The Iraq War retrospective Thread

[Occhidiangela]

I don't need to justify the starting of a war. I claimed Saddam, and his Tikriti mob were scumbags who deserved their fate.

Then the game is to body snatch them.

Two men well in the public eye, both of whom were far better versed in foreign policy and bayonets than you or I, Anthony Zinni and James Webb (there were others, but those were two men I have met) were publically and vocally opposed to the war in Iraq due not to any silly moral argument, like what is going on in this thread, but from a powerful practical geotstrategic argument:

By taking out Iraq, Iran's core rival is neutralized, and the biggest pain in the nose to American policy in the Persian Gulf, Iran, wins out by default, all risks of Iraq fragmenting like Yugoslavia being extra salt in the wound. Containment worked for 40 years vs the USSR, and has worked more or less for fifty plus years versus North Korea. The argument for "why now" was never answered. Please do a search on my name, and the "why now" question on this forum if you like.

The policy decision to implement democracy at the point of a bayonet was a gamble, not a risk, that assumed away a lot of unpleasantness within the borders of what is called "Iraq" due to British lines on a map.

Saddam being deposed as a good thing, sorta, but two things that attended it are not so good:

Five straight years of Civil War in Iraq
Saddam's hanging, and the political message that sent: yeah, it was a lynchmob we supported by going over there.

A variety of lesser bad things have also come out of this Iraq war, which need not be listed here.

Occhi