What we are watching transpire in Iraq may be the greatest horror story of our generation. Mass executions by the radical Sunni ISIS organization (photo above); murder and bombs in the street through out the nation; armed Shiite civilian militia; the likelihood of Iran and the US being drawn back into the chaos; the potential destabilization of the entire region - beyond what it was already.
And why? Well, if I were to focus only on the religious aspects, I could place the blame entirely at the feet of the two Islamic sects who have been at each others throats for centuries. But that wouldn't be the whole story... not by a long shot. Before we overthrew Saddam in a trumped up phoney threat of non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" there was no sectarian violence in Iraq. Saddam used an iron fist to keep that seething hatred under control averting civil war.
No ... as much as I'd like religion alone to bear the blame, the fact is the mega portion of blame rests squarely on George W. Bush, his puppeteer Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and an administration of chicken hawks who never fired a shot in anger, never felt the sting of battle, never feared sudden death every day for a year or two at a time - they own the horror past, present, and still to come. They duped a majority of the American people, myself included, and for that I'll always feel responsibility for some of the blame.
George W. "God told me to liberate Iraq" Bush has the corpses, blood and lost limbs of thousands of Americans and untold tens of thousands of Iraqis on his filthy paws, never mind $2 trillion in US treasure down the toilet...enough money to send every US kid to a public university for free.
And now, Phase Two of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" fiasco: chaos that will at best end up in a blood bath with a radical terrorist Muslim theocracy as a result, or partition of the nation; and at worst an extended conflict that will draw in Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other neighboring nations... jeopardizing their more or less secular governance. Nothing good will come of this. This will be Bush's legacy.
Indeed, still not satisfied with our useless sacrifices, already you can hear the loudest drum beat for war from the GOP, especially from chicken hawks like Lindsay Graham, and the man who never met a war he didn't like: John McCain. We never learn.
To a degree maybe religion is all to blame, after all, it was the voice of an imaginary god thing echoing in Bush's empty skull that he claims provoked this tragic farce. A biblical pox on George "God spoke to me" Bush - his father, his family, and his ancestors for the next ten generations. Damnable piece of human flotsam.
The only silver lining (and very tarnished one) is that maybe, just maybe the USA and Iran may end up with a more normalized relationship due to both mutual country's concerns (and that of Europe and Russia and China as well) of preventing the Middle East from becoming an all out conflagration, the spark being the Syrian and now Iraqi civil war...
ReplyDelete- Fastthumbs
I am from the UK and carry shame that my country was thrust into this disgraceful action, against the wish of the majority of my countries population, by the 'born again' war criminal Blare (I'm sure his god has absolved him with a few hail Mary's). To see the aftermath is incredibly sad for the people of Iraq and the middle east.
ReplyDeleteOh, I see. So before Bush came along, these loonies just loved the US, and everyone else that's not Muslim, and everything was hunky dory. Yep, it's all Bush's fault, and somewhere, there's a racist involved as well. Pffft.. I sure would love to see folks with anti-religion websites stick to religion, and stop making it a political thing.
ReplyDelete...but of course, it's now 2014... so... It's Obama's fault.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could think of ONE possible means to clean this mess up and provide peace for that region. But it's not looking good. Not at all.
-TT
Nunya,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your stunted non-think.
Iraq under Saddam was a dictatorship. His treatment of the Shiite was abysmal, similar perhaps to how the white race treated blacks in the 50's, or Christians treated Jews. Somethning less than ideal.
But Iraq launched no attacks at the US; there is no evidence they harbored terrorists; they were opposed to Al Qaeda; and mass slaughter of Americans or of Iraqis was unknown. The country was at least stable if not a paradise of freedom and democracy.
That your blood lust and need to justify US action overshadows your intellect and reason speaks volumes of your party affiliation and your blindness to their transgression and misleading of the American people. And it is grotesque.
I wish people with limited intellectual honesty would stick to watching FOX news, instead of my blog.
PS: TO Nunya,
ReplyDeleteI don't know where or how you came to this accusation of racism any where in the article... but I'll assume you share the same affliction as Bush, and were listening to voices in your head.
Said everything I would have liked to say. I do wonder why the majority of the American people have not seen these lies and put Bush on trial.
ReplyDeleteSince writing this article I saw Bill O'Reilly (of all people)has come out and blamed Bush for the nightmare we are watching unfold.
ReplyDeleteIf we were a more activist society, and one where partisan politics didn't dictate the rules, we'd be out in the streets and in the halls of Congress demanding the heads of the "gang of three" who perpetrated the lie.
They would have all been hung by now.
Damn, Hump! I am ROFL at the "listening to voices in your head" rebuttal!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing this. And I can't help but think of how rapture-loving-fundamentatlists are probably positively giddy about the new developments. Every time they smell a down wind fart coming from the Middle East they start praising Jeebus and planning for the rapture. I'm sure someone is holy rolling and speaking gibberish as I type this.
Removing Sadam created a massive power vacuum. I was one of the anti-war peeps back in 03. Still am. I was unconvinced by the legitimacy of the dossier and I still am of the conviction that we are only there because they have something that the west want. There were plenty of other horrible regimes but those which pose a credible threat to the West have nothing we deem of sufficient mercantile value to go to war. Instead the PtB decided to go for one they thought would be either too weak to fight back or would welcome western troops and let us rule them (wrong on both counts). It was imperialism plain and simple. Bush wanted to finish what daddy started, and Blair went along hoping for a cut and that we would not notice.
ReplyDeleteRandom,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more.
Hump, you are so right "race" played no part in the point you made, though it could have been taken as a factor in the argument. Some of the strongest supporters of the wars have been christian fascist who are ideological kinsmen with racist politicians and right-wing activist that make policy decisions on war and peace in our country, they single out the Arabs like the neo-confederate racist singles out the blacks.
ReplyDeleteAs a former soldier I am horrified
to see the totalitarians who attacked us
are now poised to claim victory, intervention did not work, it never does. From Baghdad to Damascus to Palestine and now Ukraine the lies and carnage continues.All this because George W. Bush's 'god' told him to do it.
Saw an interesting quote that made me think of this blog. "Talking to god is crazy. Hearing god is schizophrenia. Acting on it is insanity." ... Robert Patterson
ReplyDelete