Greetings!
It was just over a year ago, in April of 2013, that ISIS officially announced its existence. Just over a year! We’ve spent the last three months of this year watching them sweep through Iraq, destroying the sham borders drawn after WWI and crushing any gains the US made in our ill-informed misadventure. Now, as the world debates how to prevent a brutal 7th-century theocracy from taking root in the Middle East, we desperately need voices of experience and wisdom to guide us.
Instead, we have noise from the same people who got us into this mess.
America was swept into a war of aggression by a flood of lies and half-truths from a very few ideological cultists. Against the better judgment of rational people in government and the intelligence community, and against the voices of millions in America and around the world, vested interests pushed our country over the fine line from political meddling to military criminality. The losses in blood, treasure, and prestige continue to mount.
The Center for Public Integrity has put together an exhaustive report on the lies that led to war. Search by individual liar, what they lied about, how often, and when, and then find out what they actually knew while they were lying. Hours of fun!
But who’s raising their voices in what passes for public debate on Iraq? At least George “Yellowcake” Bush is remaining blessedly silent. But Don “Saddam-has-links-to-911” Rumsfeld, Charles “Saddam-has-weapons-of-mass-destruction” Krauthammer, and Paul “We’ll-be-welcomed-as-liberators” Wolfowitz are all crawling out from under their rocks. Worst of all, Dick “We-have-found-the-weapons-of-mass-destruction” Cheney, the torture fetishist whose company made billions off the Iraq debacle, has the stones to accuse President Obama of treason for not being able to maintain the lipstick on the pig he created.
Here’s a great site to check up on the claims of your favorite media oracles. Do they stack up?
I’m not against hearing from these people for partisan reasons; Obama and the Dems have made enough missteps to criticize on their own. I want them to be quiet on purely pragmatic grounds. Let’s assume that (despite all evidence) the voices for war had every good intention in Iraq. They were wrong. Blatantly, inescapably, provably wrong. When even Megyn Kelly thinks you’re wrong, it’s hard to blame partisanship. People of good will can disagree, but once you’ve proved yourself malicious and incompetent at every level… it’s time to stop talking and let the adults handle things.
Take Care and Make a Great Day!
