Discussion: Obama: US Will Send Help To Beleaguered Iraq

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Discussion for article #223900

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You mean that the Trillion Dollar War that cost Iraq hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of displaced persons was stupid, immoral and unwinnable. Chaney, Bush and Rumdumb, the greatest Republican minds of the time, got us into two Wars. These wars destroyed the minds and bodies and lives of tens of thousands (if not hundred of thousands) of active American soldiers. Can we learn a lesson here? Are we smart enough to cut the military budget for defense not empire building? When are we going to deal with our heating planet? How about our dying ocean? How about the American gun wars playing out on our streets? Political corruption run rampid on every level.

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I suspect we will turn our attention to our dying planet and ocean when they can no longer be ignored. We don’t care about the guns on the streets because those with influence don’t live there. Political corruption…well, the money is good, isn’t it, and let the rubes complain while we feed them partisan poison.

Still…perhaps we should take a brief and temporary parallel trip along our self destructive course to help the Iraqis defend themselves from the worse kind of oppression humanity comes up with. It’s the least we can do, since the least is all we ever do to fix our messes.

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“The U.S. already is flying unmanned aircraft over Iraq for intelligence purposes, an official said.”

Really? If we are spending money to fly drones for intelligence purposes, what are we getting in return for our investment? What good are the spy drones doing us if a massive insurgency, bordering on all out civil war comes as a total surprise? Did these ISIS guys just pop up out of the dirt and take over?

C’mon…

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What’s wrong with letting the Iraqis settle this by themselves? And if they want a Caliphate let them have it.

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It’s been over 5 years since Bush left office. If we still, today, had 10% unemployment and a recession happening, would that be Bush’s fault? Technically, I suppose so, since he engineered the original recession. Realistically, no.

I remember in 2004, a common shibboleth was, “whoever beats Bush in 2004 will get blamed for the coming disaster in Iraq.” Certainly, the illegal invasion of Iraq, the incompetent occupation, and all that flows from them, are his fault. But Bush did leave office over 5 years ago. If ISIS takes over Iraq, it will justifiably be considered Obama’s failure. Bush managed to limp to the end of his 2nd term without ‘losing’ Iraq. Hopefully, Obama will be able to match that achievement.

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They popped out of the Syrian dirt. They’re the guys McCain was screaming at Obama to send weapons to.

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Bush’s Iraq war was won quickly and easily, far more easily than anybody imagined it could be. His occupation was a complete clusterf**k, partly because after all, his ideology opposed “nation-building” and assumed government can’t do anything right. Naturally, it was just Bush who couldn’t do anything right. Can you imagine if the Allies after WWII had told all former Nazi party members and Wehrmacht soldiers that they could not hold any jobs, but, oh, here are your rifles and guns and ammunition to take home with you?