Posted on 12/07/2016 8:59:17 AM PST by Lorianne
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense called the 2003 invasion of Iraq a “mistake,” according to a recording obtained by The Intercept.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Mattis said, “we will probably look back on the invasion of Iraq as a mistake — as a strategic mistake.”
Mattis was one of the Iraq campaign’s most important ground commanders. He led the 1st Marine Division during the invasion and later oversaw the bloody retaking of Fallujah from insurgents in 2004.
As for the Pentagon’s view on the Iraq invasion at the time, Mattis said this: “I think people were pretty much aware that the U.S. military didn’t think it was a very wise idea. But we give a cheery ‘Aye aye, sir.’ Because when you elect someone commander in chief — we give our advice. We generally give it in private.”
Mattis’s comments came during a question-and-answer session after a keynote delivered last year at ASIS International, a conference for “global security professionals” held in Anaheim, California. A conference participant provided an audio recording of Mattis’s speech exclusively to The Intercept.
(Excerpt) Read more at theintercept.com ...
Duh, I think everyone pretty much knows that now...
No probably to it. We should have went into Iran per the Bush Doctrine of fighting terrorism. And I speak as someone who was there before it all started on “A” Day.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Never try to give Savages with no Honor the gift of Freedom.
Only a mistake because 0dunga pissed it all away with a hasty withdrawal.
Hussein had been in violation of the Ceasefire Terms which ended the first Gulf War for years while the feckless Bill Clinton made only token efforts to enforce. Something needed to be done.
So mistake? No.
Is this controversial?
4,486 dead U.S. soldiers and $1,700,000,000,000 tax dollars for what, exactly?
It wasn’t a “mistake” at all. It was a deliberate f#%&-up.
Exactly. The problem is the NeoCons wanted to destroy Iraq & Syria, and have largely succeeded, and now we are paying an immense prices (Trillions of dollars, thousands of dead servicemen, many maimed physically and/or mentally, more terrorism, millions of refugees, etc.).
It was premeditated and the perps are still free.
I’ve wondered if the Iraq invasion wasn’t a way to enclose Iran in a pincer when we eventually entered Afganistan.
Go back and read the public comments by a former U.S. Defense Secretary back in the early 1990s in which he stated in no uncertain terms that a U.S. invasion of Iraq would be disastrous for the U.S. and for Iraqis alike.
That "former U.S. Defense Secretary" was Dick Cheney.
He later became one of the key drivers of the U.S. invasion of Iraq when he was vice president under George W. Bush.
He knew exactly how Iraq was going to end up, but he pushed that invasion anyway.
F#%& all of them.
The virtual extermination of the terrorist network that organized and executed the 09-11 attacks on the USA is what was gained.
The Iraq mission was not the mistake. The mistake was the 2010 decision by Obama to withdraw everyone so he could campaign in 2012 as “ending the Iraq war”. That allowed Al-qeda to morp into ISIS. NOW we are having to go BACK Iraq (with the addition of Syria) a third time to exterminate the terroirsts that should of been killed in 2011-2012 when we had them on the ropes.
Yup, there was a good chance things would have worked out. Now, we will never know
BINGO
Pure nonsense. Iraq worked exactly as planned up to the point O pulled everyone out for poltical reasons in 2010. What is now ISIS had almost their whole leadership cadre exterminated and was down to a few hundred fighters when O pulled the plug on Iraq in 2010.
Why Iraq
One of the really infuriating things in modern politics is the level of disinformation, misinformation, demagoguery and out right lying going on about the mission in Iraq. Democrats have spent the last 3+ years lying about Iraq out of a political calculation. The assumption is that the natural isolationist mindset of the average American voter, linked to the inherent Anti Americanism (what is misnamed the “Anti War movement”) of the more feverish Democrat activists (especially those running the US’s National “News” media) would restore them to national political dominance. The truth is the Democrat Party Leadership has simply lacked the courage to speak truth to whiners. The truth is that even if Al Gore won the 2000 election and 09-11 still happened we would be doing the EXACT same things in Iraq we are doing now.
