Republicans Want You to Forget Why Sending Troops Back to Iraq Is a Terrible Idea

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bob-burnett/62435/republicans-want-you-to-forget-why-sending-troops-back-to-iraq-is-a-terrible-idea

Republicans Want You to Forget Why Sending Troops Back to Iraq Is a Terrible Idea
by Bob Burnett | May 29, 2015 - 8:55am

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1. The Iraq War was a ghastly mistake.

Most political observers now believe the March 20, 2003, invasion of Iraq was the worst foreign policy decision in U.S. history.

~snip~

2. The Iraq War cost $4 trillion plus.

The Bush Administration vastly underestimated the cost of the invasion. On September 16, 2002, White House adviser Lawrence Lindsey estimated an Iraq War would cost $200 billion. (On July 2, 2002, White House adviser Richard Perle observed, "Iraq is a very wealthy country [with] enormous oil reserves. They can finance... reconstruction of their own country.&quot On November 8, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld predicted the length of an Iraq War: "Five days or five weeks or five months. It certainly isn't going to last any longer than that."

~snip~

3. The Iraq war was mismanaged.

It's no secret that George W. Bush was a failed businessman. In the 2000 campaign, Republicans attempted to shield Dubya by claiming he would be surrounded by seasoned managers, such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. But the reality is that Cheney and Rumsfeld were also failed managers, who made a series of awful decisions.

~snip~

4. A bad U.S. management team installed a bad Iraqi management team. Following the dissolution of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. installed a Shiite, Nouri al-Maliki, as prime minister (who served from 2006-2014). Al-Maliki, a Shiite, systematically repressed the already repressed Sunnis. He, in effect, spawned ISIS.