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Mon Mar 22 2010
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Departments War in Iraq
How to Lose a War in Ten Days
by Larry Fairbanks
April 1, 2003
We went to the theater tonight and saw, “How to lose a guy in ten days.“
It was not the best movie I have ever seen. You might enjoy it more than
I especially if you like “chick flicks”. I am predisposed by gender to
be a hard sell. When I see an unending array of ulterior transactions,
what Eric Berne would call game like behavior, I start to wince. When I
started seeing it as an analogy to the current political dilemma that we
are facing, I started enjoying it a lot more.
A very tragic aspect of the war against Iraq is that the administration
has convinced so many good people to help him do this terrible thing by
telling them that it is necessary and good for America, good for Iraq,
and good for the world. More and more people are asking themselves if
the purpose of this war is to protect our freedoms or to support Bush’s
re-election.
Look at what we have lost even if the military succeeds in all the
objectives they have set for themselves. The cost in billions of dollars
that could have been used to improve education, rebuild highways provide
health care and job training can never be recouped. The damage done to
our international relations and our image in the world as a proponent of
freedom cannot be easily or quickly undone. The erosion of our faith in
elected leaders, even when they are not the ones that we voted for will
not return any time soon after we have been offered a smorgasbord of
ever changing justification that have too often been shown to be
contrived, erroneous or unjustified.
With less than two weeks behind us, we have seen long time allies
forsake us and allegiances formed that we would never have though
possible because we are their common enemy. North Korea is using the
precedent we have set in Iraq to justify refusing inspections of nuclear
weapons development facilities. China and Russia who were once warming
their relationship to America are now showing an ever increasing concern
with military preparedness. This does not bode well for our future.
Fairly impartial countries in the Arab world are growing increasingly
distrustful of the stories coming from the coalition as they are
repeatedly shown to be lacking in truth. Those who once despised Saddam
Hussein are starting to see him as the heroic opposition to American
aggression.
Over confidence, Impatience and Bad Communications
The current spat between Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks over
whether to attack Baghdad immediately or to stop to rest and re-group
has brought to the forefront aspects of the administration strategy to
conduct a hi-tech war with reduced reliance on ground troops. Rumsfeld
started the war too soon, before all of the troops were in place and
their equipment had been delivered to Iraq, against the advice of the
military. Bush wanted his war despite the advice of the military, his
own intelligence agencies, friendly governments, and even his own
father! What we are seeing is a logic impaired leadership that is
determined to maintain its own myopic path, regardless of the cost to
our future.
One of the reason for the impatience is practical, if the war lasts into
the summer heat will greatly impede the progress of the coalition. A
more compelling reason may be that the justification for the war was
disintegrating. In early March, the story that the Iraqis had purchased
tones of uranium ore from Niger was rapidly falling apart, and the claim
that aluminum tube they had purchased were intended for a centrifuge
device had also been debunked. That left the story about gassing the
Kurds, which was refuted around 1990 as the primary justification, along
with an array of unverifiable antidotal evidence. In addition, the
invasion would pre-empt any further UN weapons inspections which had not
bolstered the case for war, and had only exonerated the Iraqis.
Bait and switch
Contrary to the claims by the administration, a quick review shows that
the comments the Vice President made a few days before the start of the
war were directly contradicted almost as soon as the war started by
Cheney himself. Estimates varied widely as to the cost and the number of
troops required, the actual figures will exceed the high end. The over
optimism was obviously to sell the war knowing all the time that there
would be no way to turn back once committed. Once the commitment was
made, the President started saying the war might be long and costly.
Lost already?
Wars are not games, so applying game terminology to them is
inappropriate. They either succeed in improving the status of the
country in some relevant respect or they make things worse. In the long
run, the damage this war will do to us outweighs anything that we can
reasonably expect to gain. When you look back and ask yourself, “Why did
we ever get involved in that situation?” you can reasonably consider it
a loss. After a week and a half, I don’t see any other way that this
conflict will be regarded in the future, and the situation is getting worse.
