The Republicans dumped Bin Laden and went after Iraq instead. They abandoned their pursuit of a threat to us all and chased after the ghosts of Iraq and its supposed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) instead, like crusaders going after the True Cross. The WMDs proved as real as has the True Cross. But that didn’t matter: it still managed to get us involved in the Middle East quagmire nonetheless, and at a huge, horrible cost–here are some of the costs:
*the cost of 10,000’s of lives between both sides (most of the deaths being innocent civilians),
*the cost of $314,600,000,000+ (we’re broke, folks),
*the cost of old alliances, and
*the cost of a super-recharged hatred of the Arab world.
From the Frontline episode, “The Dark Side.”
STEVE COLL, Author, Ghost Wars: The conditions for al Qaeda’s retreat were quite favorable, and the United States did not do the one thing that the Pentagon had within its power to do, which was to move regular U.S. troops into a blocking position behind these mountains.
GARY SCHROEN[, Author, First In,], CIA agent, recalls: Well, you could see changes being made in the U.S. military staffing in Afghanistan, that the Green Beret units, the 5th Special Forces group, for the most of it, were being pulled out to refit and get ready for Iraq. And it was clear that the kind of guys that I think a lot of us believed were essential U.S. military personnel with special operations capabilities were being pulled away. (Emphasis mine.)
Sen. BOB GRAHAM (D-FL), Select Comte. on Intel. 2001-03 states: [General Franks] said, "Senator, I would like to speak with you privately." We went into his room, and he proceeded to tell me that they weren’t fighting a war in Afghanistan, that they were, in fact, beginning to redeploy assets. And he particularly mentioned Special Operations personnel and the Predator unmanned aircraft as examples of assets that were being redeployed from Afghanistan to get ready for Iraq. (Emphasis mine.)
More on the cost in increasing Arab hatred thanks to the Republican neocons’ idiocies.
