"It's pretty interesting that all the generals see it the same way, and all the others who have never fired a shot, and are hot to go to war, see it another…
"We are about to do something that will ignite a fuse in this region that we will rue the day we ever started."http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/10/17/zinni/index.htmlGHW Bush, 1998;"Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/history/2003/0419reasonsnot.htmNorman Schwarzkopf - Four Star General - 1/28/03:"The general who commanded U.S. forces in the 1991 Gulf War says he hasn't seen enough evidence to convince him that his old comrades Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Paul Wolfowitz are correct in moving toward a new war now. He thinks U.N. inspections are still the proper course to follow.
He's worried about the cockiness of the U.S. war plan, and even more by the potential human and financial costs of occupying Iraq….(And don't get him started on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld)"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52450-2003Jan27?language=printerCol. David Hackworth (dec), America's most highly decorated soldier:"Should the president decide to stay the war course, hopefully at least a few of our serving top-uniformed leaders - those who are now covertly leaking that war with Iraq will be an unparalleled disaster - will do what many Vietnam-era generals wish they would have done: stand tall and publicly tell the America people the truth about another bad war that could well lead to another died-in-vain black wall. Or even worse."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29786James Webb, former Sec. of Navy under Ronald Reagan, Decorated Marine Veteran - Navy Cross, Silver Star, and Purple Heart:"Do we really want to occupy Iraq for the next 30 years? …In Japan, American occupation forces quickly became 50,000 friends. In Iraq, they would quickly become 50,000 terrorist targets…. Nations such as China can only view the prospect of an American military consumed for the next generation by the turmoil of the Middle East as a glorious windfall."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A34847-2002Sep3"A Republican Dissent on Iraq" Full page ad in Wall Street Journal by major GOP contributors:
"Mr. President, …The candidate we supported in 2000 promised a more humble nation in our dealings with the world. We gave him our votes and our campaign contributions. That candidate was you. We feel betrayed. We want our money back. We want our country back…. A Billion Bitter enemies will rise out of this war."
- Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2003
The Cost of Invading Iraq: Imponderables Meet Uncertainties Allowing for a 3 percent chance that the Iraqi regime would evolve into a benign government in any future year and a 2 percent real interest rate, the economists reckoned that the cost of pursuing a containment strategy was $258 billion to $380 billion. "This dwarfs any reasonable estimate of U.S. war costs," they wrote at the time. Their anticipated price tag for the war, which they considered conservative, was $125 billion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/30/business/worldbusiness/30scene.htmlIn December the President fired Lawrence Lindsey, his chief economic adviser, after Lindsey offered a guess that the total cost might be $100 billion to $200 billion.http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200410/fallowsIn a statement Monday, Reid cited the report in laying out the specifics of what the Bush administration knew -- and ignored -- in January of 2003, months before the Iraq invasion:
Bush "Willfully Ignored Experts" Before Iraq WarIn a statement Monday, Reid cited the report in laying out the specifics of what the Bush administration knew -- and ignored -- in January of 2003, months before the Iraq invasion:
That installing democracy would "be a long, difficult, and probably turbulent challenge" in Iraq.
That Al Qaeda "would try to take advantage of US attention on postwar Iraq to reestablish its presence in Afghanistan."
That Iraq "was a deeply divided society that likely would engage in violent conflict unless an occupying power prevented it."
That the United States' occupation of Iraq "would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups."
That Iraq's neighbors would jockey for influence in Iraq, "including fomenting strife among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups."
That "some elements in the Iranian government could decide to try to counter aggressively the U.S. presence in Iraq or challenge U.S. goals."
That our action in Iraq "would not cause other regional states to abandon their WMD programs, or their desire to develop such programs."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-geiger/reid-bush-willfully-ign_b_50759.htmlThere's so many links to so many experts who warned "the commander of stupids". And he ignored them all.
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