Iraq War focus for Lincoln Chafee campaign launch

[struggle4progress]

By Dan Merica, CNN
Updated 6:14 PM ET, Wed June 3, 2015

Washington (CNN)Lincoln Chafee formally announced his presidential bid on Wednesday.

He has been elected to office as a Republican senator and an Independent governor. Now he's got his sights set on the White House as a Democrat.

"I enjoy challenges and certainly we have many facing America. Today, I am formally entering the race for the Democratic nomination for president," he said.

A defining issue for Chafee has been the war in Iraq; he was the lone Republican to vote against authorizing the war as a senator in 2003. Hillary Clinton was among the Democrats to vote in favor of giving President George W. Bush the authority to invade ...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/03/politics/lincoln-chafee-2016-election-announcement/

[Thinkingabout]

1. I would think a presidental candidate would be thinking about the future and not dwelling on events

which have already occurred and talking about his plan for the future. Talking about the Iraqi invasion does not raise the wages or provide jobs.

[think]

2. The Iraq war is not some small thing that can just be glossed over.

All the GOP neocons running for president still consider it a justifiable war & are more than ready to send troops back to Iraq in perpetuity so the Iraq war is still very relevant.

The military spending in the US is insane and so is our constant war mongering policies.

While the rest of the modern world spends money on universal healthcare and infrastructure, America pours it's money down the military industrial waste hole.

The US military may get a $90 billion dollar slush fund this year. $90 billion to be used without any need to state what the money will be used for.

We are involved in wars all over the middle east currently. And there is a very high probability that American boots will be on the ground there in significant numbers again if these neocon get their way.

So yes, the Iraq war, the current wars, and military spending are very worthy of discussion still....

[Thinkingabout]

3. The invasion happened, the Middle East is in turmoil, just how is dwelling on the invasion going

to work tomorrow in trying to quell the turmoil? Answers will be needed for the next president, standing up and talking about the invasion is not answers we need to hear from candidates. We know the invasion was wrong, now what is the next step and the next step can not be glossed over along with other issues facing the US.

[Thinkingabout]

4. BTW, I looked at Chafee stand on the issues, there are a lot of issues important to the DNC platform

in which he has been on the wrong side. He is rated as a moderate liberal, very close to a moderate.

[think]

5. He's not my choice but I think it's good he's using the context of the Iraw war to point out

the failed policies of the neocons.

No one else is taking Bush & Cheney to task for this abomination of justice and it's good that Chafee is stepping up to call them out on their bullshit about the war.

[Thinkingabout]

6. So if you think this is going to show the failures of the past administrations, just how do you

think the task for this abomination is handled?

[think]

7. The past failures are representative of what the GOP is offering for America's future.

The GOP & Dem hawks constant funding of wars need to be STOPPED and the outrageous military spending REIGNED in!

We need to be spending money on America's infrastructure, education system, and social programs not wars.


That's the solution to the previous and ongoing abomination called America's FAILED middle east foreign policy of non stop WAR.

It's time to have the UN and other countries in the region take on these matters. The UN never approved the Iraq war and look where we are at.

The military spending is a HUGE a reason we have no money for infrastructure and social programs. Let alone the costs and implications of sending Americans into war and dealing with the negative social consequences of being in the midst of hell on earth; WAR.

I applaud Lincoln Chafee for calling out the fallacy of these wars and the utter futility of the money America is spending
to fuel the war machine.

The corporations are the ones that benefit from all this war. Not the American people. Transnational corporations and their profits are well protected while they pay third world workers slave wages, pollute their lands and make enormous profits while doing so.

War is STILL a Racket. It only benefits the multi national corporations. Many of whose business practices in other countries are morally & ethically reprehensible. It benefits the corporations that sell military supplies and services handsomely as well. The American people get the suffering and bare both the financial and the social costs of this perpetual war for profits scenario.

So either we talk about the damn wars or we bury our heads in the sand while we continue to pay trillions for bogus wars & watch our infrastructure and social institutions fail while we send another generation of Americans into to battle so the corporate world can continue to profit from it all.

The corporations if nothing else should be paying their fair share of taxes for all that this country did and is doing by entering into these wars and outspending the entire frigging world on the American people's military to make it a profitable world for them to exploit....

