I don’t think anyone with eyes can forget the sight of that Banner that read “Mission Accomplished.” It was the backdrop as President Bush made that now infamous announcement. But four years of fighting and dying has not brought us any nearer to that lofty landmark Bush mistakenly proclaimed on that fateful day. Combat operations were not over then and they are not over now. Our brave young men and women continue to live in harms way, dying at a rate averaging three or more per day.
The justifications for this war have changed so often, even most Republican voters seem confused about what the latest one is. I’ve often ran into man-on-the-street Republicans who are still arguing the merits of certain justifications that even the Bush administration has abandoned. And it’s easy to see where the confusion is coming from. On one hand you have the CIA and other intelligence entities reporting that there was “NO” evidence of a connection between Suddam Hussein and Al Qaida, yet VP Cheney still gives speeches to the party faithful that such a connection did exist. Hell, I’ve even heard him claim that Hussein had somehow magically moved all his WMD’s out of the country before we got there. With the Vice President going around blatantly lying to the American people like this, it’s easy to see how suffering from Right Wing blindness would leave you vulnerable.
A picture released by the US military, shows Spc. Steven Reyes checking hollow areas for hiding places of weapons caches (with a stick) in the backyard of a suspected militia member’s home during a raid in Diwaniyah, April 12, 2007. With this kind of state of the art weapons detection equipment, it’s no wonder our people are dying in such alarming numbers.
The so-called surge has not worked… again. Yet Bush confidently marches on with his plan to win in Iraq, what ever that is. If the loss weren’t so horrendous I might find it humorous that Republicans are so quick to challenge the Democrats to field a plan to get out of Iraq when this president has none. In fact, I don’t think anyone has a hard clad idea of just what Bush’s idea of victory is in Iraq. He and his ilk just keep blindly marching forward as if this is just the way things are going to be on into the foreseeable future because we are in a war against terrorism. And that was his first mistake.
Calling the effort to apprehend and prosecute these thugs who planned and carried out the 911 attacks a “war” was a colossal miscalculation. By using the word war, all Bush did was succeed in elevating Osama Bin Laden to the virtual status of head of state. Wars are conducted between sovereign nations, not on criminals. Sending our military to Afghanistan to catch Bin Laden and then invading Iraq in the name of the “war on terror” was like sending a giant aircraft tanker full of fire retardant to put out a match. Even if you manage to hit such a small target, the collateral damage will be devastating.
In this case the collateral damage has manifest itself in the loss of tens of thousands of human beings and the utter destruction of an entire country.
All I can say is, shame on the Bush administration and shame on all the Republicans who voted for him and continue to support his failed and disastrous war on terror.
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Devin Barber, Politics Correspondent
Devin’s column, “Left Of The Right” published every Tuesday and Thursday to Gather Essentials: Politics is a Blue Collar Democrats take on current political news.
Devin was raised by proud Roosevelt Democrats. Being the son of parents counted among the throng of Americans displaced by the Great Depression has given Devin a deep rooted passion for causes dealing with the poor and the working class.
You can find all of Devin’s columns at http://gather.com/leftoftheright
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Comments: 24
In examining Bush's rationales for this escalation and refusal to abandon Iraq's civil war, one finds no conditions upon which our involvement finds termination. He should never have been allowed to delay redeployment of our troops last year. This served only to give him more time to bait-and-switch his way out of office to leave this disaster to his successors.
The continual pampering of this evil brat masquerading as Commander-in-Chief is costing lives and resources that will be sorely missed as our nation struggles to recover from the last seven years of disaster.
There is only one way out of this nightmare -- impeachment of Bush and Cheney immediately before they can do more damage.
I don't give a rat's patootie about the threat to career politicians in Congress who refuse to rise to the occasion to rid our nation of these con-artists squatting in the Executive Branch. They have committed high crimes and should be evicted and prosecuted to serve a deterrent to all future King-makers figuring on usurping power.
As for searching for weapons, my son was in the invasion and in Iraq for the first 10 months. So I was paying CLOSE attention to news reports.
Conventional battlefield weapons were not hidden or secured. Saddam had parked weapons throughout the country. We saw pictures of weapons being stored in schools, in backyards, etc in our own media -- in the open, folks. NOT HIDDEN. They were too numerous to secure given the anemic troop strength Rumsfeld sent in. Remember Gen. Shinseki suggested far more would be needed to do the job.
We saw the same decentralization of weapons and supplies storage in Vietnam. They weren't going to give our bombers convenient targets. Saddam used this same tactic.
It's not about finding weapons. It's about losing control over the massive inventories because Rumsfeld did NOT listen to his generals but merely replaced them with "yes" men and women looking to get their tickets punched to launch post-military careers.
If Rumsfeld and Cheney and Bush were evil-doers -- and they most certainly were -- they required a lot of helping hands to accomplish their true "missions."
We all remain complicit each day we do not stop them. I hate to engage in such polemics. But in this case, it is unfortunately true.
