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Iraq
The Iraq War Was A Mistake. So Why Can't Gen. Petraeus Finally Admit It?
2018-03-23
That is one opinion, certainly. Another might be that the Obama pull out was the mistake. Or allowing the State Department to take over administering post-invasion Iraq instead of leaving it in the hands of the Army. As for me, I’d rather the bad guys were fighting and dying in their homeland than in mine.
[Task & Purpose] Just days after the 15th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, I wonder why it’s still difficult for one of our nation’s most-respected commanders of the war, Gen. David Petraeus, to admit what many already know: Going into Iraq was a mistake.

Petraeus was asked recently by Task & Purpose whether the Iraq War was worth it. Here’s how he responded:
"I think everybody who was in Iraq, who served there, who knows the sacrifice it entails, who knows the cost in blood and in treasure... has been frustrated to see how the country slid back after we left in late 2011," Petraeus said in an exclusive interview with T&P’s Jeff Schogol. "But at the end of the day, I think we also have a degree of quiet pride that when our country needed us, we answered the call."

My colleague Jeff Schogol didn’t ask Petraeus whether the troops who fought there served honorably, or whether they were frustrated by Iraq’s slide into chaos after withdrawal. But the retired general offered a classic example of deflection. It’s a politician’s answer ‐ instead of addressing the actual question, you just answer the question you prefer to be asked.

Petraeus was offered a simple question: Was it all worth it? Given all that we know now, should we have invaded in 2003? And yet, he dodged it. Why?

Admitting it was a mistake isn’t controversial among most in the national security field, or even the public writ large.

Americans were told of a possible "mushroom cloud" brought on by Saddam Hussein’s (non-existent) nukes and other weapons of mass destruction ‐ claims all based on faulty intelligence that former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz later admitted was just a convenient excuse for war.
Posted by:Besoeker

#9  I wanted to believe that Bush knew what he was doing in Iraq. Now we know better. Live and learn. These days I believe the best revenge against Arabs is to leave them to their own devices.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2018-03-23 11:44  

#8  Sorry got the commie bastards company name wrong. It is now Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2018-03-23 11:15  

#7  People in my old company in the 82nd died from those non-existent WMD's. Trapped and exposed in a WMD chemical storage bunker with no gear. Buried info now.

This "Task and Purpose" org is just another one to hate. And Mueller was involved in the finding? Find a link between him and Jamie Gorelick. Oh wait, another traitor from Hale and Dorr, now Wilmer Pickering Hale and Dorr. A nest of traitors since the '50's. Maybe earlier, I can't tell. But commies all.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike   2018-03-23 11:09  

#6  Going in was no mistake. The ultimate pursuit of the war absolutely was. We had the chance to do the right thing and on multiple levels in '91 and stopped for no intelligible reason.
Posted by: Cesare   2018-03-23 11:05  

#5  WMD = chemical, biological, nuclear.

Reminder of all the chemical weapons seized and destroyed since occupying Iraq. Stuff that was suppose to have been gone well before we went back in. Remember the freak out when ISIS occupied one of the site were the material was being processed out of weapon status?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2018-03-23 08:38  

#4  This is the second time I've seen a story from "Task & Purpose". Folks, it claims it's for US servicemen, but it has a regular column titled "The Long March". Caveat emptor.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2018-03-23 07:58  

#3  The war wasn't a mistake - Muslims, and Arabs especially, need to be reminded periodically who is who and what is what. "Nation building", now that was a mistake!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2018-03-23 05:04  

#2  Going in wasn't the mistake. Leaving too soon was the mistake. Anything else is a bullshit lie.

Playing the "with what you know now" game is absolute horseshit and deserves no answer. We did not know then with any certainty, and we did have indicators that pointed toward WMD there, especially with the game-playing with UN inspectors and so on. So we had to act or risk a mass destruction attack on the US. The September 11th attacks showed that we cannot remain complacent, nor can we wait for "perfect" intelligence.

Anything to the contrary is just a bunch of crap by people trying to rewrite history and play "gotcha". Screw them.
Posted by: OldSpook   2018-03-23 03:05  

#1  You know who wrote the infamous fake WMD memo that was used to justify the war? Robert S. Mueller III. Yup, that same one. And people say the Deep State doesn't exist. The smoking gun:

https://fas.org/irp/congress/2003_hr/021103mueller.html
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309   2018-03-23 01:50  

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