I didn't believe Iraq would be The Worst Mistake in US History...But maybe it is.

[Armstead]

I was against the Iraq War from before it started. I thought it was a huge mistake.

But I did used to shrug off the claims by some that it would go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes and disasters in US history.

Rather, I thought it would be a more specific mistake that would be bad in the short-term, but which we'd move beyond.

But now....I'm beginning to think it may well be The Worst Mistake and Disaster in US History. Or at least right there among the top two or three.

The more it unravels, and the more the implications throughout the world become clear -- or become muddied -- the more it becomes apparent that this really is a much bigger and more profound screw-up that will have far-reaching negative consequences for decades.

The US has "screwed the pooch" Big Time.

[shadowknows69]

1. I think you underestimate our leaders

I'm fairly certain that they could screw things up even worse if they put their minds to it. Iraq will remain our biggest clusterf*ck, unless we attack Iran or North Korea.

[aquart]

2. "Short-term"????? HOW?

Sorry to rub salt in the wound but really.

[leftofthedial]

3. It has the potential to rank up there with worst mistakes in history

period

[Skittles]

4. bush poked a big stick at the hornet's nest that was the Middle East

a lot of people will be paying for that mistake for a long, long time - long after it is finally generally acknowledged that bush was the worst - president - EVER

[lancdem]

5. Yep

[peacetalksforall]

6. Memorial and how much anger I can afford.

I'm extremely bitter about the last 9 and the last 43 years.

9 - because that's when PNAC exposed itself as the anointed entity to bring us these lies, theft, corruption, and death. I start my nine years from the time PNAC sent a letter to Clinton inviting him to invade Iraq and the time they made a decision to steal elections, if necessary, to ensure they got in. Evidently, they felt it would be necessary because they privatized our votes with pre-planning.

43 - because that, of course, is the first of the assassinations and the formation of the multi-groups who have ruled our country. This was about the time that they started to close down the media as we knew it and take over its ownership.

My grandest anger is at Democrats who have known about and facilitated the invasion of Iraq and allowed it by not doing enough, not exposing it enough, not voicing enough, not stepping in enough.

The pinnacle of my anger is the way some played along with the patriotic stuff to prevent vote loss or for a cut of the profits or from having no guts.

I don't think the anger floating around in my aura is good for our kids - the parents and families who are suffering and the entire groups of people who have to heal the maimed - especially as the deception plays out with each day.

I will try to reverse some of the anger against the Dem leaders who are always letting us down by praising those with the vision and the guts to say no.

Wellstone:
First vote in the Senate - against Iraq War 1
Last vote in the Senate - against Iraq War 2

Feingold:
Against Iraq War 2 and (the only Senator?) to vote against the Patriot Act.

There are more. I propose we construct a virtual-physical memorial to those who voted with all of us who knew what the PNAC and barons were up to. By the absences of names we shall know them. And those whose names aren't on the memorial need not run for President or VP.

Oil, Euro, Israel, bases, corporate profit power thru destruction-reconstruction, and especially - ownership-domination of the ME partnered with Israel and the UK (& Echelon countries? - all the while some play and trade in nuclear supplies.

[tridim]

7. I agree there needs to be a new memorial in DC

This time in history needs to be marked so we'll never forget what can happen when people get too much power and use it for nothing but personal gain.It should be built immediately after the Bush war memorial (which should honor the hundreds of thousands who have been murdered in Bush's war of choice, but not Bush himself).

Maybe make it a 'people's memorial', built to honor the spirit of Americans who believe the Constitution is much more than just a "God-damned piece of paper".

[EstimatedProphet]

8. And it should be one of the worst episodes in our history

We invaded Iraq based on lies, in order to take its resources. Any other explanations the MSM tries to put on it is lipstick on a pig. We decided to kill brown people for sport.

If there ever is an Iraq memorial, it should be made of Satanic symbols with statues of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice killing and eating newborn babies, while being cheered on by shitheel rednecks.