Copyright C.S. Fairbanks, Jr. 2003
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Don't forget to check out articles from 2009 and 2010War in Iraq
"US to release 140 detainees from Guantanamo" December 7, 2003 Bill Mandel
"Bush II Foreign Policy: Naked Recklessness or is it Treason?" November 7, 2003 Bob Zimmerman
"Protesters Want U.S. Out of Iraq" October 26, 2003 William Hughes
"Corporations Are the Only Victors in Iraq" September 15, 2003 Devin Nordberg
"Dems Scrap Plans To Look Into Claims White House Manipulated Intel On Iraqi Threat " September 14, 2003 Jason Leopold
"A question almost unthinkable" August 9, 2003 James R. Hanson
"Wolfowitz: Iraq Was Not Involved In 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, No Ties To Al-Qaeda" August 6, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Hope out of Quagmire: New peace movement opportunities" July 30, 2003 Paul Rogat Loeb
"Kucinich: U.S. Troops Out!" July 29, 2003 Kucinich Campaign
"White House Said In Jan It Used Info From Iraqi Exiles In Pres State of the Union Speech" July 28, 2003 Jason Leopold
"CIA Probe Finds Secret Pentagon Group Manipulated Intelligence on Iraqi Threat " July 25, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Letter from Peggy Gish, CPT Iraq" July 25, 2003 Peggy Gish
"16 questions for Bush" July 21, 2003 Free Press Staff
"Is the Bush Doctrine Tenable?" July 16, 2003 Jesse Lee
"Wolfowitz Committee Instructed White House To Use Iraq/Uranium Ref In Pres Speech " July 16, 2003 Jason Leopold
"'The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions'" July 15, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Trickle Down Lying; The Gamble Failed and it's Time for the Bush Regime to Pay, Starting with Cheney's Impeachment " July 15, 2003 Rob Kall
"Tenet Fell on His Sword for 9-11 Too" July 12, 2003 Allan P. Duncan
"Like Iraq, CIA Also Exaggerated Soviet Nuclear Threat During Cold War" June 30, 2003 Jason Leopold
"CIA Intelligence Reports Seven Months Before 9-11 Said Iraq Posed No Threat To U.S., Containment Was Working " June 28, 2003 Jason Leopold
"CPT Report from Iraq" June 26, 2003 Gene Stoltzfus
"Wolfowitz Sought To Undermine Blix So US Could Launch Preemptive Strike Against Iraq in 02" June 25, 2003 Jason Leopold
"CPT Iraq Team reports from Iraq" June 20, 2003 Peggy Gish
"Anti-war music" June 17, 2003 Various Artists
"White House Silenced Experts Who Questioned Iraq Intel Info Six Months Before War" June 12, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Powell Denies Intelligence Failure In Buildup To War, But Evidence Doesn't Hold Up " June 10, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Was Always Based On Shaky Evidence And Wrong Intelligence Info" June 3, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Wolfowitz Admits Iraq War Planned Two Days After 9-11" June 2, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Nuking Iraq" May 28, 2003 William Thomas
"Rover Lost in Paradise" May 28, 2003 P. Thomas Harker
"Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans To Overthrow Iranian Regime" May 28, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Defense Dept Secretly Tapped Halliburton Unit To Operate Iraq's Oil Industry In November" May 14, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Cheney’s Old Company Continues To Break Law’s While Profiting From Terror" May 9, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Michael Moore Was Right" April 20, 2003 The Concerned Rev
"Other Hearts" April 18, 2003 Kathy Kelly
"War Fact Sheet" April 18, 2003 BulletinBoardforPeace.org
"A contemporary chronology of Iraq " April 15, 2003 Link
"Company Chosen By Pentagon To Extinguish Iraqi Oil Well Fires Has History Of Supporting Terrorist Regimes" April 15, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Rad Times Email Update 6" April 14, 2003 Rad Times
"Iraq URL list" April 7, 2003 Rad Times
"How to Lose a War in Ten Days" April 1, 2003 Larry Fairbanks
