I remember when he referred to Kosovo as “The First Progressives’ War”.
We defeated Saddam only to turn over most of Iraq to their (and our) enemy Iran
The Ukraine is being brought to us by every moron who gave US Afghanistan and Iraq. Every one.
My problem wasn’t the invasions - it was fun kicking the Taliban out of power and Saddam deserved what he got for violating the agreement that ended the first Gulf War.
My problem was the ‘nation-building’, pathetic. In Afghanistan, we should have hunted down and decapitated the leadership, and then left. Similar in Iraq...replace Saddam with some other Hashemite, then leave.
A poll of the Iraqi people found that the peak of their support for the invasion was 35 percent. When the US left, it was all of 2 percent. Stash that in your Iraqi WMDs, Bush and Blair.
Duhh. All leaders think their invasions are good and any others are bad.
Meanwhile Obama, Blair, Merkel and Macron opened the immigration gates to jihadists of every stripe.
The Taliban gave aid and comfort to Al Qaeda, which murdered thousands of Americans and caused billions of dollars of economic damage to the USA.
Can't remember where I got this but it should be our Foreign Policy:
200 years from now, I want their children's children's children to cower and cringe in fear whenever they hear the sounds of jet engines overhead because their legends tell of fire from the sky.
I want them to hide in dark caves and holes in the earth, shivering with terror whenever they hear the roar of diesel engines because the tales of their ancestors talk about metal monsters crawling over the earth, spitting death and destruction.
I want their mothers to be able to admonish them with "If you don't behave, the Pale Destroyers will come for you", and that will be enough to reduce them to quivering obedience.
I want the annihilation to be so complete that their mythology will tell them of the day of judgment when the stern gods from across the sea .. the powerful 'Mericans .. destroyed their forefathers' wickedness.
Blair didn’t have to go and be a grunt. So, for him it was the right thing to do.
In Afghanistan, the destruction of the Taliban was the right thing to do. The subsequent attempt to transform the country into a democracy capable of defending itself (like we supposed had accomplished in Iraq) was totally stupid.
Regarding Iraq, invading Iraq wasn’t as stupid as attempting to transform Afghanistan into a democracy capable of defending itself. I opposed the invasion in real time, but I didn’t think the other position was totally stupid.
It turns out “we” erred (not me, I opposed it in real time) in three big ways:
1.We had limited ability to field a peacekeeping force. We thought the Blue Helmets of the U.N. would show up.
2.We underestimated the sectarian divides in Iraq.
3.And, we overestimated the willingness of Iraqis to defend their country (in comparison, consider the willingness of Iraqi Kurds to defend Iraqi Kurdistan).
There are lessons in both mistakes.
1.Consider privatizing security operations. Iraq has enormous oil reserves. The oil could have financed private companies defending production, etc.
2.Consider incremental options. How about declaring a southern no fly zone (similar to the northern no fly zone in Iraqi Kurdistan)? Then, if the Marsh Arabs would rise to their own defense, that segment of Iraq could evolve into a functioning government.
3.DO NOT EVER THINK that providing free stuff wins “hearts and minds.” Welfare breeds laziness, greed and contempt. You can never do enough for others. They have to do for themselves. Freedom isn’t free stuff. Here, I quote “Starship Trooper”:
“A citizen accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic defending it with his life.”
What we’re seeing in Ukraine are citizens.
Russia has far more valid national security concerns than we or the Brits did to invade Iraq.
The narrative, however, always is more important than truth.
Who gives a crap what globalist Blair thinks? Climb back in your hole Tony.
On this site 20 years ago you didn’t dare question either invasion or get lambasted
It’s interesting how the general consensus among conservatives has changed, maybe in a good way
As much as it pains me to admit it, I also had to agree with him.
I'm not sure the invasions were wrong, but the way we "fought" the wars, were totally stupid.
Purple ink on the finger that they use to wipe their ass, when an illiterate "votes".
Bush Democracy at its finest.
Leaving people and $80 billion behind when we abandon the badlands, pure slow joe logic.
The invasions were.
The “nation building” wasn’t.
The only way to deal with those terrorists is to cause Biblical pain & suffering, leave and tell them “there’s more where that came from”.
Well Tony, looks like you and W were wrong. Not dead wrong, because you didn’t have any skin in the game to loose. If you would have not “eliminated” Saddam, there wouldn’t be a vacuum in the Mideast. Now look at the mess.
The Iraq invasion was a total waste and was based on lies of weapons of mass destruction. Invading Afghanistan made sense. We should have mopped up Al-Qaeda and Taliban as best we could. Then within two years gotten the hell out. Instead, we turned it into a 20 year long meals on wheels program with heavy do-gooder NGO and do-gooder State Department involvement. In the end we achieved nothing useful.
Muslim nations are impossible to reform into liberal Democratic ones.
I supported both wars back then.