The mainstream press NEVER remind Americans that there was once a time when 60% of US supported Bush 43s invasion of Iraq, that the lead Democrat Senators like Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden gave hard-core, rousing speeches on the Senate floor in support of the war, that WMD was only one of MANY reasons we were going to invest American blood and treasure to remove the sadistic Saddam Hussein. Victor Davis Hanson remembers all these, and a LOT more. Hes also very critical of Obamas handling of the entire middle east situation, or shall we say, his mishandling of it. Bush, the supposed war criminal, sacrificed his presidency to ensure that American bombing did not lead to a Mogadishu-like situation in Iraq. He ordered the surge, after warning what would happen if he did not — and what did, in fact, happen under Obama. The problem with Obama in the Middle East is that he still does not know exactly whom he is hurting and whom he is helping with his bombing — and cannot know under a policy of blowing things up from the air and after a while leaving. He has no intention of cleaning up or sorting out the mess on the ground that such bombing aggravates, and he has no worry that either a popular or a media audit will ensue. ... In sum, the only legitimate critique of George W. Bush’s Iraq War is that the lives and treasure lost in the chaotic occupation of 2003–06 were not worth the removal of the monstrous Saddam Hussein and the ensuing establishment of a stable, consensual state in Iraq. And the only legitimate defense of Obama’s subsequent policy in the region is that, while he is bombing all sorts of groups in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, has abdicated leadership in a way that has led to mass killing and destruction in the region, has no plans to help craft postwar consensual governments, and does not quite know who his enemies are or what they are planning, he so far has not lost American lives in the process — at least until the ascendant Islamic State flexes its global muscles. Click through for more...
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 14:42:27 +0000