[TheFarseer]

9. What's the competition?

probably Vietnam, maybe something related to the Civil War, the War of 1812 although that worked out in some ways, Reaganomics - don't underestimate Reaganomics as a disaster when the sh*t hits the debt fan. am I missing any? The blowjob just doesn't measure up to any of this.

[kath]

10. Jimmy Carter agrees with you:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2819858

[devilgrrl]

11. It is the absolute worst - brought to you by the WORST administration in US history

An utter disaster!

[Armstead]

21. I think they will probably do down in history as...

THE worst administration in US history.

Looking at what has been done objectively in retrospect, this will look incredibly like an incredibly stupid chapter in our nation. Will probably make the Vietnam War seem like nothing by comparison. Especially if we don't cut out losses and get out now.

[RethugAssKicker]

12. Lets stop calling it a MISTAKE.. It was intentional

[TahitiNut]

13. That's my thought, as well. I cringe each time I see Iraq referred to as a 'blunder' ...

... or 'mistake' or 'unforeseen.' It was none of these. The consequences of this invasion and occupation were foreseen by MILLIONS including yours truly and many others on DU. There has not been, imho, a more blatantly predatory and malicious act undertaken by the US in the last 100 years - nothing of this scale and depth of corruption. Pretending it's a 'mistake' approaches being historical revisionism.

[Armstead]

22. Many of us were foreseeing this

including yours truly. I was totally against it.

But the millions who were duped didn't realize what they were agreeing to. That was the real mistake.

And, in my original post, my point was that even many of us who foresaw it as a disaster underestimated the scope of the disaster.

[Thorandmjolnir]

14. I have serious problems

with labeling the Iraq war a "Mistake".

It implies that the intentions were good but the execution was flawed. Might even imply that somehow its not really someones fault, and if it is, it "just a mistake".

To me, the Iraq war is a crime against humanity, war crime and domestic crime and shoold be prosecuted as such.

[Cleita]

15. A bigger mistake that led to the Iraq war was us not taking to the

streets before Dimson was inaugurated as President in January of 2001 after being selected by the Supreme Court. We should have gone out in droves protesting and committing civil disobedience until the recount in Florida ordered by the Florida Supreme Court was carried out. The US Supreme Court was out of its jurisdiction to settle an election. The law clearly states it was the Florida Supreme Court that had that provenance.

[opihimoimoi]

17. You are absolutely correct...WE SHOULDA WOULDA COULDA BUT NEVAH

DAMN US ALL FOR NOT DOING IT...

Bush is not only taking down the USA....he threatens the entire Human Race by not addressing the hemongeous probs facing the World.

IE Global Warming, High CO2 crap, Over Pop, etc....

He is ignoring Reality...

[opihimoimoi]

16. Worse than Hitler invading Russia, Japan bombing Pear Harbor,

Rome letting Dictators Rule(esp the insane/inept ones), etc....

And...we ain't seen nuthin yet...the worse, I fear, is yet to come. Bush has unleashed the worst decisions at the most inopportune times...when the World is stressed from over population, dwindling resources, including food/oil, Effects from Global Warming, etc.

Bush is so lolo...he don't even realize he is a lolo, that his decisions are the worst ever....

He ignores the core responsibilities of real Leaders...to care for the general populace and the Health of the Nation...Instead, he lives for his fantasies....confirming delusional rationalization, arrogance, denial, and avarice.

The people who put him there bear the bulk of the Blame, esp when they continued the mistake by compounding it with the 04 thingy.

They stole it for him and now watch in horror as he fucks up this Great Nation...many of them having their fam and friends die in the insane war that it is...

Big Mistake, worst ever???? Fuck Yeah....Bush has tofu for brains and his followers ...them too.

I am so pissed...I have diabetes...and to see him stall/reject stem cell research really pisses me off....Those Bushie followers/enablers...??? I hate them too.

[Jack Rabbit]

18. This is one of the worst strategic blunders in human history

The neoconservative invasion of Iraq is one of the worst strategic blunders in human history.

