Deceptions
A couple of important stories out today: Senate committee: Bush knew Iraq claims weren’t true and more information on our permanent bases in Iraq.
The first isn’t anything new. We’ve known that the White House ignored whatever information wasn’t useful to their case for war. That meant ignoring consensus on al Qaeda-Iraq ties and ignoring significant dissent over uranium from Africa. A significant portion of their case was based on some evidence, so it’s hard to say they were lying (about all of it, anyway). Still, twisting the facts to make the case for an invasion that would cost significant loss of life is intolerable.
The second story is also not surprising, but still worth mentioning. Our presence in the Middle East drives terrorist recruitment. When we choose our excursions wisely (Afghanistan, for now) the benefits (a weakened and scattered al Qaeda) outweigh the costs (anger over our presence and civilian deaths). When we don’t, well, we get Iraq. Neocon fantasies about an Iraq that loves us and helps us in the region aren’t reality. Our presence there is toxic.
Bush knew days in advance to talking to Congress and the American people that there was no threat posed by Iraq. It is apparent that he either didn’t read the intelligence (incompetence) or ignored it (lied).
But it’s far more endemic than that – people talk as if it is something new. In my lifetime the U.S. has gone to war many, many times, never for stated reasons. Truth is, people like wars, and there’s a type of person among us who likes to fight and kill, and we’ve got to keep them occupied. So there will always be a war of some kind bubbling, declared and open, or secret and hidden. When a war effort is so large as to require support of the American public, they will always like – they will also do things like make up foreign attacks, as they did at Tonkin, or goad someone into provocative action, as they did with Hussein in 1990 and with the Russians in Afghanistan in 1979.
Get over it guys. That’s how the country is run. Not gonna change anytime soon. Got to keep our warriors occupied, our defense contractors fed.
“They will always lie” – not “like”