George W. Bush's Decision to Invade Iraq Was Correct; Donald Trump, take note.

American Thinker ^ | 02/18/2016 | Gene Schwimmer

[SeekAndFind]

Surely, to all but Donald Trump's ardent supporters – which, sadly, probably is all of them – there can be no doubt, after Saturday's Republican debate, that except on the sole issue of immigration, Trump is a Democrat.  Space and the need to stay on point preclude listing all of the Democratic talking points Trump parroted in South Carolina, so this essay focuses on the most egregious one – the "Bush lied, people died" libel – and on Trump's view, unfortunately shared by many Republicans, that, the Iraq war was, in Trump's words, a "big mistake" and that "we got nothing out of it."

First, as Powerline's Paul Mirengoff writes, there is no evidence that Trump opposed the Iraq pre-invasion (emphases added):

Last night, Donald Trump repeated his claim that "I'm the only one on the stage that said we should not go into Iraq."  As I've pointed out before, however, there is no credible evidence that Trump said any such thing.

Trump voiced public opposition to the war for the first time… in the summer of 2004… [by which time] he was following a fairly large pack.

[O]pposing our actions in Iraq once they went pear-shaped is just Monday morning quarterbacking — a Trump specialty.

Second, the Democrats' (and Trump's, but the writer repeats himself) accusation that Bush ordered the Iraq invasion knowing that there were no WMD is flat-out false.  In fact, Bush was skeptical until then-CIA director George Tenet assured Bush that, based on CIA intelligence, Saddam's possession of WMD was "a slam dunk."

As to Trump's criticism that Bush "failed to prevent 9/11" (and was therefore responsible for 9/11?), here is Tenet again (emphasis added):

[Sybeck1]

And in turn put the Supreme Court in the hands of liberals possibly.

[20yearsofinternet]

*facepalm*

I can’t believe we’re going to lose another election because of this stubborn position. The GOPe and the RNC really would rather have a Democrat than Trump.

sigh

[RIghtwardHo]

I could not disagree more. Iran’s natural enemy was eliminated and it has hell and chaos ever since. Afghanistan ... clearly. The Iraq invasion was one of the greatest military blunders in the history of Man.

[Darksheare]

A better iraq with people voting existed for a short time post Saddam until Obama pissed it away.
I recall there being threads about that on FR as it happened.
The purple ink fingers showing people voted, the threads of anger over hanuman pulling us out of iraq, watching the place become a vassel of iran.

[Darksheare]

So words Trump *cough* facts?

[Lib-Lickers 2]

we didn’t find the yellow cake we and the United Nations inspectors knew where it was long before the war, it had been documented and with their knowledge had it sealed in secure areas .. the yellow cake in question was left over from Iraq’s long abandoned nuclear program from the early 1980’s

[vbmoneyspender]

Hussein was routinely firing missiles at our pilots in the leadup to the war. For that reason alone, we were justified in going in and destroying Hussein and his followers. But there were plenty more justifiable reasons beyond that to invade Iraq.

And the most important reason is that the goal of all of the Islamic movements is to recreate the Caliphate. And that can't be done if they don't control Iraq in general and Baghdad in particular. And that is because Baghdad is at the heart of Iraq and Iraq is at the heart of the Middle East.

And we had control of Iraq, which meant there was no way the Caliphate could ever be recreated and we gave it all away. And now we have morons on our side who think this is great because Iraq was 'A BIG FAT MISTAKE.'

[Darksheare]

So it didn’t exist if we already knew about it?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Plus, by invading Iraq, we basically let Iran take control of the region.

Actually if you look back, Iraq was quite stable and OK and relatively quiet between 2008 to 2011. That changed when Obama decided to pull all of our troops out, against the advise of his generals and even his defense secretary.

[samtheman]

Bush wrecked the Republican brand while wrecking the border and wrecking the middle east.

He was a disaster.

[DJ MacWoW]

ISIS WMD attack in Iraq against Kurds. You know: the place without WMDs.

ISIS In Iraq Find Saddam Hussein's WMD Stockpiles Of Chemical Weapons; George W Bush Was Right?

[datricker]

Perhaps if we would have finished the war and Bush would have stood up for conservatives but he was looking back on it not the great president at one time I thought he would be.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: George Bush in his own words:
Bush says Iraq had no WMDs

______________________________________

Are Chemical Weapons not considered WMD’s? If so, then Bush himself is wrong as this report from the New York Times ( whose editorial page was against the invasion ) shows:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html?_r=0

[Does so]

The American media disagreed, repeated it endlessly, so it became fact.

[VanDeKoik]

Anyone that backs this op ed is literally living in wonderland with the Mad Hatter.

Why not just go full retard and say LBJ was right about Vietnam too?