[Thinkingabout]

8. I get it you are not in favor of wars, I don't like wars either, I also understand the need to take

a stand. Yes Iraq was wrong, we know this, but complaining about this over and over is not doing ANYTHING to correct the
problems we are facing today. I would think any politician would admit Iraq was wrong except for Cheney and Bush but they know it was wrong. It is a dead song, the only attention he received from me on making this statement is how long is he going to be stuck in the mud.

[think]

9. The GOP is STILL saying the Iraq war was justified. IT WAS NOT. Americans are STILL being LIED to.

When 7 out of 10 Americans thought Saddam Hussein was involved with 9/11 it's obvious Americans will BELIEVE anything.

You may know the IRAQ war was not only wrong but a complete travesty and stain on America but that doesn't stop the GOP from trying to make it sound like it was a GOOD WAR.

We are basically still in that war and it is still costing us in American lives and billions in tax dollars!

It is not over! And you are not addressing the current military spending because of this war!

It's shameful that people act like one of Americans worst foreign policy catastrophes is just a speed bump in history and is not the ROOT of what is happening in the middle east.

And yes CONTEXT matters! Calling out the ROOT has not been done in great detail so many Americans especially Republicans think the Iraq war was justified.

The Iraq war will NEVER be justified and it will forever be a stain on America....

[Thinkingabout]

10. Even Jeb Bush has said if he would not have invaded, whether they all run

Out and give their opinion we know Bush removed the inspectors before the inspection was completed and invaded and he did not exhaust all avenues as the IWR said he should do. Now we are dealing with ISIS, tho is where a candidate should be addressing.

[think]

11. Jeb Bush is STILL lying about the fundamental truths of that war. How can you accept that?

Far from facing the truth, the US is telling new lies about Iraq

~Snip~

The point here is not to relitigate the war. The verdict on that front is clear by the number of those who once endorsed it and now disclaim it. The point is to reclaim the truth of the past in the hope of a better and more honest future. If those who lied us into the war can lie us out of it too, then we are no better equipped to stop them the next time.

Jeb’s mistake is that he picked the wrong lie. It’s simply not true that “almost everybody” who saw the intelligence backed the war – 133 representatives and 23 senators opposed it. Nonetheless, his rationale – worthy of any hapless teenager – that he would have done it because everybody else was doing it has more integrity than most.

~Snip~

The falsehood peddled by most of Jeb’s critics amounts to this: “I wouldn’t support it now because now we know the intelligence was faulty. But there’s no way we could have known that then.” Or as New York Times columnist David Brooks, one of the most eminent stenographers for American state power, put it: “To erase mistakes from the past is to obliterate your world now. You can’t go back and know then what you know now.”

The trouble with this is that we did know then. The world knew, which is why majorities in almost every other country opposed it. The United Nations was trying to acquire proof one way or another but was not allowed to finish the job. Politicians were not, in fact, led to war by faulty intelligence; they deliberately commissioned the intelligence that would enable them to go to war.

Read more:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/25/iraq-invasion-america-war-jeb-bush-us-election

And the same people who lied about the Iraq war are his advisers:

The Same People Who Lied To You About Iraq Are Now In Charge Of Jeb Bush’s Foreign Policy

BY IGOR VOLSKY POSTED ON FEBRUARY 18, 2015 AT 11:28 AM

~Snip~

“[M]y views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences,” Bush will say as he lays out a vision that calls for increased military spending in order to project strength and encourage peace worldwide.

“Having a military that is equal to any threat is not only essential for the commander in chief … it also makes it less likely that we will need to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way,” he will say. “Because I believe, fundamentally, that weakness invites war … and strength encourages peace.”

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/02/18/3624114/people-lied-iraq-now-charge-jeb-bushs-foreign-policy/

The GOP wanted that war since the early 90's and they want it to continue NOW.

Without CONTEXT the current debate about our wasteful military spending and failed foreign policy will just continue to promote war in those countries. ISIS is a direct result of our DIRTY war. What we do now should be done in consideration of what caused it to come about.

Perpetual American war mongering is still at the heart of the matter.

We are actively involved in wars in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, & other countries due to these past failures that we aren't taking responsibility for. Sweeping them under the rug does nothing but perpetuate the wrong policies now....