Posted on 05/02/2015 4:02:29 PM PDT by WilliamIII
On Monday, presidential hopeful Rand Paul had this to say to a group of Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn: "All the way back to the Iraq War, I think it was a mistake to topple [Saddam] Hussein." The Kentucky senator continued:
Hussein was the bulwark against Iran. The Sunnis didn't like the Shiites, now Iraq is a vassal state for Iran. I'm worried [Iran] is twice as strong as it was before the Iraq War. [Rand Paul]
I'm no dove. But I must admit: Rand Paul has a point.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
Rand, like his father, is a kook.
Toppling Saddam was fine. For instance, it scared the bejeebers out of Muammar Gaddafi.
The mistake was trying to impose democracy. The proper choice was either to continue into Iran or pull out with the threat to come back with even greater force the next time.
Again, just like the Jebster, I appreciate Rand affirming the reasons why I would never vote for him.
losing basing rights lost (unwon, more accurately) iraq. unwinning iraq let iran out of their cage and created ISIS.
The mistake was in looking the other way as Iran took over. Biggest mistake Bush made was bowing to anti-war pressure and not popping Iran in the nose.
Do what is right, and let God sort out the big picture.
Stop the murderers. Devil take those that regret it.
/johnny
anti W bs. A revisionist Bush hater attempts to rationalize away a great historical event
W is the conqueror of Baghdad
Saddam was a bastard, but what do we have now? Iran having control over 2/3 of Iraq, with ISIS ascendent in much of the remainder.
I do not know what was gained.
Electing Obama hurt the nation.
No, Rand. Electing Obama and leaving the fate of Iraq in his hands hurt America.
“Rand, like his father, is a kook.”
Exactly.
Saddam should have been replaced with a tame secular despot.
I agree with Senator Paul on this one. The key is WHY DID WE DO IT ? There were no WMD and Iraq had zero to do with the World Trade Center.We actually started bombing with U.N.inspectors on the ground screaming “WE CAN”T FIND THEM !!” If we had bombed and invaded Saudi Arabia and taken their oil , it would all have made sense because they spawned the death of 3000 Americans. GWB destroyed the chances for a conservative to be elected El Presidente perhaps forever.
.... Like my father used to say ..... "When the cats away ... the mice will play." .... In this case however ... the cat was totally removed from the scene and the mice were left permanently to their own devices.
Sorry. FRiends, I happen to agree with Rand on this point. In fact, I recall saying to friends as we watched election returns...when GW Bush won... I said we were destined for war.
Now if the current toppling of dictators doesn’t open your eyes, not much will I guess.
It does seem to me, that the Middle East NEEDS, much firmer secular advocates than we care to truly admit. Because the alternative so far has proven far worse for the human race than few could have ever imagined.
After the the first gulf war we heard no END of ‘bush should have had Hussein killed’...’you guys should have killed Hussein’
Bush said rightly we are not in the business of assassination
Even I knew it would destabilize the region and I don’t know much about these things
So all I want to say to this if the moderators will let me is shut up to this author and definitely shut up !! To rand Paul weirdo
The mistake was to attempt nation building. That cost the vast majority of American lives and treasure and for essentially nothing at this point.
We simply should have taken out Saddam’s “government” and left. And then told the world whomever attacks America or allows those who attack America to operate in their country will see the same fate. That would have put real fear in our enemies and would have cost America far less while being far more effective.
In a perverse way it is somewhat hilarious to see how dumb the analysis of Rand Paul is and other Iraq reactionaries.
Obviously, we had to leave Iraq. [wrong]
Staying in country would never work— as in Korea, Japan, Europe.
We had to give up all military options in Iraq and let it fall to Iran.
That was the necessary and only option.
The fact that we can just give countries away and then re invade them at will simply proves how Hyper powerful the US is.
It is a world of radical Hyper American hegemony.
Did Obama re-invade Iraq?
The media doesn’t even ask because they are so pathologically committed to the psycho nutty story of American failure in Iraq.
We somehow have ghost troops in Iraq and they magically strike dead members of isis with mysterious air-craft— almost like UFOs.
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