Posted on 05/26/2018 10:09:31 PM PDT by Trump20162020
Sen. John McCain in his new memoir makes the confession that the Iraq War was a "mistake" and says he shoulders part of the blame, Vox reported Friday.
He explained the Iraq War "can't be judged as anything other than a mistake, a very serious one, and I have to accept my share of the blame for it."
McCain was a steadfast supporter of the initiative to go to war with Iraq during the administration of former President George W. Bush.
"I came out of the Vietnam War convinced that frankly we could have won, and we had it won," Politico's Michael Hirsh said the Arizona Republican told him in 2014. "Just as I believed we had the Iraq conflict won after the surge — and for which I sacrificed everything, including my presidential ambitions, that it would succeed."
Even back in 2005, when 66 percent of the country was against the effort to bring democracy to Iraq, McCain doubled down on his support of the war.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
I have long been of the opinion that anything less than Total War is a mistake. We have had over 75 years of observation to reach that conclusion.
The U.S. hasn't faced a foreign military threat like that in more than 100 years. This country is no longer a sovereign nation but is instead an empire -- which means "total war" doesn't work anymore. You can't go to some corner of the globe and reduce it to a smoking ruins if your goal is to impose the U.S. dollar on them and make them trading partners.
McCain has been seeking salvation for a long time.
History will judge most of what #43 did was a terrible mistake.
mistake!
Rest In Peace soon John.
But for the longest time you couldn’t say that around these parts. -
This weekend we rightly honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our great country. However in the case of Iraq, we should not have asked that they make this sacrifice.
I can’t wait for the opportunity to empty my bladder on this pig’s headstone.
Agreed but what came before and after was worse. I know, it's tougher to rank 'worst presidents' and come up with a clear winner than it is to rank 'best presidents'.
I’m not so sure that Iraq was a mistake.
What was a mistake was the prosecution of the war? It should have been a total effort, and what was left should have been a smoking pile of debris.
As far as Afghanistan goes, we should have paid the Russians as mercenaries to go in there to kill the taliban, and get bin Laden.
L E G A C Y building in his Final Daze
Just like McNamara and others
Sing SONGBIRD Sing!!
Yo’ timeiz bout upp
"Noooooooo John, nooooooo! Why? Why? Y'all said we'd be best friend hawks furever." ~ Linda Graham
Was it worth the approx 5 Trillion or so we spent? That's about 1/4 of our current debt. That's not to mention the human costs of brave soldiers lost or whose lives have been irreparably damaged. Especially since no WMD were found.
“The U.S. hasn’t faced a foreign military threat like that in more than 100 years. This country is no longer a sovereign nation but is instead an empire — which means “total war” doesn’t work anymore”
Yet anything less becomes a quagmire. So either we totally abstain from any police actions at el, or we go in with total commitment. Now I will admit that Total Commitment/Total War is not the answer either. Are we to remain an Empire? Is it in our national interest to be an Empire? If being an Empire means being continuously trashed and involvement into nefarious police actions which have no resolution, then perhaps we should just look to ourselves. We should look to the Quarry from which we were dug, and to the Rock from which we were cleft (nationally, of course). Is that sustainable?
Empires (from what I’ve noticed recently), seem to be wide open to former subjects of the empire migrating and causing a stir of a type of desirable soup.
Yep Sadam made a few fatal errors. Trying to assassinate W’s dad was one. Someone had to pay for 9/11 and it wasn’t going to be the Saudis who sent sympathy cards and all. Officially only Sadam was gleeful at 9/11. That probably tipped the scales since W figured he needed to send a message and Sadam was playing come and get me you Yankee swine.
Perhaps “when” should be “unless”?
I didn’t get the impression he was supportive of the war effort at all. All I remember is his blistering attacks on the US for waterboarding and making terrorists uncomfortable and his drive for amnesty, amnesty, amnesty, as if there wasn’t a war on at all and the most important thing was winning over Democrats and getting our lettuce picked.
Well said.
mclame likely is in (and has been for months) an irreversible coma. Probably, his handlers are writing his perspectives”. What a wasted life.
When we invaded Iraq a group of our soldiers found a nice little mural of the burning World Trade Center and a grinning Saddam Hussein in Iraq’s Intel Service HQ.
Just before 9/11 the newspaper in Iraq controlled by Saddam Hussein’s sons published articles praising bin Laden and predicting an attack on the US on “the arm that is already hurting” [WTC which had been bombed in 1993] with a reference to Frank Sinatra.
Just before 9/11 an Iraqi was captured by Jordan. Turned out he had earlier been an Iraqi embassy employee in Malaysia and had shepherded two of the future 9/11 hijackers around to the terrorist meeting there where the attack on the USS Cole was planned- the two who were later part of the cleric al Aulaqi’s followers in California and in Virginia before their fatal attack. In the pocket litter of the captured Iraqi was contact information for an assortment of terrorists, including ones involved in the 1993 WTC attack, the USS Cole, and 9/11 and relatives of same.
Then as now, the radical left Human Rights Watch went immediately to his rescue, criticizing and pressuring Jordan for his release. Jordan eventually did release hi and he fled immediately to Baghdad, where the head of ANO already was based and where was living in a state funded house and on a state stipend the main perpetrator of the 1993 WTC attack. Also setting up shop there was the guy who later founded ISIS- though at the time his group was called al Jihad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.