Somebody had to say it.
There are a lot of Republican voters who feel Iraq was a mistake but the party Establishment orthodoxy tells us it's politically incorrect to say this.
And we all know how Trump feels about political correctness.
Oh, boy, this thread should be a barn burner.
Bookmark.
So now you're on their side?
When the war first started, I was for it.
I thought we were doing the right thing.
But now seeing what that course of action started us on, and how we went on to oh we should take out this one and this one and now the middle east is basically moving in on the west, and we are somehow allied with and arming the worst people on this planet, it was a HUGE mistake! I wish we had never done it.
I don’t know if anyone was lying or if there were other aims and goals in this that the public is not aware of, but the whole damn think stinks.
I really don’t trust my government at all or anyone in it.
That’s where I’m at.
Wow. Talk about a non-issue. Even if Iraq was a mistake, it is pointless to discuss it at this point. We cannot change it. I am more concerned about today and current issues, to be honest. The whole election is not riding on something that happened 14 years ago. The national debt, illegals, abortion, welfare, etc. These are the important things. Iraq is just a Red Herring now.
first trump praises planned parenthood now he echoes code pink...
The lesson for Iraq was foretold by Douglas MacArthur.
“Never get involved in a land war in Asia.”
I don’t agree with Trump that the Iraq war was necessarily a mistake. In hind sight, based on the way it was handled by Bush and even more importantly, Obama, it was a mistake. But I think a case could be made that invading Iraq addressed some legitimate interests with regards to our national security.
I happen to be one of those who believe that ultimately we are in a war of civilizations with the Islamic world, and at some point that war will have to be fought. There may be more than one way to fight that war, but I think a legitimate case can be made that Iraq was a legitimate front in that war, but only if the war was executed with the right objectives.
Winning the war and allowing Iraq to establish an Islamic based government that continued to deny Christians equal rights was a mistake. The only nation building that’s worth a damn is building a nation where radical Islamists are not tolerated. If we had cleaned house, demanded equal rights for Christians, and humiliated and crushed the radical Imams and their followers, then perhaps we could have established a valuable ally in the middle of the Islamic hornets nest called the middle east.
It wasn’t a mistake until Obama turned it into one.
You have not seen anything yet. We are likely to be in a world war by summer due to the way Obama and the Progressives have miss managed Iraq. It was stable when Obama entered office. And Iran was being prevented from developing nukes when Obama entered office. All pissed away. Millions will die soon in the middle East because of this, Bush lied so we must pull out of Iraq crap. The Sauds will be driving an army north into syria and Iraq soon. The Turks will be driving an army south into Syria and Iraq soon. The Iranians and Russians will be driving an army west into Iraq and Syria soon. And eventually NATO will be driving East onto the shores of Syria. Now draw those movements on a piece of paper and see what you end up with.
Creepers! We got rid of a dictator that was threatening wars and feeding people into industrial shredders. The damned country was stabilized at great cost, yes. Then Obama gave it away, enabling his Iranian Islsmonazi dictator pals to invade and take it over. The biggest mistake was NOT Iraq. The biggest mistake was Electing an Islsmonazi-enemy agent.
- a just posted article as discussion fodder because it includes exactly this topic:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/code_trump_the_gallop_leftward_continues.html — and I’m going to bed now. Have fun!
The only way that the Iraq War would have ended well is if the Bush administration had had the balls to establish a benevolent military dictatorship until the Iraqis were truly ready to run their own country. But Bush didn't have the balls, and the global community would have been outraged.
However, I did not spend much time on FR stating this position. It would have most likely got me banned. It would have been a greater crime than rooting for Romney when Santorum still had a chance, or rooting against Romney when he was the only thing between Obama and a second term.
If FR is finally coming around to realizing the Iraq War was a brutal mistake, then great.
But it's probably still the majority belief that the Iraq War was a good idea, and it was just executed poorly either because of neocon idealism or Obama incompetency.
yeah that Donald, or, you know, we could talk about things that are happening currently rather than rehashing a war started 13 years ago. But hey, who cares about the damage Obama is CURRENTLY doing to our nation when we can find an excuse to crap on the Bush family.
You may notice folks, that the only candidate, Republican or Democrat, that actually voices aloud each debate, all the names of China, Vietnam, Japan, Mexico, Iran, Russia etc., (not just the Middle East), is Trump.
The rest are all Sock Puppets.
That the outcome of the war, a crushing victory in an astonishingly short time, was mismanaged is quite another question. Had we left the defeated Iraqi army armed and in the position to establish a certain stability in Saddam's absence we might not be having this conversation. But we did not, and so, although Powell denied saying it, "you break it, you bought it" is a terse but accurate description of the outcome. Nation-building as a concept was doomed from the start. But Iraq as a killing ground for a resurgent Islamic militancy that had not, to this point, tasted defeat, turned out to be an overall strategic victory.
If it fell apart afterward as it did (not completely, but bad enough) the Iraqis themselves bear a considerable share of the blame. You cannot build a nation that does not wish to be built. And a U.S. administration more willing to get out for domestic political considerations than was called for by the situation on the ground must shoulder its share as well. We must remind ourselves that 0bama's pullout was, however, some six months behind Bush's plan. But if the region had any hope of recovering any semblance of stability that pretty much killed it.
Hence ISIS, itself a tag end of Saddam's power structure leavened by foreign cash and a total power vacuum. Basically a bunch of murderous morons in Toyota pickups rolled in and took the place over. The problem was the power vacuum. The government was not there to oppose, the U.S. troops were not there to oppose, the tribes, rather than opposing, contributed; it was a perfect storm of incompetence. But it was not a natural consequence of the original intervention.
The question then becomes what position we would be in, thirteen years later, with Saddam still in power: would we be here? Strategic considerations have undergone a sea change: suddenly the Straits of Hormuz are no longer a flashpoint for the destabilization of the entire world economy. That's done, I hope, for good. Iran no longer holds the world's energy supply by the throat there. What we bought in Iraq was, despite its absurd management, time, and if now we have the luxury of deciding whether or not the stability of the region is worth a new commitment of resources, we bought and paid for that luxury. In consideration of whether the thing was a good or a bad move, I'll echo Chou En Lai's comments on the French Revolution: "It's too soon to tell."
Trump was saying Iraq WMD’s were a threat a year before the Gulf War
The Iraq war is not front and center in the voter’s minds right now. I’m not certain what Trump is doing here. To say if we don’t admit it was a mistake we’ll lose the election? It’s not an election issue. Why does he want to make it one, and, such a pivotal one?
First off, who does he want to admit this assertion? The RNC? George Bush? Jeb? General Petraeus? This of course won’t happen, so what does he gain but Code Pink types who won’t vote for him anyway...
The real problems facing us are enormous, frightening and already deeply divisive. Why does he want to add one that further divides?