Ten years ago this week, the US and the UK and the “coalition of the willing” launched massive air attacks and a ground invasion of Iraq, which led to the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein.
That was the easy part. Decisions made in the weeks before and after the invasion—including the firing of 50,000 Iraqi civil servants and the dismissal of the entire Iraqi army by the supremely incompetent Paul Bremer—led to an insurgency and chaos that derailed the Bush Administation’s democracy-building project in the Middle East.
When General Eric Shinseki warned that a successful invasion and occupation would take hundreds of thousands of US troops (as the first Gulf War did), he was hooted down and cashiered. When economic adviser Larry Lindsey averred that the war could cost $200 billion, he was kicked out of the White House.
Instead of the two weeks neocon warhawk Bill Kristol predicted it would take, the war lasted 8 ½ years. A study by two Brown University professors estimates it claimed 190,000 lives, including 134,000 Iraqi civilians and 4,488 US servicemen and women, and ultimately will cost American taxpayers at least $2.2 trillion.
But the damage goes much, much deeper—to the wounded warriors who have to relearn the very basics of life, to servicemen and women whose psyches were irredeemably shattered, to children who will have to fill their empty hearts with fading images of the mothers or fathers they will never know.
And on a macro scale, the colossal failures of President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the multitude of toadies and cheerleaders who egged them on did more than anyone else to undermine this country’s position in the world.
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney interviewed for a Showtime documentary. © Showtime/”The World According to Dick Cheney.”
At the beginning of the 2000s, the US had won the first Gulf War, ended the Cold War, and imposed peace in Bosnia and Kosovo. The French called us the “hyperpower.” But the embarrassing ineptitude and overweening arrogance with which the Bush Administration planned and managed the Iraq war shattered that image and destroyed our credibility.
And though other countries may have feared President Bush, they never respected him again. That, and the intentional looting of the budget surplus Bill Clinton left him—yes, intentional, you can look up his speeches on the subject—make him the most catastrophic US president of the last 50 years.
This week, a revealing documentary is airing on Showtime. Made by R.J. Cutler, it’s called “The World According to Dick Cheney.” In it, the vice president, Rumsfeld, and others speak about September 11th, Iraq, and the multitude of consequences it had—the expansion of warrantless wiretaps, secret prisons abroad, renditions from other countries, the “enhanced interrogation” (i.e., torture) exposed at Abu Ghraib, and other major assaults on our liberty.
Amazingly, none of the principals—Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al—showed one whit of remorse or regret. (Nor, for that matter, has former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.) “If I had to do it over again, I’d do it in a minute,” said Cheney.
And as I’ve written here many times, Republican neocons have yet to own up to the disaster they created. Why? Because it would probably cost them lucrative editorial jobs and prestigious perches at think tanks.
Veterans and Iraqi civilians don’t have that luxury, of course. They’re still suffering the consequences of the decisions these leaders made—or they’re beyond suffering. Our country has yet to recover, too.
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Excellent summary of where the USA is after Iraq.
Unfortunately the significant and combat weary leaders of the past (George Marshall, Eisenhower) were replaced by descendants of the same class, but without their world view or understanding.
The new group seems to not follow one of the eleven lessons from the life of Robert McNamara, as detailed in “The Fog of War,” and that is “Empathize with your enemy,” so you can understand their point of view.
Instead the latest American leaders lead from a position that “military might makes right” and push the lapdog media to pull the population in line, at least during the run up of war.
And possibly this is fully to be expected.
Per Wikipedia, one of the pioneers of public relations, Edward Bernays, who was influential in promoting the idea that America’s World War I efforts were primarily aimed at “bringing democracy to all of Europe”
was “stunned by the degree to which the democracy slogan had swayed the public both at home and abroad.”
However, some have suggested the USA pushed to enter WWI because the USA’s large banks had extended many loans to France and Great Britain to buy armaments and would not be paid back if the Germans won the war.
And 90 years later, George W. Bush and crew, and prominent media people such as the NYTimes’ Tom Friedman, recycled the WWI “bringing democracy” theme to the Middle East via the Iraq war.
Why this country of 300+million people had to dive into the Bush family genetic well and elevate George W. Bush to two presidential terms is still astonishing to me.
The USA was able to find better quality leaders when the population was 2.5 million (1776).
Amen, John, to both points. I liked the quote from Bernays, though I would suspect it\’s harder to bring democracy to the Middle East now than in Europe during WWI. And the US was blessed at its founding by political geniuses like Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams. Franklin, et al and by a truly great leader in George Washington. Who today could match up to even the second tier of those founsing fathers–George Mason, John Jay, etc.?
Of what good is it to write your wonderful article…?
The problem is that the American people do not have the mechanism by which they can stop an illiterate administrations like the Bush- and others to follow, for sure. They do not have the mechanism to stop those war and money hungry bastards from bigining senseless assaults on nations and dictators that WE put in power to begin with…..
The absurd is getting more absurd as time goes on and the US citizens winds up paying for all those errors..!
There must be a way to bring elected officials to account for their wrong doings, as a way to deter future elected official, or we as a nation will go the way of other empires: down the drain
Why does someone’s comment has to be approved b/f posting…???? Isn’t that a form of censorship by Independentagenda??
If censorship is not acceptable from Govt., then WHY should it be acceptable from independentagenda…?
what is your agenda and WHO IS BEHIND YOU…???? Come out in the open and clean about who you are b/c you are behaving like the ones you are putting down…!!!
IntenseDebate\’s monitoring system filters out spam, I review and check spelling, etc., and I won\’t allow racial and ethnic slurs, etc. Other than that, it\’s fair game.
Thanks
HG