Dead U.S. MarinesFour Years. Its now been 4 years since the United States of America attacked, conquered and ruined Iraq in an unprovoked and unnecessary act of War.
I will not use this space today to recount the lies, scandals, crimes and horrors of the last four years, by this time we are all familiar with them. Whether as an outraged opponent of the war from the start, as someone who supported it in the beginning and changed their tune or as someone who myopically still supports it, we are all aware of the horrors regardless of how we interpret and speak about them.
There were many of us back in 2002 who knew what would happen, what horrors awaited the world and how this war would make things worse rather than better. We were ignored. We were ignored by a neo-theocratic, war-loving American hegemonist conservative wing of government that had been planning this war since 1992, that codified it in 1997 and had the excuse to launch it in 2001.
The legacy of this campaign is pitiful and its lasting damage cannot yet be fully calculated. It is sad to think about what could have been accomplished with the four years and $500 billion the war has thus far cost. Money, time and resources that could have really gone to battling jihadism and terrorism, not to mention the other domestic and foreign issues that could have been address.
Instead we are left with a world scarred by devastation, a U.S. that is hated and discredited around the world and country that is culturally divided on a scale that can only be compared to the Civil Rights and Civil War eras.
The war that was sold as being necessary to the survival and safety of the grossly named "American Homeland" and as THE blunt instrument that would ensue American dominance abroad has:
-Empowered Iran as the dominant power in the Middle East
-Allowed North Korea to go nuclear
-Seen the almost complete destruction of Iraq
-Left hundreds of thousands on both sides dead, maimed and ruined
Has enriched any and all involved in the petro-military industrial complex - which I guess was the point all along.
I will not use this space today to recount the lies, scandals, crimes and horrors of the last four years, by this time we are all familiar with them. Whether as an outraged opponent of the war from the start, as someone who supported it in the beginning and changed their tune or as someone who myopically still supports it, we are all aware of the horrors regardless of how we interpret and speak about them.
There were many of us back in 2002 who knew what would happen, what horrors awaited the world and how this war would make things worse rather than better. We were ignored. We were ignored by a neo-theocratic, war-loving American hegemonist conservative wing of government that had been planning this war since 1992, that codified it in 1997 and had the excuse to launch it in 2001.
The legacy of this campaign is pitiful and its lasting damage cannot yet be fully calculated. It is sad to think about what could have been accomplished with the four years and $500 billion the war has thus far cost. Money, time and resources that could have really gone to battling jihadism and terrorism, not to mention the other domestic and foreign issues that could have been address.
Instead we are left with a world scarred by devastation, a U.S. that is hated and discredited around the world and country that is culturally divided on a scale that can only be compared to the Civil Rights and Civil War eras.
The war that was sold as being necessary to the survival and safety of the grossly named "American Homeland" and as THE blunt instrument that would ensue American dominance abroad has:
-Empowered Iran as the dominant power in the Middle East
-Allowed North Korea to go nuclear
-Seen the almost complete destruction of Iraq
-Left hundreds of thousands on both sides dead, maimed and ruined
Has enriched any and all involved in the petro-military industrial complex - which I guess was the point all along.
posted by thephoenixnyc at 2:15 PM.
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