The United States is mulling further intervention in Iraq as government forces flee Al Qaeda-linked insurgents and the country appears teetering on chaos. While the Administration is not ready to commit boots on the grounds, we may be moving toward a further influx of hundreds of millions or billions in military aid and even air strikes. As ISIS insurgents are seizing U.S. weaponry, the U.S. has already started to flood the country a new massive shipment of new free weapons.
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant or ISIS is on a roll and nearing the capital. It is an al-qaeda linked terrorist group following the Wahhabi movement, the extreme religious view advanced by our ally Saudi Arabia.
So let’s take stock. We replaced a dictator based on lies in a massive invasion ordered by George W. Bush. We then spent over $2 trillion (the cost is over $4 trillion when you include Afghanistan). Both President Bush and President Obama continued to pour hundreds of billions of dollars in the country despite massive corruption and billions that simply disappeared. At the same time we have been cutting back on our own educational, environmental, scientific, and social programs due to a lack of money. Consider what $4 trillion would have done.
More importantly, we have lost some 4,486 U.S. service members between 2003 and 2012. Thousands have been wounded, many with lifelong disabilities. Our leaders continued to pour troops into the country because no one wanted to admit that the war was a mistake or that we were losing to Islamic insurgents. We continued to lose people and spend trillions in the belief that we could reverse centuries of sectarian and social strife.
In the meantime, we became increasingly hated by many Iraqis and we opened the country not to Saddamists but Al Qaeda forces who moved into the area as an opportunity to fight America and take over large parts of the country. They are now seizing advanced US weaponry so we are again arming extremists. Now to make our disaster complete we not only have Al Qaeda taking control of areas but Iran has now reportedly sent in troops to fuel the Shiite/Sunni violence. It is offering as many as 10,000 Iranian troops.
It is another example of the economic principle of “path dependence”: we have so much invested that we cannot change course. So once again, we will open up our coffers until the last helicopter leaves from the roof from the Green Zone.
Once again into the Crusades (On The Origin of the Crusader Pathogen).
“Report: Bush Told French President Jacques Chirac That Iraq War Was Biblically Ordained With Story of Gog and Magog:
. (Turley Blog, May 25, 2009).
Dredd, I retrieved your comment at 11:45
Word police software ate my post.
Professor Turley lays out a very top line analysis of the situation, which is accurate.
(Except for the “we have been cutting back on our own educational, environmental, scientific, and social programs” part.)
Some other key points:
1. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS was too extreme for Osama Bin Laden; Al Qaeda wouldn’t deal with him.
2. The Iraq issue is Shiite vs. Sunni + “others.” With the Jihadi Jamboree that’s been taking place in Syria, there are a huge number of foreign fighters in the mix, especially hardcore Chechens. An American suicide bomber fighting with the rebels blew himself up last week.
3. This issue doesn’t care about borders. ISIS wants as much of Iraq and Syria as they can get.
4. Iran is playing both sides. They support Assad against ISIS in Syria. They were supporting ISIS in Iraq until they grabbed a lot of land, very quickly and now Iran is pledging support to Iraq.
5. ISIS has captured Mosul, Tirkut, and the largest oil field in Iraq (320 /800 K barrels per day.) They’ve captured the largest bank ($425 Million) and one of the largest weapons caches. They also captured a large percentage of the drinking water in Iraq.
4. Iraq has been requesting assistance for months.
5. Turkey is exercising Article IV of the NATO charter and requesting support.
6. Jordan has been holding high level meetings with Israel. (Israel!) Jordan has requested US support/assistance to secure its border with Syria and Iraq.
7. The Kurds. The Kurdish Peshmerga is the only fighting force in Iraq that could and would fight. Iraqi Muslims hate the Peshmerga. (These are the people Saddam actually USED WMD’s on!) The Peshmerga hate the Iraqi Muslims just as much, one could understand why.
Turkey joined NATO partly out of fear of the Peshmerga; however, the Peshmerga is the only thing protecting Turkey from ISIS encroachments. The residents of Mosul, including deserting Iraq military and police fled to the protection of the Peshmerga.
While some want to address this with “war crimes tribunals” for 2002 decisions, the Jihadi’s laugh at us. The Middle East is on fire.
Obama pulled out our troops out far too fast for one reason – politics.
We had to leave behind a Trillion dollars in equipment. (Much of which has been seized by ISIS.)
Why? Bush? Nope.
No SOFA? Nope.
Obama didn’t talk to Nouri al-Maliki for almost a year. No wonder he didn’t want to grant a SOFA.
This is what you get when you have community organizer as CIC.
This is what you get when the CIC doesn’t know that a US Navy corpsman doesn’t work with dead bodies.
This is what you get when the CIC was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize on what he might do.
This is what you get The United States shifts from a position of strength to an apology tour.
This is what you get when America “leads from behind.”