[Heartlander]

Trump Wrote Iraq WMDs Were Threat Year Before Bush Took Office:

Consider Iraq. After each pounding from U.S . warplanes, Iraq has dusted itself off and gone right back to work developing a nuclear arsenal. Six years of tough talk and U.S. fireworks in Baghdad have done little to slow Iraq's crash program to become a nuclear power. They've got missiles capable of flying nine hundred kilometers-more than enough to reach Tel Aviv. They've got enriched uranium. All they need is the material for nuclear fission to complete the job, and, according to the Rumsfeld report, we don't even know for sure if they've laid their hands on that yet. That's what our last aerial assault on Iraq in 1999 was about. Saddam Hussein wouldn't let UN weapons inspectors examine certain sites where that material might be stored. The result when our bombing was over? We still don't know what Iraq is up to or whether it has the material to build nuclear weapons. I'm no warmonger. But the fact is, if we decide a strike against Iraq is necessary, it is madness not to carry the mission to its conclusion. When we don't, we have the worst of all worlds: Iraq remains a threat, and now has more incentive than ever to attack us.
- Donald Trump, The America We Deserve

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Anyone that backs this op ed is literally living in wonderland with the Mad Hatter.

A better post would be to detail where the OpEd’s arguments are wrong.

[Liz]

Bush/s enormous failure was not looking at the bigger picture...he was sap-happily duped by the pukeneos. He never figured in the horrific consequences about what would happen if strongmen Saddam and Khadadi were deposed.

Bush overlooked the conniving Mideast mindset and its capacity to do great harm to the US. Bush had this flawed vision of Arabs dancing around the Maypole after the US brought them the glories of democracy.

Bush relied too heavily on the pukeneos.....who may or may not be in league w/ Obama/s pals---the Muslim Brotherhood. The pukes agenda does not include the best interests of the USA. They are political whores who will get in bed w/ anybody that serves their hidden agenda.

=============================================

QUOTING ANN COULTER In June 2001 -- three months before the attack committed by Arabs on U.S. commercial airlines -- the Bush administration undertook a study to ensure that Arabs were not being disproportionately stopped by airport security.

COULTER When U.S. Airways ticket agent Michael Tuohey laid eyes on Mohamed Atta on the morning of 9/11, he got a "chill" and thought to himself, "If this guy doesn't look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does." But then, he says, he gave himself a politically correct "slap," and handed Atta his ticket.

COULTER Atta proceeded to murder 3,000 Americans. But at least no undue scrutiny of Arabs was taking place at U.S. Airports! ......as governor of Florida, Jeb Bush aggressively pushed a bill to allow illegal aliens to get driver's licenses, less than three years AFTER 13 of 19 hijackers used Florida driver's licenses to board the planes on 9/11.

===============================================

9/11 mastermind Atta's drivers license was suspended for
failure to appear in court....he was in the US on an expired visa.

NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT (SNIX) Before 9/11, L/E was
contacted about swarthy Mideast individuals taking flying lessons who
wanted to learn how to takeoff...not how to land. ////GWB wading into Jeb/s losing effort is futile..... poor timing at best. But most of all b/c it dredges up all the troubling aspects of Bush/s role in Mideast affairs.

ANN COUTER: In June 2001, the Bush administration undertook a study to ensure that Arabs were not being disproportionately stopped by airport security.

.....Colin Powell asserts in his new book: "there would have been no Iraq war" had then-Pres GWB and his councilors understood that Hussein did not possess any functioning unconventional weapons. Powell lauded the fact that under Bush we got rid of the horrific Hussein government and toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.....

ANALYSIS Which just goes to show the US still hasn/t figured out the fervid Mideast mindset to this day. Its thousand-year-old sectarian internecine warfare was kept in check by strongmen like Saddam and Khadafi. Now these savages are marauding all over Europe.....and are coming here to kill us for what we did in Iraq.

POINTS TO PONDER

<><> Powell never mentions that the conniving Mideast types calculated the advantage of having a superpower in their midst....and they cashed in bigtime.

<><> The US gamely decided to train the indigenous population....it cost us billions and we managed to train 4-5 or so over five years.

<><> In the US we take them off the farm, send them to boot camp, and in 3 weeks we got soldiers.

<><> The Bank of Kabul where the CIA and DOD deposited billions to finance the war was a withdrawal-only goldmine for insiders.

<><> For public consumption, the US said we went into Iraq to show them the advantages of democracy and to get all warm and cuddly as they embraced it.

(waiting for hysterical laughter to die down)

Remember this Colin? The war profiteering was outrageous. Neocon godfather Richard Perle relaxing in Paris (above the fray---nowhere near his cohorts plotting in the WH Office of Special Ops) got so rich w/ insider info, he was reported to be starting his own oil company.

<><> One last thing, Colin.....GWB estimated the Iraq strike would cost $50-60 billion.......then an angry Bush fired advisor Larry Lindsey because Lindsay dared to say the war might cost more like $100 billion.

That was in 2007 dollars.

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY Iraq and Afghanistan today have cost the US some $3 TRILLION....and rivers of young blood. We/re still pouring US tax dollars into those decrepit Mideast countries, and..... as Donald says....we got NOTHING in return.

BTW, look who controls most of the Iraqui oil fields today.

[LibFreeUSA]

"And not just Saddam, but a pinned-down Saddam, with the US controlling air-space and the Kurds operating an autonomous region."

AND!!!!!!!.... a buffer against any IRANIAN expansion in the region. With Saddam having over 300,000 troops at the border with IRAN to keep the Mullahs in check as well.

BUSH & CO really were the most stupid bunch in memory.

[driftdiver]

“It was the biggest blunder in US history. It gave the ME over to the very worst elements of Islam.”

nonsense, Obamas policies did that.