A Day for Iraq War Hawks to Say They're Sorry

[babylonsister]

Lest we forget...

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/3/20/154619/718

A Day for Iraq War Hawks to Say They're Sorry

by BooMan
Tue Mar 20th, 2018 at 03:46:19 PM EST


Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi-American novelist who publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq that was initiated fifteen years ago today. He has a good piece in the New York Times. You should read it. Here is how it concludes:

No one knows for certain how many Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion 15 years ago. Some credible estimates put the number at more than one million. You can read that sentence again. The invasion of Iraq is often spoken of in the United States as a “blunder,” or even a “colossal mistake.” It was a crime. Those who perpetrated it are still at large. Some of them have even been rehabilitated thanks to the horrors of Trumpism and a mostly amnesiac citizenry. (A year ago, I watched Mr. Bush on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” dancing and talking about his paintings.) The pundits and “experts” who sold us the war still go on doing what they do. I never thought that Iraq could ever be worse than it was during Saddam’s reign, but that is what America’s war achieved and bequeathed to Iraqis.

Americans aren’t accustomed to calling their foreign policy blunders “crimes,” nor do they send their failed foreign policy leaders into exile the way the Ancient Greeks used to do. Maybe we should do both of these things. Or maybe we should learn more about the Ancient Greek word “hubris,” which meant “excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods” which leads to a downfall for the protagonist.

In modern usage, “hubris” is better defined as “over-confidence,” which doesn’t quite capture the immorality of invading Iraq based on false premises and bad faith, leading to massive region-wide humanitarian, political and sectarian crises.

I was encouraged to see John Cole whip himself like a penitent for being wrong about literally everything in the lead-up to the Iraq War. That’s a man who knows how to act when he’s advocated something that resulted in complete disaster. But John Cole was a cheerleader, not a policymaker. He didn’t make the decisions that led to the downfall of our moral credibility and the entire Middle East.

Today is an anniversary when the people who really were responsible should whip themselves. They should whip themselves in print. And, maybe they should whip themselves with fronds in public, too.

Finally, the people who let these people off the hook cannot complain that they’ve made a comeback.

[bearsfootball516]

1. A sobering reminder that those in high places rarely pay for their crimes.

Hopefully, Mr. Mueller can buck that trend.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. Americans arent accustomed to calling their foreign policy blunders crimes,

I am NOT one of those Americans. Monkeyboy (bush) and his cabal are guilty of war crimes and should be in jail for the remainder of their lives. Instead, they live the life of the 1% while 1 million or more bodies of women, men and children rot in Iraq.

[Xipe Totec]

3. My brother was there as a Marine Gunny driving a tank

He said the first assault wave across the border was not tanks but bulldozers.

Plowing the Iraqi trenches over and burying the soldiers still in them alive.

He had no idea how many Iraqis died that day buried alive.

[babylonsister]

4. And we wonder where ptsd comes from. And suicides.

I hope your brother is okay.

What inspired that, besides the lies? 9/11?

I was appalled when I read that. Very horrifying.

[Xipe Totec]

6. He has since passed

Massive coronary heart attack.

At a golf course with my brother in law who is a doctor.

Surrounded by other doctors, and within sight of the hospital.

Still, they could not do anything for him.

His organs were donated as was his wish, including even the inside lip tissue which is used to treat children with cleft lip.

He was a gentle soul caught up in a society that left few options for people with limited academic skills.

[babylonsister]

7. On a golf course surrounded by docs?

Man, that sounds pretty nice. We all have to go some way, some how. Sounds like he was having fun so good for him!

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Heard the same comment

from a National Guardsman who was in that Engineering outfit.

[oxbow]

8. All our energy is directed at making trimp pay

We still owe our soldiers and the Iraqis for the war and its aftermath. But priorities...

[babylonsister]

9. dt is current, but

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."


https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/15/arc-of-universe/

[oxbow]

12. Agreed!

History has already judged them...and I do believe it’s up to us all to make sure it’s judged not as just a big blunder but a true crime. The effects of this are continuing and we need to deal with it but that isn’t even a possibility until we de-infest our government.

[gratuitous]

10. Looking forward to the future sure didn't do us any good

And we still get visited by the ghosts and ghouls of war crimes past.

[babylonsister]

11. Thanks. There is that.