General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Iraq War Was a Smashing Success
Smoke rises from American airstrikes in the village of Resala in Iraq as Kurdish peshmerga fighters
watch at an overwatch position near the Mosul Dam in Northern Iraq, Aug. 18, 2014.
(Photo: Lynsey Addario / The New York Times)
The Iraq War Was a Smashing Success
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
Thursday 28 August 2014
Make no mistake about it: by any vaguely human measure, the situation in Iraq is a US-made disaster of historic proportions. Millions dead or wounded, millions more displaced, and all overseen by a kleptocratic government more interested in grinding old enemies into the dust than governing...and of course, yes, a seemingly endless cycle of violence that claims new victims every day.
The beginning of this week saw bombs ring out all over Iraq, leaving 212 dead and 184 wounded. Three bombs exploded in a commercial district in Kirkuk, killing 31. A suicide bomber charged the gate of a security building in Baghdad, killing eleven. A Sunni mosque in Diyala was attacked, leaving 60 dead. A car bombing in Karbala killed 12. Another car bomb killed 11 people in Hilla. The butcher's bill goes on, and on, and on.
US military operations in Iraq, directed against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), are escalating by the day. Since the second week in August, the US has carried out some 100 air strikes in Iraq, has deployed about 1,000 troops back into the country, and is tickling the outside edges of bombing targets in Syria.
The question of whether to expand this ongoing war, however, is not likely to be put to a vote in congress any time soon; a roomful of Democratic congressional aides made it abundantly clear that the last thing their bosses want is to be forced to make a public vote on further military action in Iraq. Such a vote, they claim, is far too sticky a wicket to wrangle in an election year.
Same as it ever was.
Yet consider this: the news site Vox ran a story at the beginning of August under the headline, "The US Bombing Its Own Guns Perfectly Sums Up America's Total Failure in Iraq". The article refers to the US air campaign against ISIS, which is flush with US weapons of war obtained from the collapsed Iraqi military.
(snip)
The United States' involvement in Iraq, dating back to 1990 but wildly exacerbated since March of 2003, has been a pluperfect Charlie Foxtrot from the jump, and gets worse with every passing year.
Right?
Well, it depends on who you ask.
Ask the "defense" industry, the makers and sellers of all these weapons, and they'll tell you this Iraq debacle is the greatest thing to happen since Vietnam. Twenty-four years of war since 1990, all those missiles and bombs dropped, all those bullets fired, all those armored vehicles blown up that needed to be replaced, all of which come with a price tag to be paid out of the taxpayers' pockets. Not everyone gets a payday that lasts a quarter of a century. The "defense" industry got one, again, and it is ongoing, and expanding.
The United States is bombing weapons the "defense" industry already got paid for with ordnance they will get paid for.
Think about it this way: In the same fashion that most people think the Iraq war was a disaster, the same majority now see George W. Bush as the worst president in modern American history. By the metrics of those who delivered him to the Oval Office, however, George W. Bush was the most successful president in the history of the country. Everything he was sent to do by those who paid his freight - gut the Treasury, break the government, establish permanent war, and make his friends rich - he accomplished to perfection.
So it is with Iraq. You think it's a disaster, I think it's a disaster, and by any vaguely human measure, it is a disaster...but for a few people, the ones who pay that political freight and count coins according to how many bombs and bullets get used, the specter of ongoing war and fear and death and weaponized mayhem makes what is happening in Iraq the equivalent of Christmas in August, a smashing success, and a fantastic return on their investment.
The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/25858-the-iraq-war-was-a-smashing-success
Yavin4
(35,433 posts)If you're a war profiteer, it was great. If you're a decent human being, then it was a tragedy of immense porportions.
The American culture has elevate wealth over being a decent human being.
Autumn
(45,050 posts)Beyond a disaster, it's a tragedy. Rec
VanGoghRocks
(621 posts)ironic 'life imitates art' sort of way).
Although we killed more in southeast Asia (some 2-3 million), we didn't leave the on-going clusterfuck there we have left in Iraq, a crime of such monumental proportions that life behind bars seems too light a sentence for its perpetrators.
Props to you for this essay and for the (probably intentional) bon mot "smashing success".
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)What could go wrong?
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)leftstreet
(36,106 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)riverwalker
(8,694 posts)hope he is doing well. His article from 2008, now sounds like the Oracle of Delphi.
Iraqs Tragic Future
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080205_iraqs_tragic_future
MADem
(135,425 posts)Or has he been paroled?
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Ritter-gets-prison-time-2237126.php
He does have a problem--this is a rather nuanced article with his perspective included:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/magazine/scott-ritter.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
tclambert
(11,085 posts)a non-sectarian leader, friendly to the West and anti-Iranian, someone who will keep the oil flowing. We will tolerate some corruption and oppression of opposition factions, just so he keeps order.
I think I just described Saddam Hussein.
Amonester
(11,541 posts)jimmil
(629 posts)Anything going on in Iraq now is a complete surprise.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Conflict in the Middle East is very good for Texas Oilmen who see huge profits while never having to put up with the inconvenience of a bomb crater in the street.
Dems to Win
(2,161 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)This is from 2004/5
I compared the War in Iraq to the peloponnesian war many years ago.
before the war Athens was the unchallenged "superpower" in the region, by far the richest city in the world. Its hubris led to the arrogant thought that the Athenian model could and should be exported to the rest of the world to civilize the barbarians, just like George W. wishes to export democracy to the Middle East and beyond. Of course, in reality Athens embarked in the war -- for example in the fateful expedition against Syracuse -- out of a much more mundane thirst for material resources, but this is also not that different from the real motivations that led to the invasion of Iraq (read Halliburton etc.).
The United States' logistical problems are compounded by overcharging and apparent corruption on the part of some private contractors, without whose services the armed forces could not operate on the ground. For food and other perishables, the Athenian army was similarly at the mercy of market towns in Sicily and in nearby Italy, which could drive a hard bargain or shut their gates entirely.
The goodwill of locals was not only a supply problem for the Athenians, it was a strategic problem in its own right. The Athenians could never hope to conquer the island, or to govern it afterwards, without winning over some local friends. The friends the Athenians had from the beginning turned out to be of little use.
The Egestaeans had made extravagant promises about the horses and funds it would supply to the campaign if the Athenians would only send an army, when they in fact had almost nothing to offer (much as Iraqi exiles like Chalabi apparently flattered and exaggerated in order to draw the United States into Iraq).
The Athenians did manage to cultivate some local allies, but they were never able to fully trust them all. Intelligence about Athenian military plans always seemed to make its way to Syracusan ears, and Thucydides surmises that some Syracusans who provided intelligence to the Athenians were actually double agents.
As the situation deteriorated, Athenian soldiers ended up carrying their own provisions, as local hired servants started deserting with whatever they had in their pockets.
All too depressingly, similar dynamics are playing out now in Iraq. High-ranking officials of the new U.S.-supported government sponsor paramilitary organizations that are pushing the country into civil war. Whether motivated by ideology, fear, or economic necessity, others on the government payroll appear to be helping the insurgency. When men in official police and military uniforms rob banks and kidnap civilians, it is impossible to know who to trust.
Sound familar?
Anyway Athens ending up losing its empire and Sparta installed an Oligarchy in Athens and the city states of its democratic allies.....
We just have the Koch brothers and others installing an oligarchy.
http://www.theglobalist.com/iraq-war-sicilian-campaign-part-ii/
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/books/review/23johnson.html?pagewanted=all
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Thank you for another excellent piece.
Crewleader
(17,005 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Well done, WilliamPitt!
WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)up