Ten year anniversary invasion of Iraq. What lessons should we have learned?

[IronWing]

I learned that Israel was in control of the US Government back then. They still are today. (See top story on CNN right now)...

Arabs are a threat to Jews. We will continue to fight a war against Arabs (be it Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan) until our "best buddies" have been removed from our government think tank. The government will use whatever execuse that needs to be, be it WMD, Revolts, Buddies with NK, Cyberwarfare, whatever...

The people are still too stupid to figure it out. Because the news (agents) tells them so.

Swap out Israel with Saudi Arabia and I agree. From Iraq to Libya we've been making the world safe for the House of Saud. The fact that it was Saudis (and Egyptians), not Afghanis, who planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks matters not, the Saudis are our friends to the end.

 

[Druidx]

Lessons:

(1.) Don't elect any president with the last name of Bush.

(2.) The Republican Party's presidential darling can lie to the American people, get thousands of Americans killed and injured, and tack on trillions of dollars of debt, but they'll blame it on the next winning Democrat. Also, the "Joe-the-Retarded-Plumber" types will still love the Republican Party.

(3.) The Republicans can do an amazing job of pretending that a president like Bush never existed and was never affiliated with their party.

Just give a free pass to congress especially to all the members who later got elected or re-elected on a anti-bush/anti-war platform, then did nothing because it's wasn't politically expedient.

 

[Genx87]

Heh what lessons have we learned? Apparently not many as we would rather blame the other guys for our mess.

Ill take a real stab at this question.

1. We cant nation build. Democracy must come from within.
2. Occupations dont work with a populace who is resistant. Time is on their side.
3. The pattern of mis-information or lying should be recognizeable the next time we are asked to gear up for war.

 

[Jaskalas]

Ten year anniversary invasion of Iraq. What lessons should we have learned?

That an elective war must be weighed and measured much more than we did.

 

[Moonbeam]

Heh what lessons have we learned? Apparently not many as we would rather blame the other guys for our mess.

Ill take a real stab at this question.

1. We cant nation build. Democracy must come from within.
2. Occupations dont work with a populace who is resistant. Time is on their side.
3. The pattern of mis-information or lying should be recognizeable the next time we are asked to gear up for war.

You realize, I hope, that 'should be' says nothing....

 

[Munky]

Post a thread about it again in 4 years when Obama will have had 8 years in office and we'd still be in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[Mursilis]

What did we learn? Well, that the gov't which can't be trusted to run a war apparently can be trusted to run nearly everything else (retirement, health care, etc.).

 

[WhipperSnapper]

1. We cant nation build. Democracy must come from within.
2. Occupations dont work with a populace who is resistant. Time is on their side.
3. The pattern of mis-information or lying should be recognizeable the next time we are asked to gear up for war.

But did Americans really learn any lessons? If these lessons weren't learned from the Vietnam War, then why would Americans learn them now?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

What did we learn? Well, that the gov't which can't be trusted to run a war apparently can be trusted to run nearly everything else (retirement, health care, etc.).

This may sound ridiculous, but if you look at some of those Scandinavian nations where the government does stuff like that, the people are happier and have an overall higher quality of life and better health care than what we have. Strangest thing.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

It's kinda hard to pretend he doesn't exist when he is the man subject of blame for everything that goes on today.

For example...behind the scenes Bush was told to keep away from the Republican National Convention. Why the hell wouldn't you want your party's last president to speak at your convention? He wasn't invited to travel around stumping for Romney, either.

 

[Mursilis]

This may sound ridiculous, but if you look at some of those Scandinavian nations where the government does stuff like that, the people are happier and have an overall higher quality of life and better health care than what we have. Strangest thing.

I bet they're all living healthier lifestyles too. When over a third of your population (with the highest percentage among your elderly) is obese, health care isn't going to be cheap. Add in our smoking and propensity toward violence, and the costs go up.

 

[Doppel]

Well this prick has learned nothing, was on NPR yesterday or two days ago:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/20/richard-perle-iraq_n_2915085.html

Says basically it's not a good idea to question whether it was a good idea because it already happened.

I think a lot of people have learned something. I have learned first hand just how war mongering the US really is and that presidents are effectively immune from prosecution and also that a lot of the populous is ok with being lied to (still thinks the war was a good idea). Some people do learn, some don't.

 

[Mursilis]

I have learned first hand just how war mongering the US really is and that presidents are effectively immune from prosecution and also that a lot of the populous is ok with being lied to (still thinks the war was a good idea). Some people do learn, some don't.

It's easy to be for a war which is several thousand miles away and which has required no immediate personal or financial sacrifices from most of us. Bring back the draft and jack up taxes to actually pay for these wars, and most of the US would be flashing the peace sign faster than a hippie can put on a tie-dye.

 

[OverVolt]

Heh what lessons have we learned? Apparently not many as we would rather blame the other guys for our mess.

Ill take a real stab at this question.

1. We cant nation build. Democracy must come from within.
2. Occupations dont work with a populace who is resistant. Time is on their side.
3. The pattern of mis-information or lying should be recognizeable the next time we are asked to gear up for war.

Its inevitable we are going to war with Iran.

The true problem is that Iran trades off the world reserve currency, the USD. It undermines America. Iran engaged in trade to India and China, oil for gold. Now we are beating the Iran war drums.

However, China is allied to Iran and has said they will go to war with the USA if we invade Iran.

North Korea trolling us is probably in response to us trolling Iran.

~~The more you know~~

 

[Onceler]

We should have taken their oil. We got blamed for it so might as well take it. I can't stand rebubs who do this, they are going to get blamed for it anyway so might as well.

 

[mistercrabby]

I think we learned a few things: WMD, Scud, UAV, CF or MNF, Surge, CPA, NIE, Sharia, Jihadi, EKIA, IED or RCIED, HVT, TF or JTF. Unfortunately, we re-learned that 18 month combat deployments can destroy families, limbs don't grow back, no matter what we do they will still hate us, the dust in the desert air never goes away, enemy body counts are meaningless and not all wounds are visible.

Let's just bring everyone home already and try to forget it ever happened. Until the next time.



And on that cheery note, Iraqi chicks!

Yeah, i knows this is Salma Hayak, but I couldn't resist-

 

[blankslate]

We've learned that you can sell a war with a good creative team behind the "advertising"

 

[Oyeve]

I learned a lot if Mid East geography.

 

[OverVolt]

I learned a lot if Mid East geography.

LOL me too.

 

[Oyeve]

LOL me too.

Seriously, now i want to visit the middle east. Its so freaking interesting!