It's beginning to look like he was right..............
Posted on 02/25/2022 8:29:45 AM PST by conservative98
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – George W. Bush issued a statement about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It went like this:
George W. Bush actually came out and condemned “”unprovoked and unjustified invasion”!
The point isn’t just to decry his hypocrisy. Bush’s willful act of aggression, his invasion and eight-and-a-half-year military occupation of Iraq, has deeply hindered effective policy-making by the U.S. regarding Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Here are some of the ways it matters:
Bush filled the U.S. air waves with false assertions that Iraq had an active nuclear weapon program. His vice president, Dick Cheney, repeatedly said things like “We know he’s got chemicals and biological and we know he’s working on nuclear.” (May 19, 2002, NBC Meet the Press) and `But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons . . . Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.”( August 26, 2002, Speech of Vice President Cheney at VFW 103rd National Convention.)
This, despite severe doubts expressed to him by seasoned CIA analysts, whom he pressured to give him the statements he wanted. When he couldn’t get them, he went to raw intelligence, i.e. any old garbage anyone ever said.
Bush himself could not get the CIA to agree that a phony document alleging Iraqi purchases of uranium from Niger was legitimate, so he sourced it to British intelligence. The document was a fraud.
Bush and company were lying to get the war they wanted.
The problem with lying for policy reasons is that people come to view you as a liar. When it became apparent that Iraq did not have any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or even programs, the United States was humiliated before the world. But it was too late– America had 120,000 troops in Iraq, a society that was collapsing around them. The wounded society would be a maelstrom of instability in the Middle East for decades.
So when U.S. intelligence analysts began reporting this winter that they had excellent reason to believe that Vladimir Putin intended to invade the Ukraine, President Biden’s team could not get people to take this prospect seriously. The Ukrainian government castigated Washington for hyping the threat and engaging in hyperbole.
President Volodomyr Zelensky told Biden to cut it out, and that he was endangering the Ukraine economy with that wild talk.
Administration officials and spokespeople went blue in the face saying Putin was about to invade, and many in the US press replied, “You said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.”
Maybe it would have made a difference at the margins if Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky had trusted the US intelligence and had swung into action to harden his military defenses.
George W. Bush laid the foundations for the disaster in the Ukraine by destroying American credibility on enemy intentions and capabilities.
Bush also vocally tried to spread around fascist ideas at odds with the United Nations charter such as “preemptive war” — i.e., launching an all-out war on another country in case they may at some point in the future come into conflict with you. Putin would say his Ukraine war is preemptive.
W. also issued the “Bush doctrine” making harboring “terrorists” a basis for war, which India and Pakistan immediately deployed against one another. Putin sees the democratically elected Zelensky government as hand in glove with the small Ukrainian far-right nationalist movement, which he categorizes as terrorists.
Putin did not need Bush’s example, of launching an aggressive war on a country that hadn’t attacked you, in order to plot against Ukraine. But the American ability to counter him and have it received with a straight face by the rest of the world was completely undermined by W.’s mendacious warmongering.
Oh please.....
Blame anyone but Biden. While you are at it, make sure that “anyone” carries the republican brand (even if everyone knows they are not real conservatives)
Putin annexed parts of Eastern Europe before and got away with no resistance. Maybe that’s part of the current problem. Who was in charge then? Obama / Biden. Hmmm. Somehow these days in the media it’s like Obama never existed.
They are trying to memory-hole Biden’s Afghanistan disaster. Pathetic.
It's beginning to look like he was right..............
Who cares what Bush thinks at this point. We watched him keep his mouth shut when Obama was trashing his presidency and our country. All he did was act strangely with Michele Obama. He needs to get a room and keep his mouth shut.
Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden are all liars and corrupt. They never carried about the country or the people.
Regardless of what anyone thinks of Bush and Iraq, it was Obama that effed it all away.
Leaving the US border open and the laws unenforced since W’s daddy was in office has been SOOOOO beneficial to US.
this would have never happened if Reagan hadn’t won the cold war and put into motion the collapse of the ussr.
so I’m blaming Reagan
I blame the Great Schism.
Bush and the GOP enabled the Kenyanesian Usurpation.
Obama is not a natural born citizen.
NO ONE born with more than ONE nationality is NATURALLY an American.
It was that singularity of nationality the founders were requiring.
Putin invaded under Biden, not Trump.
George W. Bush was the worst US president when it comes to foreign policy (Woodrow Wilson comes in second, IMO). And I would not argue against anyone who called Bush a war criminal.
But it is nonsensical to say that Bush somehow made Putin’s invasion easier. After all, Bush has been out of office for more than 13 years. If the author wants to bash Bush, he should stick to common-sense arguments.
Putin invaded under Biden, not Trump.
Bush and Biden are on the same team.
Now we are facing China and the Russian imperialistic response to our imperialist threats. We have not had adults running our affairs in a long time.
if this is “the greatest security risk”, then what the hell was the point of the patriot act????
The Bush family became incredibly wealthy in the oil business dealing with the corrupt Saudi ruling royals. When 9/11 happened US intelligence was well aware that Saudi intelligence was well aware of the plot, did nothing to stop it, and did not inform the Americans. Iraq was then the greatest threat to the vile 9/11 Saudis well being. Perhaps not so incredibly Bush did not hold his vile Saudi patrons accountable but instead invaded Iraq, This absurdity was not lost on the rest of the world.
Putin was not always crazy. The 2012 Winter Olympics were held in Russia. The Saudis at that time were funding ISIS hoping to establish a jihadist Sunni state carved out of Syria and Iraq on the Iranian border. Iran was and is their greatest threat. The Russians by their alliance and activity in Syria were seriously damaging and hindering ISIS. The Saudis told the Putin that if Russian interference continued they the saudis could not guarentee that there would be no terrorism at the Olympics. Putin thanked the Saudis for the warning and told them he would be personally attending the games and now knew who to hold accountable if there was any terrorism. He commented he would not be invading Iraq and he proceeded to station three Russian nuclear armed ballistic submarines off the coasts of Saudi Arabia. There was no terrorism at the Olympics.
The story is of course just a story but it is plausible enough to be believable
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