The lies that launched the Iraq war: "My fellow citizens, at this hour...

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Eric Alterman

Bio

03.22.2007

Think Again: Taking Mr. Bush at his Word

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But one memory worth recalling, since so many in the pro-war punditocracy appear to have caught a rare case of collective amnesia, is the president's sell to the American people at the outset of this catastrophe four years ago this week.

"My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger."

These are the bold words that launched the United States into perhaps its worst foreign policy misadventure in the country's entire history.

"The people you liberate will witness the honorable and decent spirit of the American military. In this conflict, America faces an enemy who has no regard for conventions of war or rules of morality."

How many could have predicted that those words would lead to Abu Ghraib, to Hadaitha, and the sex crimes--many of them directed at female soldiers--committed by American troops; to an increase in the terrorist threat against us; to the destruction of our international reputation; to the disintegration of any kind of personal security for most Iraqis; and the collapse of Iraq's economic infrastructure, to say nothing of the hundreds of billions--potentially trillions--of dollars thrown away in this never-ending sinkhole. And oh yes, the thousands of American soldiers killed, the tens of thousands wounded, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis similarly maimed and killed.

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Iraq By the Numbers:

54: Percentage of troops killed who were 24 years old or younger

9 out of 10: Number of disabled veterans who have been made to wait for benefit evaluations longer than the Pentagon’s own standard of 40 days

Iraqis now equate Bush to Saddam:

Yep, you did it, George--mission impossible accomplished. Unbelievably, four years of a bungled occupation have managed to make Saddam Hussein's tyranny look good in comparison with "liberated Iraq."

At least, that is the view of the Iraqi weightlifter made famous through a video of him taking a sledgehammer to Saddam Hussein's statue.

"I really regret bringing down the statue," Kadhim al-Jubouri said on British television this week. "The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day."

That's the judgment of a man who spent nine years in Hussein's jails, and, unfortunately, it is one shared by a majority of his countrymen, according to an authoritative poll sponsored jointly by ABC, BBC and USA Today: Only 38 percent of Iraqis believe that the country is better off today than under Hussein, while nearly four out of five oppose the presence of coalition forces in Iraq.

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Remember this guy? He's blaming Bush now too:

Occupation of Iraq a failure, Chalabi says

The former exile leader calls the war a success, downplays his role in faulty prewar intelligence.

By Hannah Allam - McClatchy Newspapers

Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A12

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- On the fourth anniversary of the war he peddled as a historic liberation campaign, Ahmad Chalabi on Tuesday sat in his fortress-style villa in Baghdad and pondered what might have been and how it all went wrong.

Chalabi, sipping cardamom tea in an elegantly appointed salon, absolved himself of mistakes and insisted he had no regrets. Instead, he recited a litany of missteps he blames on the Bush administration, the U.S. military and newly minted Iraqi politicians who couldn't overcome their "parochial" interests for the good of the nation.

"The war was a success," Chalabi declared, "and the occupation a failure."

Four years and five assassination attempts since he returned from exile alongside U.S. forces, Chalabi, 62, said he's proud that Iraq has an elected government, a constitution approved by the people and an 80 percent debt reduction brokered largely by the United States.

But he conceded that those successes are overshadowed by an entrenched insurgency, undisciplined Iraqi forces, an expanding U.S. troop presence and a leadership plagued by sectarian rivalries.

Chalabi prefers not to dwell on the faulty prewar intelligence he pushed on hawkish U.S. leaders or his stewardship of the purges of former Baath Party members, which cost thousands of Iraqis their livelihoods just after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

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Recap:

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Bush's Top Ten Mistakes in Iraq during the Past 4 Years

10. Refusing to fire Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when his incompetence and maliciousness became apparent in the growing guerrilla war and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

9. Declining to intervene in the collapsed economy or help put Iraqi state industries back on a good footing, on the grounds that the "market" would magically produce prosperity effortlessly.

8. Invading and destroying the Sunni Arab city of Fallujah in November, 2004, thus pushing the Sunni Arabs into the arms of the insurgency…

7. Suddenly announcing that the US would "kill or capture" young nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in spring, 2004, throwing the country into massive turmoil for months.

6. Replying to Baathist guerrilla provocations with harsh search and destroy missions that humiliated and angered ever more Sunni Arab clans, driving them to support or join the budding guerrilla movement.

5. Putting vengeful Shiites in charge of a Debaathification Commission…

4. Dissolving the Iraqi Army in May, 2003, and sending 400,000 men home, unemployed, resentful and heavily armed.

3. Allowing widespread looting after the fall of Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003, on the grounds that "stuff happens," "democracy is messy," and "how many vases can they have?"…

2. Plotting to install corrupt financier, notorious liar, and shady operator Ahmad Chalabi as the soft dictator of Iraq…

1. Invading Iraq.

The worst foreign policy blunder in U.S. history accomplished.

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1. Kick! n/t