I don’t really care to have a debate with Dick Cheney and George W. Bush over whether or not Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. I don’t care what we call it. It doesn’t matter. The President explained our mission in Iraq in his 2003 State of the Union speech:
Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why? The only possible explanation, the only possible use he could have for those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or attack.
With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly havoc in that region. And this Congress and the America people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own.
Bush told us that Saddam had spent enormous sums and taken enormous risks to pursue weapons of mass destruction. That wasn’t true, and our intelligence agencies never said it was true. They said they thought he might have done that. They said there were grounds to assume the worst. They never told the President that they had proof. Despite enormous pressure to find a link between Saddam and bin-Laden, our intelligence agencies refused to make any such link. No one in our intelligence agencies predicted that Saddam Hussein had the capability or the intention of attacking any of his neighbors, and they told the President that he would only consider giving WMD to terrorists if he concluded we were going to topple his government.
There was a minor intelligence error, in that the intelligence agencies did believe that Saddam had retained some WMD and might be pursuing some WMD programs. But, Bush’s arguments for war were never backed up by the intelligence agencies.
His scare tactics were pure propaganda. Take a look at the rest of his justification…(below)
Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans — this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known. We will do everything in our power to make sure that that day never comes. (Applause.)
Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option. (Applause.)
The dictator who is assembling the world’s most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages — leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained — by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning. (Applause.)
And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country — your enemy is ruling your country. (Applause.) And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation. (Applause.)
The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. America will not accept a serious and mounting threat to our country, and our friends and our allies. The United States will ask the U.N. Security Council to convene on February the 5th to consider the facts of Iraq’s ongoing defiance of the world. Secretary of State Powell will present information and intelligence about Iraqi’s legal — Iraq’s illegal weapons programs, its attempt to hide those weapons from inspectors, and its links to terrorist groups.
Colin Powell went on to deliver his presentation to the United Nations and despite throwing out most of the evidence he was given, because it was ‘garbage’, Powell’s presentation turned out to be nearly 100% wrong.
All of Bush’s stated reasons for invading Iraq were false, many of them fabricated. How much should the American public be asked to sacrifice to prevent the catastrophic repercussions of Bush’s recklessness?
As Chuck Hagel said yesterday:
“I think it’s important that we stop this talk about we’re not going to leave until we achieve victory,” Hagel said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Well, what is victory? We achieved victory: Saddam’s gone, the Iraqis have a constitution, they had an election, it’s now up to them.”
We have no business being in Iraq. In three years we have been unable to improve the lives of Iraqis as measured by almost any metric. The cost of the war is prohibitively expensive. And there is little reason to hope things are improving, or have much prospect of improving any time soon.
A phased withdrawal from Iraq is now the only policy that makes any sense and that has any prospect of drawing public support. We can move our troops back to Kuwait and perhaps leave a presence in Kurdistan to deter any aggressive moves from Turkey, Iran, or the Shi’a dominated central government. We can continue to provide training and logistical support to the elected government. We can even maintain some mobile air units for emergency assistance.
But, it is now time to pull our troops out of Iraq and accept the consequences of our failed leadership. The President ignored his own intelligence experts, his own diplomats, and his own military planners. He lied to the American people. He refused to correct course. Three years on, his war is lost. His legacy is shit. And his quail-hunting sidekick can’t wish it away with crap like this:
But CBS anchor Bob Schieffer bluntly challenged Cheney on his own string of prognostications, such as his pre-invasion assertion that U.S. troops would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators and, 10 months ago, that the insurgency was in its “last throes.”
Cheney replied that those statements were “basically accurate and reflect reality,” but that public perceptions of Iraq’s progress are being skewed “because what’s newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad.”
No one is listening anymore, Dick. Not even your friends.
