• What Did They Die For?

    June 25, 2012

    Tags: , ,
    Posted in: Embassy/State, Iraq, Military

    I met another one yesterday, on the subway. He was with his family visiting DC as tourists and they all stood swaying like happy but confused cows in front of Washington’s impossibly confusing subway fare map. I helped them figure it out, and learned they were from Montana, were in a “big city” for the first time in a long time and were a bit overwhelmed. The son was 26, in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, lost his leg near a city in Iraq whose name he awkwardly mispronounced. I doubt if an Iraqi would have recognized the name given how he said it, but it was where he got shot in a war that made no more sense than the subway map. The charts say he has sixty more years in that chair, three more lives. Almost 12 stops on the subway, too.

    Somewhere along the way the US killed off over 100,000 Iraqis while 4480 American soldiers died alongside of them. No one can really count how many were wounded, like the guy on the subway. It was a war purely of choice, a war of desire, launched with an invasion into a country that did not attack or threaten the US. That was 2003, when “men” like Colin Powell, Condi Rice and the Bush clan lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is important to go over those things once in awhile, because government fibbers are always poking around– Syria, Iran, Pakistan– with more false or exaggerated claims. Let’s agree to ask a few questions next time.

    The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite whatever reasons they started, morphed into nation building, where the US sought/seeks to create neat little democratic allies. That is a fool’s errand, and an expensive one in terms of lives and dollars, so it is important to check in to see where these things are going once in a while.

    In the same week that we learn of Iraq’s plan to shut down the majority of major media outlets, Musings on Iraq, one of the most dispassionate and apolitical sites on the topic, offers this pocket assessment of today’s Iraq:

    Recently, the United Nations and the State Department issued reports on human rights within Iraq. Both said that the country had a poor record. Freedom of the press, assembly, and expression, along with women and minority rights were all threatened, and the country lacked a functioning justice and prison systems. This was due to not only the on going violence within the country, but corruption and government dysfunction. Both organizations believed that the situation would continue. Not only has the government’s promises of improving its human rights situation proved hollow, but no official has ever been punished for their actions, while insurgents still carry out their daily terrorist attacks.


    Of course one must ask if that’s the best we could do with 4480 American lives and several trillion dollars, what hope do we have in America’s other endless wars of choice and desire?

    If you have the stomach for it, read a more detailed look at the state of modern Iraq on Musings.



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    • Recent Comments

    • Rich Bauer said...

      1

      Is this a trick question?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYEvhdLuW-U&feature=relmfu

      06/25/12 1:51 PM | Comment Link

    • marc said...

      2

      All the costs of the Iraq war fell to unimportant people like soldiers, Iraqis, TCNs and future working and middle class Americans. Important people like politically connected defense contractors and Iraqi expats, retired Generals and war enabling think tanks hucksters made vast fortunes off the war. Do the math.

      06/25/12 4:44 PM | Comment Link

    • Rich Bauer said...

      3

      “That was 2003, when “men” like Colin Powell, Rice and the Bush clan lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

      In a poll constructed by Dartmouth government professor Benjamin Valentino and conducted by YouGov from April 26 to May 2 found that 63 percent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003.

      06/25/12 5:26 PM | Comment Link

    • jhoover said...

      4

      Peter, I hope one day that figure of 100,000 Iraqi killed will be verified , which off course hard to believe in that figure but you all knew a classic war like Iraqi/Iran war killed One Million Iraqis. Iraq invasion and occupation with most advance weapons on earth use the figure still lingering 100,000? Is its amazing when some lied we repeats their lies?
      Let show you one off those are put in power to lead the democratic that US lost near 5000 solder from its youth for bringing and putting this criminal like this one in power, I would ask you as American what you done to your people who refused to list in the military during Vietnam war of Afghanistan or Iraq? Did reward or hold top governmental post after you elections and choosing new President?

      Let read this B*. who went to Lebanon fighting with Amal militia (Own his Chose)while fled Iraq in 1980 on claims that he flee from Saddam while he was in his 2nd years of study in the university (Agriculture Science), 8 years in his post what his credentials that this man had make US while in power in Iraq have him in this post?

      Where State department and CIA about these crooks and criminal who are killer from Amal Militia what the done atrocities inside Lebanon?

      But US lost 5000 of her youth and killed over 100,000 Iraqis, while Rice came and telling all of you US “Now, we didn’t go to Iraq to bring democracy to the Iraqis. And I try in the book to really explain that that wasn’t the purpose,” !!

      06/25/12 7:33 PM | Comment Link

    • Rich Bauer said...

      5

      Add Hillary Clinton’n name to the list of liars:

      Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY):
      Sen. Clinton: “I Voted For The Iraqi Resolution. I Consider The Prospect Of A Nuclear-Armed Saddam Hussein Who Can Threaten Not Only His Neighbors, But The Stability Of The Region And The World, A Very Serious Threat To The United States.” (Senator Hillary Clinton [D-NY], Press Conference, January 22, 2003)

      Sen. Clinton: “In The Four Years Since The Inspectors, Intelligence Reports Show That Saddam Hussein Has Worked To Rebuild His Chemical And Biological Weapons Stock, His Missile Delivery Capability, And His Nuclear Program. … It Is Clear, However, That If Left Unchecked, Saddam Hussein Will Continue To Increase His Capability To Wage Biological And Chemical Warfare And Will Keep Trying To Develop Nuclear Weapons.” (Sen. Hillary Clinton, Congressional Record, 10/10/02, p. S10288)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcysW9O8xr0

      06/25/12 9:45 PM | Comment Link

    • jhoover said...

      6

      Here we go new revelations by the “Snake”

      Albright talks of Iraq blunder

      FORMER US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright interacting with the recipients of Young India fellowship in New Delhi though justified the attack in Afghanistan but said the war on Iraq was the US’s biggest mistake. Albright who served in the Bill Clinton administration admitted that the US was still hurt because of its war in Iraq.

      Madam Albright is right and she is not the only person in the US to admit this folly at the foreign land. Even at the time of invasion of Iraq, saner voices were heard in America and there were street demonstrations world over opposing the military action under the pretext of so-called weapons of mass destruction. During its occupation of Iraq, the US could not find a single piece of information about such weapons but there was more in the invasion of Iraq. The US wanted to bring the country, one of the major producers of oil, under its influence to secure its energy needs and establish a military foothold in the very important region. However, the Iraqis showed strong resistance to the occupation forces and ultimately the super power had to make a face saving withdrawal. But the repercussions of the US mistake, in the words of Madam Albright, for the Iraqi people are very disastrous. The country is still highly destabilized by incidents of frequent bombings and sectarian strife and no one knows how long it will take to bring stability. In one’s life a time comes when he/she speaks his/her mind and the former US Secretary of State aired her thoughts though late. While endorsing Albright we can foresee that time will soon come when she will also describe the attack on Afghanistan as an ill advised and futile exercise which claimed precious lives of innocent Afghan people and led to the killing of thousands of American troops.

      06/28/12 7:50 AM | Comment Link

    • Lisa said...

      7

      Chilling, and so very tragic in its utter futility.

      06/30/12 7:16 PM | Comment Link

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