Iraq wasn’t a just mistake; it was a distortion of facts
Of course it was a mistake. It's the gentlest among many applicable words, but that simple question about invading Iraq flummoxes every Republican presidential candidate. Even with different framing, “knowing what we know now” versus the less hypothetical “was it a mistake,” they resort to nervous babbling. For obvious reasons.
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When Sen. Marco Rubio said, in response to what passes for tough questioning on Fox “news,” that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein, he wasn't asked to elaborate. Given the unending chaos in the region that has resulted, and Fox's complicit pre-invasion cheerleading, it's unsurprising. But that's not the most central point. The real point is that even if he ceded presidential decisions to Dick Cheney, George Bush must have known the reasons he gave to justify the invasion were questionable. Because they'd been questioned! Mobile weapons labs. Yellowcake. Aluminum tubes. Reconstituted nuclear weapons program. Actual WMD. To every one of his claims there were coetaneous counterclaims from credible sources. And let's remember: No matter what might have been believed, inspectors were there, finding nothing. Cheney/Bush dismissed their reports. This wasn't intelligence “failure.” This was intelligence distortion.
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Think about it: Every prediction that preceded the invasion turned out to be wrong. Pay for itself. Greeted as liberators. Shiites and Sunni living in perfect harmony. The war will last mere weeks. Democracy will spread like honey on a crumpet. After rightly putting the number of troops required way higher than planners were claiming, Eric Shinseki was fired. Even if those claims were made in good faith, what does it say about Cheney and Bush that they chose such clueless advisers; not to mention the fact that they shut down those who disagreed? Calling the invasion a mistake is far too generous. “What we know now” was known then, but the facts didn't square with their unstoppable and delusional plan, and were shoved aside. They must have figured the results would be so mission-accomplished flight-suit glorious that we'd excuse their falsehoods. Maybe worst of all was the coordinated nonstop mushroom cloud of calculated scare tactics and deliberate divisiveness: You're with us or you're with the terrorists. This was cynical manipulation in the extreme.
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http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20150527/OPINION04/150529399
