Panetta: Iraq War Was “Worth It”

[Purveyor]

A day after visiting Iraq, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to reporters in Turkey on Saturday and said this, according to the DoD’s own site:

“There is no question that the United States was divided going into that war,” he said. “But I think the United States is united coming out of that war. We all recognize the tremendous price that has been paid in lives, in blood. And yet I think we also recognize that those lives were not lost in vain. . . .

“As difficult as [the Iraq war] was,” and the cost in both American and Iraqi lives, “I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world,” he added.

The “price” that Panetta believes is “worth it” includes dead civilians in the hundreds of thousands, countless more maimed, millions of Iraqis internally and externally displaced (a huge number who remain so), tens of thousands of American soldiers killed and/or injured, and at least $1 trillion spent, contributing to “austerity” so severe that Panetta himself has been urging cuts to core social programs. That is above and beyond future Saddam-like oppression, tyranny and sectarian strife under the Malaki regime. As the always-insightful military historian and former Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich put it this week: “Recalling that Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al-Qaeda both turned out to be all but non-existent, a Churchillian verdict on the war might read thusly: Seldom in the course of human history have so many sacrificed so dearly to achieve so little.”

MORE...

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/19/panetta_iraq_war_was_worth_it/singleton/

[eridani]

1. Disgusting! n/t

[teddy51]

2. Hard to decide what isle this guy is in, but with a statement like that he certainly is not with the

majority of American people. I doubt that you would get agreement from many people on the Iraq war being worth it.

[Demeter]

3. If that's a joke, it isn't funny

If it isn't a joke, it's a war crime and/or treason.

[kenny blankenship]

4. Good to the Last Drop!

What other sound investments can he steer us into?

[Magoo48]

5. Horseshit

[Cali_Democrat]

6. BULLSHIT!!!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. About as "worth it" as Vietnam or Afghanistan.

What a pathetic piece of history rewriting Panetta is indulging in.

[spanone]

8. tell that to the soldiers that died or lost limbs...tell that to them, leon.

oh and the dead iraqis too...men, women, children.

WMD.

[jakeXT]

9. The question is, what was the goal

If it's something like this, I see the possibilty of it growing.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Peters

[Angry Dragon]

10. This must be an Onion piece that Panetta wrote..............

[coalition_unwilling]

11. Just when I was reconciling myself to holding my nose and voting

for Obama in 2012, his Defense Secretary makes one of the more idiotic statements about the war. Oh, I'm still voting for Obama but this statement really asks a lot of the American and Iraqi peoples.

Does Panetta think we're all stupid? WTF?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. It was Obama's opposition to the war contrasted with Hillary Clinton's ambivalence to it

that got him elected. Under those circumstances, I don't see how Obama could tolerate this statement, especially coming from his Secretary of Defense.

[Maven]

13. Another wonderful Obama appointee!

[Pigheaded]

14. Fucking douche

[krucial]

15. Worth it?

It depends on who you are what the reality of the Iraq war is.
If you are the Pentagon,the Mlitary Industrial complex and defense contractors,and all who are invested in war,defense,and military stocks,all war is Good,and any war is worth it.

But if you are the innocent Iraqis,and many of our troops, both dead and injured, who was lied to about the reason for the war,then it is and has been a failure,a big mistake,destructfull and tragic,and not only that but has put us on the path to perpetual wars,and threats of even more wars,like the same players of the WMD scam,are gaming us again to start another war on Iranhave led to the erosion of our privacy and rights,and whats left of our democracy,and has turned us into becoming a police state and on the road to Fascism

[and-justice-for-all]

16. Bullshit..nt

[Va Lefty]

17. and the coming war with Iran will be worth it and the next war and the next war...

more $$$ for: General Dynamics, Halliburton Corporation, Northrop Grumman, Boeing Company etc. etc. Excuse me now, I need to vomit

[kenny blankenship]

19. And they'll all be sold with the line "War with ( ___ ) will pay for itself!"

and of course the perennial, "We'll be greeted as liberators, and met with flowers and choirs of singing children."

[TheKentuckian]

18. Fire and replace with a non-fuckwit, please.

[Turbineguy]

20. This must be

an entirely new definition of "it".

[T S Justly]

21. Ah gee ...

What a jerk-off.

[GOTV]

22. Wasn't the Saddam government "stable" until we attacked?

[msongs]

23. this is the guy that runs the military...does his boss think the war was "worth it"? nt

[L0oniX]

24. What a fucking idiot!

[knocklindquist]

25. It was worth it

We made a tremendously positive difference in country, the region, and the world.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. Enjoy the ride

[provis99]

26. Panetta the war criminal trying to justify himself.

he's as bad as Kissinger.

[DCKit]

28. Great Job Leon!

Try to play politics with the illegal invasion of Iraq, and you come off as completely out of touch, devoid of emotion and empathy.

You're not making me feel comfortable with your position as DEFENSE SEC.