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 ...
That is 100% bullsh!t.
All U.S. troops were withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2010 under the terms of the agreement signed by George W. Bush in 2008.
We can blame the Bushes for the ridiculous, costly move to take out Saddam Hussein who safeguarded Jews and Christians and made life a living hell for the mullahs in Iran. Because of this senseless action the blame for the screwup in the middle east goes to them, as well as to the fool who followed them.
It's well and good that Trump owes the Bush dynasty absolutely nothing.
That is absolutely, verifiably false. See my prior post on this point.
Right. That's why the silly "war on terror" was aimed directly at the primary sponsors of radical Islamic terrorism -- in places like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Oh, wait a minute ...
“we will probably look back on the invasion of Iraq as a mistake — as a strategic mistake.”
OK...at this point in time that would merely make him appear to be a Master of the Obvious. And I mean that as no criticism of MadDog whatsoever. Just that the nation-building exercises of the Neo-Cons and For-Purchase Leftists have been pretty readily discredited at this point.
Even if Trump had lost to Hillary Clinton, he accomplished a great deal in the GOP primaries by ending a political family dynasty that will go down as one of the worst casts of characters ever to pollute the U.S. political scene.
We wound up fighting three enemies:
Islamists
Internal enemies (dimorats) and
A corrupt media.
The mistake was actually letting Iraq enshrine Islam in their constitution.
The purpose of the war was to make it a secular democracy that could be prosperous and would blunt the force of the most aggressive Sunni Islamists (including Saudi Arabia, where most of the hijackers originated). Saddam was doing his own version of a secular but nominally Islamist (Sunni) state, but it’s so difficult - because Islam is also a political system - that I think it had escaped even him. His Baathist party was based on a somewhat syncretist version of Islam and the reason that he was so oppressive (other than the usual dictator’s arrogance) was that neither side wanted to join the party.
The Iranians are mostly Shiites, so we backed off on taking down Mookie in Iraq because it was mistakenly thought that we could benefit from a Sunni-Shiite face off.
And in any case, by then, the Dems (who had suddenly decided that Islam was just the coolest thing going) had totally worn Bush down and this was really his biggest mistake.
The war was fought well and we won in very difficult circumstances. As usual, it was the peace that was lost. We should never have gotten involved in Islamic politics and simply should have imposed a non-confessing state. Also, Muslims only respond to dictators and autocrats, and had no respect for us when we started trying to be subservient to supposed Islamic sensibilities.
We should have adopted the model we used in Germany after WWII.
That wasn't a mistake -- that was a warning flag.
Anyone with half a brain should have seen right then that the whole "war on terror" was a giant fraud that was perpetrated on the American people by a corrupt, diabolical government.
GW Bush left a pacified Iraq solidly on that path as he left office in 2008, but to get there would have taken an American troop presence of about 20,000 stationed there for a generation - just like it took with Japan .
A side benefit would have been a strong US military presence in the region to act as a stabilizing force.
Had Bush cut a deal for American development of Iraqi oil infrastructure to pay for the coast of liberation and to fund the transformation and development of Iraq the world would be a much better place.
Lots of missed opportunities
Given the way that the Iraq operation has played out over the last 8 years, the outcome has certainly been negative and should be considered a mistake in hindsight after 8 years of Obama chaos.
The 2016 hindsight view after 8 years of Obama is much worse than the hindsight view at the end of 2008, which was filled with promise of brighter future that was broken by one Barak H Obama
Iraq was even more of a mistake because there was no plan for “what happens afterward.”
It's amazing how easy it was to delude Americans who clearly forgot the disgraceful lessons of the Vietnam War.
Liberating Kuwait was a mistake? No.
It was the invasion and handling of Iraq that made me conclude that GWB was essentially an inept moron. Time has not diminished that view.
Now we just go in a blow shit up and kill a few people and not finish the job. Iraq could've been won, we would have had to kill lots of people and probably kick Iran's and Syria's ass as well maybe even Pakistan. But it could've been done. But lots of people would've died including many so-called civilians. But that is the way of war. In WWII entire cities and towns in Europe were wiped off the map which killed multitudes of civilians.
I say no more half-assing. If you go in, go in with everything and kill people and break things until they give up or they all die. Then take over and see to it that the country is reset for all there that allows people a free and productive life without human rights violations etc. If you are not willing to do that then stay home and let it be.
“Only a mistake because 0dunga pissed it all away with a hasty withdrawal.”
No, the war started for the right reasons. But it was a fustercluck from the day planning started because there was no strategy involved. THAT is what Mattis is talking about. WHY are you going in? CAN you achieve your goals and, if so, HOW? HOW do you get out while minimizing our casualties, minimizing the expense and minimizing any damage to our relations with allies and neutrals (I don’t give a damn about enemies - let them suck it up). Oh, and why in Hell didn’t we flatten a few Iranian air and naval bases to let them know to stay the F out of Iraq? Again, no one thought about this before going in - and Mattis will do this before we enter any conflict.
In short, Iraq was a good idea, but the execution was worthy of a 2-year-old. Obola only led to the pooch being screwed a bit earlier than it would have happened ANYWAY.
Was the invasion a mistake or the way it was handled?
The problem seemed to be (as with Vietnam) letting the Media have a say in how the war was fought and the peace was kept.
I’m no expert, just a guy with an opinion so forgive me if I’m wrong.
That wasn't worth a single American life or a single dollar of U.S. taxpayer funds.
We were naive on both accounts maybe.
Vietnam was my war and there was nothing "disgraceful" about our national intentions.
That's the BEST thing you can say about him.
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