Counterpunch
The Iraq War Was an Act of Military Aggression Launched on a False Pretext: Remarks on the Chilcot Inquiry Report
Jeremy Corbyn
See also
The real lesson? The Americans were clueless and the British stupidly followed them over the cliff.
Blaming either George W. Bush or Tony Blair for the entire mess misses the point that the establishments of both countries were deeply involved and share the blame.
Patrick Cockburn
If You Like Obama, You’ll Love Trump!
Mostly about Obama's perfidy after a short lede on Trump.
If You Like Obama, You’ll Love Trump!
William Blum
8 comments:
"Blaming either George W. Bush or Tony Blair "
idk Tom I'm a GOPer and I think its pretty fair to put this on Bush... he treated with everyone else out side of Afghanistan in the GWOT (Libya, Syria, Jordan, Egypt...) except Iraq as Iraq tried to assassinate his father some years before.... so he went for regime change there via war instead of working with the seated govt just couldnt bring himself to work with them .. and let the whole thing take too long... probably didnt kill enough people... ran the US wartime economy like shit... lots to criticize there in hindsight...
The buck stops on the Oval Office in the US and #10 Downing Street in the UK for sure.
But POTUS and the British PM cannot dictate policy alone. A country has to be convinced to got to war. There were a lot of others involved both as active participants and those who realized the truth of the matter but kept their mouths shut. These share in the blame.
The US public knows this intuitively. How one positioned oneself regarding the Iraq invasion is still a hot potato politically both in the US and the UK.
HRC not only voted for the war, but the architects of the war — neocons, liberal interventionists and war hawks — are now either gathering around her candidacy, or opposing Trump, who claims he was against it at the time although some find that questionable based on the record.
But Bernie did rightly hang it around her neck as one of the few that opposed it at the time.
This is crucial now, because Obama is seeing up war with Russia and China for Hillary right now. Trump is opposing it. Many of the GOP Establishment are either rallying around HRC or rumored getting set to do so should Trump be the GOP nominee.
It looks to me like Obama may begin open conflict before the election in order to throw the election to HRC owing to the initial exuberance of most of the public of going to war. Ofc, if the war is not over with a lasting victory in short order, public support erodes and with mounting costs, it erodes quickly.
This is Iraq all over again, with the leaders of the West demonizing Putin and Russia, and XI and China, just like they did Saddam, Assad, and Gaddafi. Well, Russia and China are not Iraq, Syria or Libya. Nor are they North Korea, which fought the US to a statement, albeit with Chinese help.
Engaging Iraq was a blunder, as was engaging North Vietnam. Engaging Russia and China is just plain crazy. But Obama and HRC seem ready to go and are getting their allies and the US public ready to go, too.
If I were a young person with a live ahead of me, I would be taking an extended vacation to the Southern Hemisphere.
Matt: "Iraq tried to assassinate his father some years before."
Nobody believes this! It was a made up story. It's like the WMD nonsense. Once you look into it, the whole think crumbles before you. As Patrick Cockburn commented on this bizarre story of inept bootleggers: "Incompetence does not rule out an assassination attempt, but the recruitment of a gang of whisky smugglers to plant a bomb at the wrong university does make it more difficult to take seriously." A dictator fearful for his future if this assassination attempt were ever uncovered would be more than a little hesitant to use "incompetent whisky smugglers" to assassinate the President of the United States. It was a story cooked up by the Kuwaitis.
Matt: "probably didnt kill enough people"
WTF? A whole country has been destroyed, something like a million dead, millions injured, millions displaced, half the country in the hands of wackos who see paganism and satanism everywhere they look, which needs to be purified by the blood of the disbeliever. How many should he have killed? And all because of a knowingly made up story. I'd hate to know how many he would have killed over a real threat, not a pretend threat.
I'm just saying with an attack like 9/11 you would have expected many more millions killed as a result ... Probably 10s of millions ... Maybe with the new technology not as many were killed... But this was a big departure from normal ...
Bush said they tried to kill his father... Only matters if Bush believed it... He worked with everyone else except Afghan...
Tom everything outside of the GWOT over there is a Democrat thing...
GOP:
GWOT, anti-LGBT, homeland, Corp profits
Ukraine is not on the GOP list...
Ukraine is not on the GOP list...
Then what was John McCain and other GOP leaders doing there and meeting in the halls of Congress with Ukrainian nationalists.
There are photographs to prove it, and some of the people in the photos with GOP leaders are known neo-Nazis.
This is a bipartisan clusterfuck.
Matt: "I'm just saying with an attack like 9/11 you would have expected many more millions killed as a result ... Probably 10s of millions"
Well, ok, perhaps you're not arguing that the US should have killed tens of millions and destroyed whole countries to the point that they really are now a very real threat to the US, but the Bush gang and the whole intelligence and military apparatus of the US understood that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Even Afghanistan had nothing to do with it: Al Qaeda had a camp in Afghanistan but they hatched the plot elsewhere, mainly in Germany. The Taliban knew absolutely nothing about Al Qaeda's activities, just like Germany didn't know.
Matt: "Bush said they tried to kill his father... Only matters if Bush believed it..."
That's a real problem for the US military then. Attacking a country when they know that they're doing it on the basis of a deranged belief. You have to wonder what they would do if they were given an order to attack Canada because maple leaves are a national security threat by contamination of American water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2bSL5VQgM
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