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Trillion Dollar Debacle in Iraq

by Bob Betzen

IraqWarHeader.jpgVice President Cheney had it right in 1994 when he predicted that toppling the Hussein government in Iraq would create a “quagmire”. Now, after five years of nation building, nearly 4,000 American soldiers dead and $500 billion spent, Mr. Cheney has declared the war in Iraq a “successful endeavor”. Of course this is the same guy who, on August 26, 2002, said this:

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.

On that day Cheney was either incredibly misinformed or completely dishonest. In either case, he was wrong. America can’t afford to get it wrong when it comes to the reasons for invading another country, especially one that has never attacked us. Virtually anyone could have predicted all of the problems we’re now having in Iraq.

Hostile Towards Us
The historical animosity of Arabs toward western civilization goes all the way back to the Crusades. Today many people in that region disagree with our strong support of Israel, or the presence of US troops on what they consider their holy land. Some Iraqis benefited from Hussein’s rule, battled us in 1991 and are still fighting us now. Even with only 1% of the Iraqi population actively targeting Americans, in a country of 27 million, we’re up against a homegrown insurgent force of 270,000.

Hostile Towards Each Other
After decades of iron fisted rule by Saddam Hussein, many aggrieved Iraqis had old scores to settle. Tribal and spiritual leaders exert a strong influence in this part of the world. The religious and ethnic rivalries are well documented. Post Saddam sectarian strife was inevitable.

Hostile Neighborhood
Syria and Saudi Arabia support Sunnis living in western Iraq. Iran supports the majority Shiite. The Kurds of northern Iraq have stepped up their battle with the Turkey. At least we still have Kuwait on our side.

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4 Responses to “Trillion Dollar Debacle in Iraq”

  1. Radical Avenue » Blog Archive » McCain Wrong on Iran Says:

    […] misleading rhetoric sounds like it could have come from the lips of Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney still believes that Saddam Hussein aided Al Qaeda, even though the 9-11 Commission found no such […]

  2. Radical Avenue » Blog Archive » The Commander in Chief, Too Much Power in the Hands of One Person Says:

    […] how things turn out in Mesopotamia, President Bush will undoubtedly continue to consider the war in Iraq a smashing success for the rest of his life. He has chosen to simply ignore the majority of […]

  3. Radical Avenue » Blog Archive » Iraq Not Like Korea Says:

    […] Senator from Arizona indicated that he would be comfortable with a 100 year US military presence in Iraq, he let slip a dirty little secret about the Bush-McCain vision for the Middle East. The neo-cons […]

  4. Radical Avenue » Blog Archive » Thank You, Scott McClellan Says:

    […] his new book, What Happened, Mr. McClellan makes it clear that he now considers the War in Iraq a serious strategic blunder: “As I have heard Bush say, only a wartime president is likely to […]

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If you want to find criticism of our government here in America, you won’t need to look far. When it comes to politics, it seems that everyone has a grievance. Radical Avenue on the other hand, takes a solutions oriented approach to public policy. It’s radical because I’m proposing fundamental changes to the structure of our government, like transferring commander in chief responsibilities to a small elected group. My philosophy is: Everyone knows we’ve got problems, so what are we going to do about it?

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