The Reality Of "Mission Accomplished"
It's worth noting that NONE of the backers of this disastrous Iraq invasion & occupation have been right about ANYTHING involving Iraq.
They said there were WsMD.
They said there were links between the Saddam Hussein Crime Family, Usama bin Laden and the Sept 11 attacks.
They said the insurgents were a bunch of "dead enders".
They said the US would be welcomed as "liberators", and that we wouldn't be seen, or thought of, as occupiers.
They said the financial hit to the US taxpayers wallets would be minimal, and that Iraqi oil sales would pick up most of the costs.
They labeled those of us against this decision from the start as "unpatriotic", "terrorist supporters", "traitors", "America haters", "Bush haters", "against the troops" and "Saddam sympathizers/lovers".
On every single major aspect of this fiasco, this Administration and it's political & media backers have been 100% wrong.
Not one overly-optimistic, aggressively-naive pre-invasion prediction of post-invasion Iraq by the occupation's supporters has come to pass. The elections which have taken place since "Mission Accomplished" have not brought about a western-style democracy that's at peace with it's neighbors and Israel. Women are now less "free"-thanks to the religious parties & individuals calling the shots in Iraq-than they were under the secular reign of the Hussein regime. Suicide & car bombers, unknown during the Hussein years, are now a daily occurrence. There has been sectarian cleansing of Sunni/Shia mixed-neighborhoods.
Not one major US-financed rebuilding project has come in on time and under budget, if it's been finished at all.
A humanitarian catastrophe of staggering proportions with over 4,000,000 refugees is one result of the Iraq invasion & occupation.
Basic services such as sanitation, power, fuel supplies, security, clean water, medical supplies & facilities and mixed religious neighborhoods are in shorter supply now than during Saddam Hussein's reign.
This Administration oversees torture of Iraqis in the same exact buildings Saddam Hussein used for the same exact reasons, while at the same time locking up tens of thousands of Iraqis without any legal charge pending.
The US military has been battled to quagmire-status by a multi-faceted insurgency, groups which possess no cannons, airplanes, tanks or other heavy weaponry. These same US troops face a nightmare, maddening bureaucracy intent on keeping as tight a financial leash on their medical and psychiatric claims, while also housing injured and traumatized troops in appalling, disgusting conditions and quarters.
Corruption is rampant among US contractors, who are also held immune from any clear wrongdoing & malfeasance they commit against the long-suffering Iraqis.
Iran, kept in check by the Hussein regime, is growing in stature & influence since his overthrow.
All this happened under the direct gaze and policies of this Administration.
I remember just how those of us against this idea from the start had to endure the gloating, unwarranted strutting and unearned arrogance of this Administration, it's bipartisan lackeys and media hacks five years ago.
Of course, compared to what the Iraqis have had to endure (a decades-long brutal dictatorship followed by unchecked carnage), most of us, both for and against this decision, can't claim any real hardship, certainly not the hardship that comes from worrying about family & friends deployed-often more than once-to Iraq.
And with this Administration, withdrawing US troops is seen as a sign of failure, which is why, whether the violence increases or decreases, our military will remain bogged down in Iraq. It's obvious this Administration's only concern now is to pass off it's spectacular incompetence to it's successor.
There is NO overstating the unfathomable damage this President, his Administration and political/media backers have inflicted upon the Iraqis and the US.
All the right groups & individuals have been weakened, while all the wrong groups, regimes and individuals have been strengthened.
That's the real outcome of "Mission Accomplished".
They said there were WsMD.
They said there were links between the Saddam Hussein Crime Family, Usama bin Laden and the Sept 11 attacks.
They said the insurgents were a bunch of "dead enders".
They said the US would be welcomed as "liberators", and that we wouldn't be seen, or thought of, as occupiers.
They said the financial hit to the US taxpayers wallets would be minimal, and that Iraqi oil sales would pick up most of the costs.
They labeled those of us against this decision from the start as "unpatriotic", "terrorist supporters", "traitors", "America haters", "Bush haters", "against the troops" and "Saddam sympathizers/lovers".
On every single major aspect of this fiasco, this Administration and it's political & media backers have been 100% wrong.
Not one overly-optimistic, aggressively-naive pre-invasion prediction of post-invasion Iraq by the occupation's supporters has come to pass. The elections which have taken place since "Mission Accomplished" have not brought about a western-style democracy that's at peace with it's neighbors and Israel. Women are now less "free"-thanks to the religious parties & individuals calling the shots in Iraq-than they were under the secular reign of the Hussein regime. Suicide & car bombers, unknown during the Hussein years, are now a daily occurrence. There has been sectarian cleansing of Sunni/Shia mixed-neighborhoods.
Not one major US-financed rebuilding project has come in on time and under budget, if it's been finished at all.
A humanitarian catastrophe of staggering proportions with over 4,000,000 refugees is one result of the Iraq invasion & occupation.
Basic services such as sanitation, power, fuel supplies, security, clean water, medical supplies & facilities and mixed religious neighborhoods are in shorter supply now than during Saddam Hussein's reign.
This Administration oversees torture of Iraqis in the same exact buildings Saddam Hussein used for the same exact reasons, while at the same time locking up tens of thousands of Iraqis without any legal charge pending.
The US military has been battled to quagmire-status by a multi-faceted insurgency, groups which possess no cannons, airplanes, tanks or other heavy weaponry. These same US troops face a nightmare, maddening bureaucracy intent on keeping as tight a financial leash on their medical and psychiatric claims, while also housing injured and traumatized troops in appalling, disgusting conditions and quarters.
Corruption is rampant among US contractors, who are also held immune from any clear wrongdoing & malfeasance they commit against the long-suffering Iraqis.
Iran, kept in check by the Hussein regime, is growing in stature & influence since his overthrow.
All this happened under the direct gaze and policies of this Administration.
I remember just how those of us against this idea from the start had to endure the gloating, unwarranted strutting and unearned arrogance of this Administration, it's bipartisan lackeys and media hacks five years ago.
Of course, compared to what the Iraqis have had to endure (a decades-long brutal dictatorship followed by unchecked carnage), most of us, both for and against this decision, can't claim any real hardship, certainly not the hardship that comes from worrying about family & friends deployed-often more than once-to Iraq.
And with this Administration, withdrawing US troops is seen as a sign of failure, which is why, whether the violence increases or decreases, our military will remain bogged down in Iraq. It's obvious this Administration's only concern now is to pass off it's spectacular incompetence to it's successor.
There is NO overstating the unfathomable damage this President, his Administration and political/media backers have inflicted upon the Iraqis and the US.
All the right groups & individuals have been weakened, while all the wrong groups, regimes and individuals have been strengthened.
That's the real outcome of "Mission Accomplished".
posted by KingCranky II at
5:30 PM
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