>> Iraq was an unnecessary war that won us nothing but debt.
Yeah, well, that's your opinion, to which you are entitled.
The reality is that it was going to happen and it was far better than it happen under a GWB than it would have been under an Obama or Clinton. The no-fly zones had become an untenable proposition, creating more disruption in the ME than the problems they were solving; yet, to have walked away from them would have been even more problematic.
And of course, there were the WMDs. Right. They weren't found. But everyone on Earth believed they would be and that bluff was sufficient to allow the US and other nations around the world to be led around by their noses. It is a fact that the Arab Spring (which Obama has basically squandered, beginning with his abject incompetence in the Iranian uprising and continuing until this day) was an outgrowth, at least in part, of the Iraq War. A more competent president might well have made something of it; but we elected the wrong guy in 2008.
The following quote is from Bill Clinton in his speech on January 28, 2008:
“Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade and much of his nation’s wealth not on providing for the Iraqi people but on developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them….I know I speak for everyone in this chamber, Republicans and Democrats, when I say to Saddam Hussein, “You cannot defy the will of the world,” and when I say to him, “You have used weapons of mass destruction before. We are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again.”
The big question is why did Clinton not act then and there? He should have, but apparently had other, more important things going on in the Oval Office.
In short, you can believe what you wish, but the reality is that the Iraq War had been determined by Bush's predecessor to be a threat. He was determined by the Bush administration itself to be one. And by practically every world leader.
And Obama should thank his lucky stars Bush removed Saddam, else, his little incursion into Libya would not have been remotely possible because of the threat, real or perceived, of Libyan weapons systems.
As to debt, I really don't believe money is a sensible discussion in the context of war; you spend whatever it takes once you have decide there are national security interests at stake. However, there is little doubt that the trillion dollars we spent in these wars was more stimulative than the Obama Stimulus was. Not that it matters. |
