Iraq is still a mess

The Iraq war was supposed to be about WMDs. The longstanding joke in Washington was that “we knew he had weapons of mass destruction, because we still have the receipts.” But, the UN weapons inspectors told us before the invasion that there were no WMDs; the Bush Administration chose to ignore them. The State Department prepared detailed post-invasion plans to avoid the very situation we now face; the Bush Administration chose to ignore them. By hyping the faulty pre-war intelligence, the Bush Administration overcame the good sense of those who might have otherwise objected to a “pre-emptive war.”

President Bush seems to be standing alone among US and world political leaders who think that the war in Iraq can still attain the originally intended outcome: a stable democracy with a government friendly to the US.

That outcome was never realistic for several reasons: much of the planning and pretext for the war was based on false information, mostly provided by self-serving, ambitious, corrupt businessmen like Ahmed Chalabi. The war plans never took into account that the Iraqi people knew full well that Saddam Hussein was supported by the US for years – until he turned into an ungrateful child.

The Iraqi people simply don’t trust America. They see our actions as self-serving Imperialism, protecting oil reserves for US consumption. Is there any other way for them to see it?

The Bush Administration has seriously damaged US interests in the Middle East and the world by their sheer ineptitude. Neoconservative ideology is now bankrupt. Neoconservatives were a small minority within the conservative coalition – given power by the larger factions: Christian conservatives and traditional Goldwater conservatives. Strange bedfellows have produced a frightful spawn.

As political groups seek solutions to the Iraq problem, I hope with every suggestion there is a preface, that goes something like this, “This war was a huge mistake, created under false pretenses and incompetently handled.”

Why bring this up now? Because if we don’t admit and acknowledge our mistakes, we will likely make them again.

Jon Monday