Tag: Iraq

Beware of the Warmongers Amongst Us

On By Norbert HauptIn Political, War1 Comment

The GOP candidates keep talking about how our military is “deflated” and insinuate that that’s the reason ISIS exists.

What nonsense. ISIS’ existence has many sources, but our lack of fighter planes, technology, aircraft carriers, ships, guns and ammunition, if there even were such a lack, has nothing at all to do with it.

ISIS exists because of policy decisions by Bush and Obama, not because of anything the military did or did not do, or could or could not do.

ISIS exists because Bush purposely and thoughtlessly invaded Iraq, destabilized a nation and toppled a dictator that we understand in retrospect held together the Middle East. ISIS exists because Obama pulled out the military, following the wishes of the majority of Americans. If he had not done that, many thousands more of American soldiers would now be dead. ISIS exists because Obama and Clinton destabilized Libya and helped topple Qaddafi. ISIS exists because Syria became a failed state.

The “solutions” the GOP candidates propose, if those can even be called solutions, are more gasoline on the fire, nothing else. After toppling several dictators, they want to topple another one, Assad. Cruz wants to carpet bomb “them” whoever “them” is. Trump wants to bomb them into oblivion. Rubio wants “more military.” Great stuff.

Let me say this:

If we had left Saddam Hussein alone in 2003, he would still be there, or his sons would be there, tyrannizing the Iraqi people, but the region would be “stable” and there would be no ISIS. Oil would be cheap. Thousands of American soldiers would not be dead, and tens of thousands of soldiers would not have lost arms and legs, and would not be suffering from PTSD. We would have two trillion dollars less debt – at least. We could have written checks for $6,250 instead to every one of the 320 million Americans, men, women, children and infants.

And rather than stopping all this insanity in other countries, our “leaders” want to do more of it.

This is all so wrong! Do we not see? Do we not learn?

We Need a Dictator in Iraq

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, War1 Comment

I don’t think any sensible person would disagree that the invasion of Iraq led to the massive level of instability we are seeing right now. I think that was one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern history of the United States.

— Bernie Sanders during the Debate

I agree that our decision to invade a strong country in the middle of the Middle East and completely removing its government, infrastructure and power structure created many vacuums on the political, religious, ideological and societal levels. Leaders of all types filled the vacuums, and it will take decades before things shake out and settle down.

I hate to say this, but Iraq needs a dictator. Unfortunately, guys like Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin and Mao don’t come around too often, so we’ll just have to wait until one emerges.

Perhaps we can send Dick Cheney to Iraq to fill that role? But it would have been so much cheaper to leave Saddam Hussein there!

National Hypocrisy – Crimea vs. Iraq

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries4 Comments

Russia invaded a sovereign nation’s territory and took it by force. A majority of the population in Crimea appear to be pro-Russian or of Russian origin. In their referendum, they voted to be Russians.

I recognize that Russia’s actions are in violation of international law and nobody but Russia and her friends like it.

However, how is this any different from what the United States did in 2003 when it invaded Iraq. We didn’t just take a piece of the country, we took the whole of it and broke it.

I agree, that we didn’t make it the 51st state of the United States, but when the bombs were flying over Baghdad, the Russians and the rest of the world didn’t know that. For all they knew, we were taking over the country and we didn’t ask for permission.

Well, we actually did ask for permission in front of the United Nations. We made Colin Powell compromise his entire political career by making him a stooge in this game of lies, by having him deliver an argument based on fabricated facts and wishful thinking.

So here is my point:

In 2003, the United States invaded a sovereign nation and made a mess of it, a mess that is still not anywhere near cleaned up.

In 2014, Russia invaded a sovereign nation, the Ukraine.

Is there really a difference? Talk me down!

John Kerry in Syria Hearings

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries, PoliticalLeave a comment

John Kerry in Syria Hearings
[credit abcnews.go.com]
John Kerry in September 2013 in the Syria hearings, making a case for war that the American public doesn’t want anything to do with.

Powell_Iraq Hearings
[credit Wikipedia]
Colin Powell in February 2003 making a case for a war in Iraq because he had undisputable evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Today we know Powell was lying.

I don’t think Kerry is lying, but the two pictures leave a very stale taste in my mouth.

In either picture, a person I had a lot of respect for is busy selling a bill of goods to the American people.