Should We Relitigate the Iraq War in the 2016 Campaign? You Bet We Should

[babylonsister]

http://prospect.org/waldman/should-we-relitigate-iraq-war-2016-campaign-you-bet-we-should


Should We Relitigate the Iraq War in the 2016 Campaign? You Bet We Should
By Paul Waldman | Posted May 11, 2015


snip//

But the question isn't so much whether a candidate will admit what a disaster Iraq was, but what they've learned from the experience. How do they view the extraordinary propaganda campaign the Bush administration launched to convince Americans to get behind the war? Does that make them want to be careful about how they argue for their policy choices? Did Iraq change their perspective on American military action, particularly in the Middle East? What light does it shed on the reception the American military is likely to get the next time we invade someplace? What does it teach us about power vacuums and the challenges of nation-building? How does it inform the candidate's thinking on the prospect of military action in Syria and Iran specifically? Given the boatload of unintended consequences Iraq unleashed, how would he or she, as president, go about making decisions on complex issues that are freighted with uncertainty?

I would love to know how Jeb Bush would answer those questions, whether he'll say that the invasion was a mistake or not. The same goes for his primary opponents. But if what we've seen so far is any indication, we aren't likely to get a whole lot of thoughtful foreign policy discussion from them. This weekend the non-Bush candidates were in Greenville for the South Carolina Freedom Summit, where they walked on stage and beat their chests while advocating for a foreign policy inevitably described by the press as "muscular." Scott Walker apparently thrilled the crowd by telling them that terrorists are coming to America, and "I want a leader who is willing to take the fight to them before they take the fight to us." But the real good stuff came from Marco Rubio:

"On our strategy on global jihadists and terrorists, I refer them to the movie Taken. Have you seen the movie Taken? Liam Neeson. He had a line, and this is what our strategy should be: 'We will look for you, we will find you, and we will kill you.'"

Ah, the inspiringly sophisticated foreign policy thinking of the GOP candidate. I'm old enough to remember when we had another president who liked to sound like a movie-star tough guy. "There's an old poster out West, as I recall," he said when asked about Osama bin Laden, "that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" You'll recall that it was a different president who was in charge when bin Laden was found. "There are some who feel like that the conditions are such that they can attack us there," he said about Iraqi insurgents early on in the war. "My answer is, bring 'em on." They came, and thousands of American servicemembers were killed in the ensuing fighting. But George W. Bush was praised at the time for his "moral clarity."

We shouldn't forget Hillary Clinton—I doubt she wants to talk much about Iraq, since she supported the war at the time (which was one of the biggest reasons she lost to Barack Obama in 2008). She should explain how the Iraq War will inform her thinking about the foreign policy challenges the next president is likely to face. But twelve years after the war started, we're back in Iraq (albeit with boots hovering in midair). Large swaths of the country have been taken over by a terrorist group that emerged out of the war's chaos. And the glorious flowering of freedom and democracy across the region that George W. Bush promised hasn't come to pass.

So there's a basic question the Republican candidates should answer: Is there anything they learned from the Iraq War? Anything at all?

[Scuba]

1. Support for this war should be a disqualifier for any candidate from either party.

Millions of us knew it was a mistake.

http://world.time.com/2013/02/15/viewpoint-why-was-the-biggest-protest-in-world-history-ignored/

Roughly 10 million to 15 million people (estimates vary widely) assembled and marched in more than 600 cities: as many as 3 million flooded the streets of Rome; more than a million massed in London and Barcelona; an estimated 200,000 rallied in San Francisco and New York City. From Auckland to Vancouver — and everywhere in between — tens of thousands came out, joining their voices in one simple, global message: no to the Iraq war.

[on point]

2. Agreed! Dis-qualifier. Conned, Corrupt, Craven or Co-conspirator?

Why exactly did you support the war? Anyone of these means you are unfit for office.

The fig leaf being put out about 'what we knew at the time' doesn't wash given there was plenty of openly available info that made it obvious Bush was a liar. If you believed the lies, then you are incompetent.

Among them:
Hans Blick
Scott Ritter
Seymour Hersh
The ridiculous cartoons and story told in front of the UN and world by Colin Powell

That fig leaf is an attempt of those who went for the war to find an excuse as to why it wasn't their fault. The 'intelligence' wasn't bad, it was an obvious lie that made it convenient for the craven to hang their hat on it.

It only cost the US $3 trillion dollars (war, materials and veteran support), plus a million lives.

[Caretha]

3. What you said Scuba!

Over 1 million humans killed, maimed, orphaned, displaced....isn't a mistake. Anyone who supported the illegal war in Iraq is a war criminal and deserves prosecution, and anyone who thinks it is okay, voted for it or took holding those responsible "off the table" is complicit and deserves prosecution also.

Take them to the Hague & try them.

It was NOT a mistake! I repeat, it was NOT a mistake, it was planned and was perpetrated by treasonous evil bastards.

[BrotherIvan]

4. Plus infinity!

The idea that a politician at the highest levels--who saw the aftermath of Iraq I while her husband was in office--was FOOLED? But millions of people around the world weren't??? And this is the person we are supposed to elect to lead this country? Someone who put, at best, political expediency above the lives of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE? No way. No way no how. They thought they could get away with it. THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD GET AWAY WITH IT. And now we're going to let them get away with it?????

[BrotherIvan]

5. All of these people knew it was a LIE

But our "leaders" had no clue?