she was WRONG and it continues to haunt us. We squandered an almost universal outpouring of support by the world when we "shock and awed" Iraq - god does that saying make me want to punch a republican, that and Homeland - the famous NAZI FUCKING GERMAN TACTIC TO RALLY IDIOTS.

[Demobrat]

31. Her cowardly Iraq vote is why I will never respect or support Hillary

In my mind she is simply a pro-choice Republican. I will hold my nose and vote for her in the general if necessary. I am in CA so it may not be, in which case I will write in the candidate of my choice.

[pangaia]

32. It was and is all about money.

All the rest is just smoke and mirrors.

Hillary Clinton knows this damn well.

An so does Lloyd Blankfein !!

Of course Bernie Sanders knows it also. That is part of why he is running.

[CharlotteVale]

33. K&R

[zentrum]

35. It was a political calculation pure

…..and simple. Being around during the Viet Nam War she should have known better than to ever accept the official narrative and drum beat to War. Let alone, from the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield.

All those people marching in the street against the war, rarely reported on by the MSM, had better foreign policy chops than she did.

[democrank]

36. I will never excuse that Iraq War vote.

Over the last 3 1/2 years I`ve spent lots of time in 4 VA hospitals as I was trying to help my partner deal with the effects of Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War. I have tears rolling down my cheeks as I think of what my beloved vet went through and what so many others have endured. Most of the vets I spoke with were from the Vietnam War but many were from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. I can`t even put into words how heartbreaking, how devastating some of these stories were. These are people who are FOREVER changed.

I particularly remember my vet telling me that one day he was an average kid from a poor family in Massachusetts and a few hours later he was in the middle of a jungle in a country he probably couldn`t find on a map. He said he was terrified at first because he had never traveled much outside his neighborhood. He said facing his fear over the sound of the shells overhead was difficult. What he didn`t know was that shortly, he would be exposed to Agent Orange which would cause several cancers, in several places, including his brain.

What I came to realize was that my beloved vet was just an older version of the many young veterans I met at the VA hospitals. Same day, different war. Some didn`t have legs or arms or hope. Some were worn out. Some were addicted. Some were divorced. Some were angry. Some were broken. All of them needed help.

This war in Iraq, started by George W. Bush and his enablers who voted for it....the war so many people like to make excuses for....produced many veterans with catastrophic injuries that probably would have caused their death back during the Vietnam War. It`s an awful thing to think about and it`s an awful thing to see up close and personal.

What we did to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and their country is....I can`t even find the word. People will be paying for this hideous decision for decades or more, both here and there. I will never excuse the people who did this or voted to do this.

[ornotna]

38. Once again, great post

Thanks mad.

[madfloridian]

41. .....

Thank you for the kind words.

[kristopher]

39. K&R

[Uncle Joe]

44. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, madfloridian.

[DirkGently]

45. A majority of the disasters we're dealing with now

trace their roots to not only that one disastrous policy decision in Iraq, but to the entire philosophy behind it, which did not start with the neocons.

The "that was then / look forward" approach is nonsense. What is required is an appreciation for the fact that America's long policy of intervening everywhere, fostering "regime change" whenever the right people find it expedient has not only been immoral and ineffective, but has made things infinitely worse in nearly, if not every single case.

This is the Kissinger School. This is Chile and South and Central America then and Iran and Iraq now. It is a failed, destructive, frequently evil policy of imposing American influence for questionable reasons in inexcusable ways, with horrific results.

And now we're supposed to forget the unqualified catastrophe of Iraq, in order to apply the same reasoning, employed by people following the same logic for the same ends, to "win" vis a vis ISIS?

We need to consult with Kissinger, and the legions of doomed idiots who wrought the majority of this chaos, and collectively get out of their way so they can ... what? Do more of it until it works?

No one who thought invading Iraq on the say-so of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al., was a remotely good idea should be heard to even offer a suggestion on American foreign policy, ever again, and they should die of shame before even thinking we need to hear their thoughts.

[madfloridian]

51. Yes, so many problems of today can be traced back to that event.

I can't be casual about it.

[dae]

48. It will be relavent to any who voted for it or says

it was the right decision. So many of us as laypersons knew it was bs, politicians should have seen thru the Bush/Cheney lies.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

49. No, no, no,...all of that is in the past. You are required to be Ready now.

[ladjf]

52. Among other things, according to the Red Cross, a million Iraqi's were killed.

They will hate Americans for many generations to come. And, exactly why did we invade? By now, we all know that the Administration lied to us for reason's other than America's best interests.

[Warren DeMontague]

53. Berniebros! Misogyny! kibbutz!

HALP!

[colsohlibgal]

54. A Vote Of Shame

The wing nut republicans are bloodthirsty, greedy, and soulless.

