Tell me again, why did we invade Iraq?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Tell-me-again-why-did-we-by-Mike-Kirchubel-130322-696.html



Taps at Arlington National Cemetery

Tell me again, why did we invade Iraq?
By Mike Kirchubel
OpEdNews Op Eds 3/22/2013 at 10:26:17

~snip~

Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For most of us, Iraq is "Mission Accomplished" and we are on to other things. For many others, on both sides, still fighting injuries, demons, and the loss of loved ones, this war remains a deep, festering wound. I don't want to rehash who lied to get us in that war, and whether or not removing one man from power was worth the sacrifice of the 4,486 American service members who died in Iraq, the 32,000 wounded, or the estimated 150,000 to 1,000,000 dead and wounded Iraqis and a country still recoiling and rebuilding from our incursion. I'm not even going to argue that the $1 trillion dollars spent destroying Iraq's infrastructure would have been better spent rebuilding ours. I'd just like to know why we went to war.

I'm old now, but my generation was young, aware, and vocal as we slogged through the Viet Nam War. Unfortunately, we were also powerless, with long hair. We couldn't vote until we were 21 so, even though we yelled at the top of our lungs about the insanity of that war, nobody heard what we had to say. As a result, we now have a war memorial in front of the old courthouse on Texas Street inscribed with the names of 62 of Fairfield's sons. I grew up with these kids in a much, much smaller version of Fairfield. These chiseled names once had faces, feelings, and futures, and many were my friends.

When America invaded Iraq ten years ago, my generation had long since cut their hair and we were in charge, running America's businesses and sitting in seats of power. But we sat silent as our government once again sent our children into yet another senseless war. With Viet Nam, we really didn't know that our government had lied about the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" until years later, but with Iraq, most of us knew George W. Bush was wrong about weapons of mass destruction and that Rice and Cheney's mushroom clouds would be impossible to create if there was no yellowcake uranium concentrate.

Five-star general and President, Dwight Eisenhower said, "Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing." But George W. Bush made pre-emptive invasions official U.S. policy when he said, "As a matter of common sense and self-defense, America will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed." We were told that we must silently and blindly follow our president for we cannot possibly know what he knows. But 65 years ago, Abraham Lincoln warned us: "If today he (the President) should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no probability of the British invading us;' but he will say to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't.'"Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object."

[gordianot]

1. When my daughter was 16 years, she was told in class it was because America was attacked on 9/11

Her response to her teacher and classmates was "bull shit". She was sent to the office. I did agree that saying "bull shit" was a poor choice of words but by 2008 when this happened an understandable response the facts to the involvement in the Iraq were understood by rational people. My agreement with the school was she would apologize for saying "bull shit" when the teacher apologized for uttering such nonsense as fact. I did get the teacher to give her a participation grade for the day in spite of my daughter saying bull shit and being sent to the office.

[choie]

3. Gordianot

I think you should be extremely proud of your daughter for seeing through the "bull shit" and being courageous enough to say it. Brava to her!

[gordianot]

9. I was a little surprised she spoke up and in no way upset with her.

From this one incident she learned tact. How to live among and deal with those who cannot deal with facts. She is today a Senior in College with a Communications/Public Relations major. Her internship is with a local Chamber of Commerce they love her. She survives with tact our roles have reversed since I retired I have no tact.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. If I'd been her teacher, I would have given her an A+!

Smart kid you've got there!

[SummerSnow]

2. oh i know...

They said Iraq attacked us on 9/11.So when that lie didnt work..they said Iraq had WMDs .So when those weren't found.They said we had to liberate the Iraqi people from their leader so they killed him. Anymore?

[Bluenorthwest]

4. We invaded because our leadership failed us as they continue to do

The people who voted for the war were all rewarded with big jobs for being so wrong, those who voted against it were made invisible.

[patricia92243]

5. Because Saddam had tried to kill Bush, Sr. If you listened closely, Bush, Jr. said it over

and over again - so often that somebody must have told him to quit saying it. So, he changed it to Saddam tried to kill a former president.

The rest - WMD. etc. was just a cover-up.

[corneliamcgillicutty]

7. That has always been my belief as well.

Sonny wasn't gonna let some ornery sidewinder attack daddy. So he unleashed the big guns at the expense of so many lives. He is beyond despicable.

[Downwinder]

6. A proxy action to secure Iraq oil for China.