“That said, if we break it we buy it.”
This was one of General Powell supposedly brilliant observations. I disagree with it. If we are forced into a war, no we are not thereby taking on an obligation to rebuild anything. If you justifiably shoot a mugger and the mugger lives, you are not obligated to pay his medical bills and send him to college. Despite being an awful idea, the invasion of Iraq was morally justified. The second part of Powell’s observation is equally stupid: if you buy something, would that not mean you would end up owning it and be entitled to, oh I don’t know, its oil revenues?
We should’ve set it up where Iraqi oil revenues paid for our occupation, as well as the life insurance policies of any of our troops killed over there.
“If you justifiably shoot a mugger and the mugger lives, you are not obligated to pay his medical bills and send him to college”
This.
L
If we had been forced to invade Iraq, you might have a valid point.
But we weren't forced to do any such thing; we just went in and we did it. And Donald Trump, who looks more prescient by the day, rightly called it back in 2003 when he said that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. In fact, he was the only Republican candidate in the primaries leading up to the 2016 nomination who said the war was a mistake.
And he's the guy that won.