Democrats who voted for it were either too dumb to see through all the hubris, or cowards for being afraid to vote no. My guess is HRC was afraid to vote no but either way....there is blood, and trillions of dollars out the window, on their hands.

[amborin]

55. history matters! Bernie is right to focus on Hillary's Vote for War; it set the stage for ISIS; and

now she lies about her vote and the ensuing circumstances. The info needs to be widely disseminated

[madfloridian]

58. Interesting video of what fighting in Afghanistan looks like.

http://www.vice.com/video/this-is-what-winning-looks-like-part-2

Sort of has a hopeless feel to it all.

[John Poet]

59. FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND innocent Iraqi civilians, DEAD.

[mike_c]

60. this will always be my personal line in the sand....

eom

[slipslidingaway]

62. The invasion of Iraq helped create terrorists, that was obvious to many people ...

I remember reading a quote from someone living in Iraq years ago.

They said 'Today is better than tomorrow.'

When there is no hope, people do strange things.

[asuhornets]

63. You guys are really afraid

that she is going to win the nomination and she is going to win. What is Sander's foreign policy? The answer: Hillary voted for the Iraq war.

[eridani]

64. HRC never met a war she didn't like. n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

70. I guess it puts to bed the value of "foreign policy experience".

Kinda like bragging about John Dillinger's extensive banking experience.

[bigwillq]

65. K and R (nt)

[Enthusiast]

66. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

That Iraq War vote is the most telling of all.

[jomin41]

67. HRC and the rest were AFRAID of what

the Repubs would say if they voted against it. Bernie was/is NOT afraid of them. I want a president who can and will stand up to the warmongers. Otherwise, we are doomed. PermaWar is destructive for OUR country. Peace is not achievable through war. Only war is achievable by means of war. HRC is not committed to peace, imho. And yes: Never forget.

[jalan48]

68. Bill Clinton had been President for eight years.

The man absolutely knew how things worked. For Hillary to pretend she was "fooled" by the Bush Administration is beyond preposterous. Bill knew exactly what was going on and told Hillary. She voted for the Iraq War as a political calculation-she thought her pro-war vote would be more beneficial to her in the long run.

[madfloridian]

73. I very much agree.

He had actually started bombing Iraq again in 1998. Those pesky WMDs that weren't there after all had been bombed and then bombed more. Yes, there were political motives for sure.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

69. Yet we are told to hold our noses and vote for those who enabled the atrocities. K&R

And, it's appalling to see those here who dismiss it as "old news" and rationalize the deaths, maiming, torture, displacement, as "practical politics" or brag about the "foreign policy experience" of their candidate.

[Betty Karlson]

71. K&R for truth - however much it hurts the coronation. eom

[Iwillnevergiveup]

72. The tossed rock in the pond

always, always sends out ripples. In the case of the Iraq war, many are still suffering both in the ME and USA.

[40RatRod]

74. OK People, Listen up!

“OK, people, Here’s the big thing most people miss about ISIS; prior to the invasion, they were just a bunch of goat herders with AK47s, preaching the Wahabist gospel. Then Bush/Cheney had the bright idea of disbanding the Iraq army, firing all the Sunni officers, denying them their pensions, banning the Sunni Baath party from the elections, and telling them they couldn’t even vote. Then Bush/Cheney hand-picked idiot Maliki, who kicked all the Jews, Sunnis, Kurds, Agnostics, and Atheists out of the government, hiring only Shiites. Then he tells Obama that any remaining American troops will have to operate under Sharia, and Obama says no. Meanwhile, the Iran/Iraq/Syria oil pipeline is announced, with financial backing from Russia, China, and South Korea.
The Sunni monarchies hire ISIS, the Taliban, and Al-Qaeda to topple Assad, whom they consider the weakest link in the Shiite pipeline. The Qataris purchase Khadafy’s weaponry and ship it to ISIS. ISIS starts killing Christians, Jews, Sunnis, and religious minorities in Syria, Assad breaks out the WMDs, and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda quit the fight, saying ISIS is NUTS. ISIS flees to Iraq, where all those unemployed Sunni officers and government employees take the monarchies’ money and train ISIS into a real fighting force: 800 ISIS fighters defeat 5,000 Shiite Iraqi troops and take all the equipment we gave them when the Shiites run in terror . . . which brings us back to where we are today. You can’t blame this mess on anyone but Bush/Cheney.”
-Khalid Nurredin

[99Forever]

77. Kick and Rec.

[cantbeserious]

78. No More Kings And Queens Of War - That Enable Death - Destroying The Lives Of Millions

eom

[silvershadow]

79. That invasion directly birthed ISIS. nt

[valerief]

80. Votes have repercussions. Voting for Iraq made the world more Warful.

And war makes richer people richer and poor people deader.