This is what you get when the US Military’s top leadership (JCOS) are a gaggle of political hacks.
This is what you get when red lines are drawn, in pencil.
This is what you get when the president says he’s going to “fundamentally transform America.”
This is Barrack, Hillary and John’s legacy. Undermining 64 years of US foreign policy in 6 years.
Progressive? Is the root word not progress? I fail to see a shred of it.
Steve Kellam, I retrieved your comment at 11:37.
Folks, Steve wrote a lengthly comment that got snagged a while ago. It is available at 11:37.
Let’s send “Retarded” George over there to fix it…. He did such a good job, last time!!! Iraq would definitely not be in this position if Saddam was still alive, and the United States wasn’t filled with IDIOT politicians………..
Here’s how complex this situation is. The group ISIS is too radical for Al Qaeda. However, ISIS is our ally of sorts in Syria. They are trying to oust Assad. I think we should have armed and helped the Kurds take over Iraq. They are sane and know how to fight.
If at first you don’t succeed, trying again expecting a different result is insanity.
Saucy, Are you French? This seems personal.
US troops would have stayed in Iraq if their right to rape, pillage, plunder, maim, torture, and destroy would have been guaranteed by the Iraqi govt. The Iraqi govt declined those terms.
Didn’t we like get out of there already?
Nick Spinelli wrote “D-Day is a stark reminder”
Research the Battle of Kasserine Pass and tell me how Americans were any better. One battle does not a country make.
As for collaboration with the enemy, research “Bowe Bergdahl,” “Aldrich Ames,” “Robert Hanssen,” “Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,” and other American Quislings.
We all live in glass houses.
Bagdad will fall by July 4th. ISIS will then start screwing around with Israel.
Remember the 4 blood moons? 3 left to go!
bigfatmike wrote “the US public was motivated to invade [Iraq] by what, at best, can be labeled mistakes”
The US public was motivated in a way that Goebbels would have applauded. We were outraged because of 9/11 and wanted to kill them all. Bush and the boys convinced us that we needed to invade Iraq because of WMD (cannot allow another 9/11) and alleged ties to the perpetrators of 9/11, al-Qaeda.
I think Obama is a pathetic president, but Bush should have been prosecuted for high crimes and misdemeanors.
SWM, Much of the blame is on Maliki. As I said, there is much blame to go around. But, your guy is also culpable.
D-Day is a stark reminder.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2014/06/mosul_s_collapse_is_nouri_al_maliki_s_fault_iraq_s_prime_minister_failed.htm”
“As the U.S. pullout began under the terms of a treaty signed in 2008 by then-President George W. Bush, Maliki, the leader of a Shiite political party, promised to run a more inclusive government—to bring more Sunnis into the ministries, to bring more Sunnis from the Sons of Iraq militia into the national army, to settle property disputes in Kirkuk, to negotiate a formula on sharing oil revenue with Sunni districts, and much more.
Maliki has since backpedaled on all of these commitments and has pursued policies designed to strengthen Shiites and marginalize Sunnis. That has led to the resurgence of sectarian violence in the past few years. The Sunnis, finding themselves excluded from the political process, have taken up arms as the route to power. In the process, they have formed alliances with Sunni jihadist groups—such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which has seized not just Mosul but much of northern Iraq—on the principle that the enemy of their enemy is their friend.”l
Saucy, The one time the French REALLY needed to fight, they quit and then collaborated. That is from where the rap emanates, and it is not debatable.
Steve, It does not matter. Rachel Maddow is a highly intelligent well informed Rhodes scholar.I look at the individual not the network.
“Saddam tripped a series of UN resolutions which then gave the United States and others the right to go into Iraq and finish the first Iraq War.”
Even if that is true, it does not demonstrate that going in was a wise thing to do.
It seems to me one of the most important lessons of the cold war is that sometimes it is vital to both be ready to destroy the adversary and at the same time avoid conflict.
I would argue that going into Iraq was one of the greatest foreign policy fiascoes in our history.
And what ever the legal justification, the US public was motivated to invade by what, at best, can be labeled mistakes – unless you want to put a fine point on it and call them outright lies.
Nick Spinelli wrote “They fight like the French”
You really need to stop watching jingoistic Fox News and its reports of “freedom fries.” You’ve obviously never traveled in France where combat units patrol the railway stations and I mean “combat units” in the literal sense. You should search for stories regarding France’s ongoing efforts to rescue French hostages in Africa; unfortunately, a hostage was murdered recently in Somalia, but the commandoes certainly did not “RUN.”
SWM,
A side note and Nick already addressed, but just a heads up – you may want to check the Brookings and Public Religion Research Institute polling data from a few days ago. PPP from a few months ago showed the same exact results. MSNBC ranks dead last for “trusted” or “trustworthy” news sources. Both polls had ‘The Daily Show’ rating higher than MSNBC.