Reflections On a Major Debacle
Preface: Many experts and alternative writers pointed out the false justifications and huge downsides before the Iraq war started. I know for a fact that many letters and phone calls were made to Congress in an attempt to stop the war.
And the protests against the Iraq war were the largest protests in history [9].
Yet the politicians plowed ahead with the disastrous war and refused to listen to the facts ... or the will of the people.
The Iraq war started 10 years ago. This is a roundup of the facts that have been documented about the debacle in the last decade.
The War Was Planned Long Before 9/11
The American government planned the Iraq war long before 9/11 [10].
Former CIA director George Tenet said that the White House wanted to invade Iraq long before 9/11, and inserted “crap” in its justifications for invading Iraq. [11]
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill – who sat on the National Security Council – also says [12] that Bush planned the Iraq war before 9/11.
Top British officials say [13] that the U.S. discussed Iraq regime change even before Bush took office.
In 2000, Cheney said [14] a Bush administration might “have to take military action to forcibly remove Saddam from power.” And see this [15] and this [16].
Indeed, neoconservatives planned regime change in Iraq – and throughout the Middle East and North Africa – 20 years ago [17].
Weapons of Mass Destruction and 9/11
Everyone knew [18] that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction (update here [19]).
U.S. officials are guilty of war crimes for using 9/11 as a false justification [20] for the Iraq war. Indeed, the entire torture program was implemented in an attempt to justify [21] the Iraq war.
American officials considered lettering Saddam should down a U.S. or UN plane, in order to provide a false justification for war [22].
Saddam allegedly [23] offered to leave Iraq if the U.S. would call off the war ... but we refused. We wanted to invade.
The Real Reason
No wonder ...
As even the top Republican leaders have admitted [24], the Iraq war was - in fact - for oil.
War Crimes
The U.S. engaged in a systematic program of torture in Iraq, which rounded up innocent farmers, reporters, old people and children [25]. People were murdered and sexually abused [25] as part of the torture program.
The American military used depleted uranium in Iraq - which can causes cancer and birth defects for decades (see this [26], this [27], this [28], this [29], this [30] and this [31]).
Chemical weapons were used in Falluja [32], which greatly increased the rate of birth defects [33].
The Pentagon sent in one of the main US creators of the death squads in El Salvador to set up paramilitary death squads and torture centers [34] in Iraq.
(And Iraqis are worse off now [35] than before the Iraq war [36]. Christians are more widely persecuted [37] than under Saddam.)
Cost: $5-6 Trillion Dollars
The government claimed that the entire Iraq war would cost $50-60 billion [38]. How much did it really end up costing?
Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimated in 2008 that the Iraq war could cost America up to $5 trillion dollars [39].
But a new study by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies says the Iraq war costs could exceed $6 trillion [40], when interest payments are taken into account.
Given that top economists say that war is bad for the economy [41], the Iraq war is one of the primary reasons for our current economic problems.
The War Has Hurt America's National Security
National security experts – including both hawks and doves – agree that waging war against Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries has weakened America's national security and increased terrorism risks. See this [42], this [43], this [44], this [45], this [46], this [47], this [48] and this. [49]