Another thing that bothers me is the obsessions with whether or not Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Since when is the possession of weapons a legitimate cause for invading a foreign country! The only way it would be legitimate is if said dictator was using them on us or another country, or maybe if we intercepted missiles aimed at us. Otherwise, so what! If we don't like other countries having WMD, then why don't we set the example and get rid of ours?
Thank you, Devin, for another excellent article. I do have to add to the list of shame the majority of the American people who let themselves get carried away with thoughts of revenge, of "shock and awe" instead of insisting that war remain the absolute last resort. If the American public had not supported the war in the beginning, it would not have happened.
My opinion is that we need to get our military out, but we need to spend as much or more on reconstruction as we are spending on the war effort. That's the lease we can do for the Iraqis. We need to give them anything they need and want. But we should hand everything over to them, including the Green Zone and the oil.
It speaks volumes that the President declared the mission "accomplished" in the face of escalating violence in Iraq, and in spite of the fact that the troop strength there was increasing steadily. He has shown a contempt for truth. and needlessly sacrifices both US soldiers and Iraqi citizens to his ego daily.
Lex...if the "mission" was "accomplished", why are we still there? Why are more people dying every day? If that's the definitionof accomplishment, I'd sure hate to see failure.
Don...we lost this thing long ago. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional.
We've left a muslim country in a state of war influenced by it's neighbors before. It's a country called Afghanistan. There was this guy, his name was Osama. He didn't like America. We know what happened with that "incident".
Devin What "high tech" equipment should he be poking into the hole?
We always said in the US Army "If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid" so why not a stick.
Lex Luther,
If the mission is accomplished, then why are we still there.
Don H.,
There is nothing to win or lose. The civil war in Iraq is not ours to win. Our point on the Left is that it doesn't matter how you see this conflict, it's just nor worth any more American lives.
Sharon,
I agree, impeachment is the best chance we have of stopping this insane killing off of our military.
ty phoon,
I'd also like to believe our troops aren't dying for nothing. Unfortunately, I see nothing in Iraq worth even one American soldiers life.
Daniel A.,
Your right about Afhganistan, but you forget, it was a Republican administration that presided over that little screw up. U.S. influence in the Middle East has always been seen as arrogant and misguided. The best thing we can do is declare war on our dependence on oil and leave the Arab world to themselves.
Charles M.,
The Army has been using remote control robots for years for this kind of high risk activity. Hell, most bigger police departments have them. If a soldier with a stick sets off a bomb, we lose a human life. If a robot sets off a bomb, we just buy a new robot... get it.
Great stuff everyone. I've said this before and I'll say it again. The action in Afhganistan was right and just, but the invasion of Iraq was not and can never be worth the price we've paid.
"Count me as delusional. "
We have for a long time, Donnie. A very long time.
As far as 2/3 of Iraq being "relatively" safe and stable goes. Well, maybe safe, but no way could you call it stable. Besides, who cares how safe some remote part of Iraq is. It's where our people are that concerns me. And they are right in the middle of a civil war and neither side wants us there.
Now we are coming up on 3400 dead Americans with no end in sight. I heard some general yammering on about how we need to give it more time. For what; all we are doing by staying is postponing the inevitable. These people obviously have a score to settle, and they are going to do just that whether we are there or not.
President Reagan knew to get the hell outta "Dodge" in Lebanon. Israelis got their collective arses kicked for trying to do there what Bush purports to be doing in Iraq. It's all too easy to get drawn into sectarian squabbles and end up killing one's allies in the country. Israeli soldiers were USED by unscrupulous actors to target their competitors. As a result, the Shi'a, who originally welcomed them, turned against them. They had to fight their way OUT through a wall of Shi'a in the South at great cost to themselves.
Now that's what our troops face each moment, each day they are in Iraq -- friend? or enemy? which? By the time one has made that decision, SOMETHING HAS ALREADY HAPPENED that cannot be reversed. Either that soldier reacted too slow and becomes a casualty him/herself, OR that soldier may have taken the life of an innocent.
How would you like to be put in such an uncertain state? Especially when the stakes are so desperately high.
Our military is NOT a police force -- I repeat, NOT A POLICE FORCE! They are trained to fight with real bullets while dodging real bullets.
And what was Bush's promise during the debates? He promised NOT to use our military as the world's police. Bush supporters, listen up. He broke his promise to you and to our military. Or he lied.
Senator Webb had it right. We won the war in 2003. There were no WMDs. And Saddam is gone. Time to end the occupation.
The War Resolution did not authorize an endless occupation. Time to end this nightmare Bush and his criminal pals have foisted upon our nation.
Thank you, Devin, for this article. I enjoyed reading all the replies as well. I don't feel so isolated with my thoughts today as I read all your comments.
World War II and Afhganistan were worth it because we had enemies who had directly attacked us. Korea, Viet Nam, and Iraq are NOT!!!!
Nice icon, it's you man.
I know, it drives me crazy when people compare the criminal activities of presidents like Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, and Both Bush's to heroic ones like Roosevelt.
I just wanted to say I am finally going through what is now under 6,400 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)
And I hope you have a Happy New Year... in 2009 :o)