Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Iraq & Afghanistan Iraq invasion was "successful endeavor": Cheney

"Mission Accomplished - Part II"?
Reuters

The scary part is not only are there people that listen to this crap, but they actually believe it!

From a strictly military point of view, the operations from 20 March - 10 April 2003 were successful; I do not think that is disputable.

However, it is the follow-on phase(s) - the so-called democratization, the nation-building - that have for the most part borne meager fruit.

Absolutely, Ron...as long as you define the mission as removing Saddam from power, then the U.S. military performed admirably, as expected. It's when you start throwing in nation-building, weapons of mass destruction, Al-Qaeda, "fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here", oil production, Iran, and every other distraction that the Bush administration has tacked-on to the original mission, that things turn into a stinking morass.

The real problem with this totally unnecessary war was that "mission creep" set in from virtually the moment that the statue of Saddam Hussein toppled - not to mention the frantic movement of the goalposts as one after another of the alleged rationales for the war proved baseless.

Even given that, we might have seen better results if the administration had heeded its field command's urgent requests for additional troops for the occupation.

Suck Cess

The war cannot be "ended" the day Saddam was captured--it continues today, and must--like all wars--be considered as a whole from the beginning of its conceptualization to long after it ends (i.e., as people are still dying in Vietnam from US ordinance, and still having deformed babies caused by the US usage of Agent Orange and other chemicals, that war still isn't over yet, no matter how much we in the US desire).

If you want to find out what some of the troops who fought in Iraq think, go to www.ivaw.org , and watch the panels from the March 13-16, 2008 "Winter Soldier" hearings at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD. If we say we "support the troops," then at least, we must listen to them when they speak.


Kim Scipes
Chicago
Former Sergeant, USMC (1969-73)

Thanks for your suggestion, Kim. We ran that story on our local weekly radio news show, one of twenty chosen because they are "underreported in the mainstream media". Why did the Iraq Winter Soldiers get less coverage than the auctioning of Britney Spears' TV wardrobe? Could it be because their stories demonstrate the hypocrisy of "supporting the troops" by ordering them to commit atrocities or else face a lifetime of humiliation if they refuse? of "supporting the troops" by refusing to take action to stop the "few bad apples" from maintaining the positions of power that perpetuates the flow of illegal orders?

Mr. Cheney is in many ways the archetypal "bad apple". With no experience of his own in either war or peace making, he began with a strident ideological position and then assembled a constellation of supporting data, to the exclusion of anything to the contrary, to further his destructive, ill-conceived agenda at any cost.

Look at the disaster that is Iraq today, and think about who has benefited from it, and you can understand what he means when he says it has been a success. Financially, corporations in the war-making industries have (pardon the expression) made a killing, even while other segments of the economy are slumping into something possibly worse than a recession. Has anyone noticed that Big Oil has been posting record profits, quarter after quarter? Put yourself in Mr. Cheney's shoes - isn't that "success"?

Look too on the ideological front. Mr. Cheney's stated ideological goal as Vice President was to concentrate power in the Executive. Has he succeeded? Has the debacle in Iraq helped him succeed?

Now look at who pays for this success, who suffers . . .

Stereoman wrote:


Thanks, Steroman, this was my sentiment when I saw this thread. From the Vice-President's perspective, what is not to like? He was able to help mastermind and preside over what conitinues to devolve into the greatest FUBAR -- both militarily and from an international political perspective -- in American History. This, at the expense of our young men and women in the military and their families, as well as all working Americans footing the bill, and of course, what's left of the nation and people of Iraq and the stability of the Middle East.

Let's face it, if this Administration is going to point to its "success" anywhere, they might just as well pick Iraq. What other "success" areas would they talk about -- Human Rights, the economy, health care? As you point out, oil profits (and prices) continue to escalate unabated. (Too bad we were never allowed to see the minutes from Cheney's Energy Policy Conference with the CEO's of big oil, as their plan is evidently working). The shamelessly thieving military contractors continue to thrive unmonitored. The economy is imploding, even as that pesky undertaxed top 1% of the population the GOP has worked so hard for doesn't appear to be letting the overflow trickle down to the rest of us. As the U.S. spends billions per month on the War in Iraq, Medicaid and education and many state and local programs needing federal support are being gutted.

It is now apparent that the decrease in violence over the last few months in Iraq had to do more with Muqtada al-Sadr's voluntary cease fire -- when he controlled his militias -- than any Surge or other U.S. strategy. Could it be that the Administration planned for the two to coincide so that their decisive action would appear to make the difference? Now the 150,00+ troops in Iraq will have to be maintained at that level just to keep a lid on the civil war and preserve al-Maliki's Green Zone-based puppet regime for how much longer?

The true success for Cheney and Bush and the rest of their ilk in this Administration is that they have been able to do all they have done without consequence or even much meaningful push back. In another place and time there might reasonably have been War Crimes Trials, Impeachment, Congressional rebellion and massive civil disobedience as obstacles to their success. But in the United States, the greatest Democracy in the history of the World, we have kept silent and obeyed, and even re-elected them, as if we thought they didn't really mean what they did in the first four years. As it is, all they have to do is keep addressing "Victory" and "Success" and how Iraq is "worth it" for a few months more and none but history will judge them for what they have done to us.