Napoleon's invasion of Russia was wise and brilliant compared to this. In fact, it makes the US in the Vietnam War look noble.

That it was to be a long-term disaster was obvious from the start. Neoconservative designs on Iraq were long term and had nothing to do with Saddam, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction or bringing democracy to the oppressed Iraqi people. The design was colonial; post-Saddam Iraq was initially governed by that great Iraqi statesman, Jerry Bremer, playing the role of a legendary lawgiver and decreeing Iraq's economy open for private foreign investment. The neoliberal paradigm that is rejected by voters in Latin America was imposed on the people of Iraq by force of arms. The only way that paradigm could be maintained is by continued foreign occupation. Bush would have to keep US troops there indefinitely in order for his corporate crony pigs to continue feed at Iraq's trough. Whether Iraq would be governed by an American governor general or by native puppets made little difference; the military-economic structure of neoconservative Iraq would look like the British Raj in India. Occupation was the real goal and there could be no exit strategy.

As for the civil war in Iraq, it would be wrong to blame Bush and the neoconservatives for it directly. If Saddam had died quietly in bed in March 2003 there would have been a civil war in Iraq. It wouldn't have played out quite the same way, but it would have happened. What is fair is holding Bush and his aides accountable for dismissing the idea that this was any sort of possibility and being completely unprepared for it.

The invasion of Iraq has set that back years the goal, even if the merely stated goal, of making the US and its "interests" safe from terrorism. Prior to the invasion, Zarqawi was in Iraq, but had difficulty setting off firecrackers. After the invasion, he was allied with al Qaida and setting off IEDs. Prior to the invasion, there were no active international terrorists in Iraq; what presence there is of international terrorists in Iraq has come about since the invasion. After all, international like lawless, chaotic environments, like Lebanon in the 1980s, Afghanistan in the 1990s and Iraq today. There's no one there to stop them from training future terrorists or operate in relative freedom.

Meanwhile, resources were diverted from Afghanistan that were used there to fight real terrorists who posed an immediate and real threat to the American people. Instead of rebuilding Afghanistan into a reasonably modern state that would be stable and prosperous enough to keep al Qaida from operating within its borders, there is now open talk of bringing al Qaida's old allies, the Taliban, back into the government.

Often, officials of the Bush regime or demagogues like Newt Gingrich remind Americans that we could see another September 11 and give that as a reason to keep neoconservatives in power. I, too, am fearful of another September 11; to me, that is a reason why Bush and Cheney should be removed from office as soon as possible and neoconservatism buried with a stake through its heart. Bush and his neoconservative aides are incompetent, deceitful, cynical, tyrannical, elitist, megalomaniacal and inept. They are a danger to Americans and to all people.

[Armstead]

20. They had ideas of making Iraq an American suburb

Boy did they get that one wrong.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. As has been pointed out, the real consequences have yet to be felt.

Whatever "leverage" that the American Government had in the Middle East is now history. We are now reduced to the common enemy.

The progressive forces in the region are now seen by the populace as a sort of "American" or "Western" fraud and the Jihadists have become the heroes of resistance. What was once a minor threat to the stability of the region has now assumed the proportions of a very real threat.

The nations involved have become aware of our irrelevance in the region and are now starting to look out for themselves without our "help". Even the puppet government of Iraq is turning to Iran and Syria for effective and realistic "help" for the catastrophe that the frat-boy bungler and his brilliant advisers arranged with their visions of flower hurling Iraqis happily donating their oil to us in gratitude.

Beyond that, of course, are the minor matters of the rest of the world holding us in contempt, and the recession, if not depression, that's going to occur when the bills for the glorious crusade come due.

[PassingFair]

23. 600,000 DEAD IRAQI'S can't be WRONG!

Of COURSE it's a DISASTER!

We have HELL to pay for it.

The people have shown their displeasure by VOTING OUT the republicans.

We MUST in some way discipline the individual representatives of our own
party who authorized this mess as well.

Feet to the fire!

We need to repent, recant and get the world on board to help
us FIX THIS A.S.A.P!