Based on the political situation in the region left over from the 1991 Gulf War plus the domestic political consensus built up in BOTH parties since 1991 as well as fundamental military strategic laws, there was NO viable strategic choice for the US but to take out Iraq after finishing the initial operations in Afghanistan.
To start with Saddam’s Iraq was our most immediate threat. We could NOT commit significant military forces to another battle with Saddam hovering undefeated on our flank nor could we leave significant forces watching Saddam. The political containment of Iraq was breaking down. That what Oil for Food was all about. Oil for Food was an attempt by Iraq to break out of it’s diplomatic isolation and slip the shackles the UN Sanctions put on it’s military. There there was the US Strategic position to consider.
The War on Islamic Fascism is different sort of war. in facing this Asymmetrical threat, we have a hidden foe, spread out across a geographically diverse area, with covert sources of supply. Since we cannot go everywhere they hide out, in fact often cannot even locate them until the engage us, we need to draw them out of hiding into a kill zone.
Iraq is that kill zone. That is the true brilliance of the Iraq strategy. We draw the terrorists out of their world wide hiding places onto a battlefield they have to fight on for political reasons (The “Holy” soil of the Arabian peninsula) where they have to pit their weakest ability (Conventional Military combat power) against our greatest strength (ability to call down unbelievable amounts of firepower) where they will primarily have to fight other forces (the Iraqi Security forces) in a battlefield that is mostly neutral in terms of guerrilla warfare. (Iraqi-mostly open terrain as opposed to guerrilla friendly areas like the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of SE Asia).
Did any of the critics of liberating Iraq ever look at a map? Iraq, for which we had the political, legal and moral justifications to attack, is the strategic high ground of the Middle East. A Geographic barrier that severs ground communication between Iran and Syria apart as well as providing another front of attack in either state or into Saudi Arabia if needed.
There were other reasons to do Iraq but here is the strategic military reason we are in Iraq. We have taken, an maintain the initiative from the Terrorists. They are playing OUR game on ground of OUR choosing.
Problem is Counter Insurgency is SLOW and painful. Often a case of 3 steps forward, two steps back. One has to wonder if the American people have either the emotional maturity, nor the intellect” to understand. It’s so much easier to spew made for TV slogans like “No Blood for Oil” or “We support the Troops, bring them home” or dumbest of all “We are creating terrorists” then to actually THINK.
Westerners in general, and the US citizens in particular seem to have trouble grasping the fundamental fact of this foe. These Islamic Fascists have NO desire to co-exist with them. The extremists see all this PC posturing by the Hysteric Left as a sign that we are weak. Since they want us dead, weakness encourages them. There is simply no way to coexist with people who completely believe their “god” will reward them for killing us.
So we can covert to Islam, die or kill them. Iraq is about killing enough of them to make the rest of the Jihadists realize we are serious. They same way killing enough Germans, Italians and Japanese eliminated the ideologies of Nazism, Fascism and Bushido.
Americans need to understand how Bin Laden and his ilk view us. In the Arab world the USA is considered a big wimp. We have run away so many times. Lebanon, the Kurds, the Iraqis in 1991, the Iranians, Somalia, Clinton all thru the 1990s etc etc etc. The Jihadists think we will run again. In fact they are counting on it. That way they can run around screaming “We beat the American just like the Russians, come join us in Jihad” and recruit the next round of “holy warriors”. Iraq is also a show place where we show the Muslim world that there are a lines they cannot cross. On 9-11-01 they crossed that line and we can, and will, destroy them for it -
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
Winston Churchill
Uh -- whut?
It took thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars to deal with 19 hijackers (most of whom were Saudis) who stole four U.S. passenger jets to crash them into buildings like the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
Somebody had a “LBJ Jumbo Vietnam” complex.
And it’s NOT funny.
People died as a result.
How dare you think for yourself.
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