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grahamhgreen

(15,741 posts)
Tue Nov 11, 2014, 12:48 AM Nov 2014

U.S. has Invaded and/or Bombed 14 Muslim Countries Since 1980 [View all]

I guess cuz 13 is just, well... Unlucky!

http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/us-has-invaded-andor-bombed-14-muslim-countries-since-1980-141110?news=854775


Subsequent events have taken the American military force into Libya (1981, 1986, 1989, 2011), Lebanon (1983), Kuwait (1991), Iraq (1991-2011, 2014-), Somalia (1992-1993, 2007-), Bosnia (1995), Saudi Arabia (1991, 1996), Afghanistan (1998, 2001-), Sudan (1998), Kosovo (1999), Yemen (2000, 2002-), Pakistan (2004-) and now Syria.

Few of these adventures have ended well, starting with the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 299 Marines and French servicemen, through Libya, which has descended into chaos since the U.S. intervened there in 2011 and now in Iraq and Syria, where the war begun by President George W. Bush for the stated purpose of finding (ultimately non-existent) weapons of mass destruction has spawned the Islamic State’s capture of vast amounts of territory in those countries.

“Want to measure what America’s war for the Middle East has accomplished through its first 13 iterations? The Islamic State has to rank prominently on any list of achievements,” Bacevich wrote. “If Iraq possessed minimally effective security forces, Islamic State militants wouldn’t have a chance. But the Iraqi army we created won’t fight, in considerable measure because the Iraqi government we created doesn’t govern.”

And now, how will Obama’s requested use of force end? Probably not well, according to Bacevich. “Obama’s bet—the same bet made by each of his predecessors, going back to Carter—is that the skillful application of U.S. military might can somehow provide a way out of this dilemma. They were wrong, and so is he.”
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