"Rummy's Failed War Plan And The Casualties That May Result" March 31, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Transgendered anti-war protester verbally, physically abused by police" March 28, 2003 Robyn Walters
"Ohio Muslims open dialogue with FBI" March 27, 2003 Jad Humeidan
"Women's Organizations Worldwide Urge General Assembly to "Unite for Peace"" March 27, 2003 Sarah Widmer
"The Reality of War Sinks In With Casualties of U.S. and British Soldiers" March 25, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Statement to the Troops" March 24, 2003 Veterans of the United States armed forces
"This War Is Illegal" March 23, 2003 Robin Miller
"Message from Baghdad" March 22, 2003 Jeff Guntzel of Iraq Peace Team
"Vets To Top US Military Commanders: Remember Nuremberg" March 20, 2003 Veterans for Peace
"A plea to Laura Bush to assume the Presidency" March 19, 2003 Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Christian Peacemakers report from the Middle East" March 19, 2003 Peggy Gish
"Why I had to leave the cabinet" March 19, 2003 Robin Cook
"No Support for War" March 19, 2003 James "Guin" McGuinness
"Forgery of evidence against Iraq will become easier, tonight" March 19, 2003 Leonardo Rodrigo
"Even As Bombs Drop, Hypocrisy Prevails" March 19, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Letters to Americans from Iraqi High School Students" March 19, 2003 Transmitted by Iraq Peace Team
"INTERNATIONAL LAW: A duty to disobey all unlawful orders" March 17, 2003 Dr. Lawrence Mosqueda
"Diplomacy and no first use of nukes urged in Iraq crisis" March 17, 2003 Paul Kawika Martin
"Howard Dean's statement on the President's decision to send U.S. Military troops into war against Iraq" March 17, 2003 Howard Dean, M.D.
"Letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush" March 17, 2003 Michael Moore
"Pres Bush Reminds World of Iraq’s Crimes Against Humanity That His Father Failed To Punish" March 16, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Global Crisis: Grave Danger -- and Great Opportunity" March 13, 2003 John McConnell -- The Man Who Started Earth Day
"Rumsfeld, Bush Sr. Refused To Back 1989 UN Resolution To Investigate Iraq For Human Rights Abuses" March 13, 2003 Jason Leopold
"What Can the World Do if the US Attacks Iraq? " March 10, 2003 Jeremy Brecher
"U.S. Could Launch Attack Against North Korea While Troops Fight In Iraq, Rumsfeld Says " March 10, 2003 Jason Leopold
"With War Looming, Iraqi Oil Imports May Be Strained; Time To Open Up ANWR, GOP Says" March 9, 2003 Jason Leopold
"George W. Bush Must Answer to the People" March 7, 2003 www.votetoimpeach.org
"Bush Sr. Said In 1996 That War With Iraq `Would Turn Entire Arab World Against Us’" March 6, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Bush and America's willing executioners would be guilty at Nuremberg" March 4, 2003 Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"For Six Years, Right-Wing Think Tank Has Been Hell-Bent For War" February 27, 2003 Jason Leopold
"Dennis Kucinich on CNN's Crossfire" February 22, 2003 Dennis Kucinich
"Questions about who set the oil well fires in Kuwait" February 21, 2003 American Gulf War Veterans Association
"Words of Wisdom From An Armor Master" February 20, 2003 SFC Red Thomas, USA(Ret), Armor Master Gunner,Mesa, AZ
"U.S. Bombings" January 26, 2003 Free Press Staff
"Iraq attack will usher in New World Oil Order" January 26, 2003 Michael Renner, Sr. Researcher, Worldwatch Institute
"LEAKED WHITE HOUSE TRANSCRIPT: BUSH, CHENEY, ETC." January 14, 2003 Lee Waters
Related Journal articles:
"Reflections of a virgin activist: March on Washington October 25th, 2003" December 2, 2003
"Halliburton’s Iran connection" December 2, 2003
"War costs our children’s future" August 2, 2003
"The Iraq War, continued..." August 2, 2003
"A Peace Report from Rep. Dennis Kucinich" May 23, 2003
"Bush’s Alderaan" May 23, 2003
"Why the UN must disarm the United States -- Rogue nation exposed!" January 26, 2003
"The high cost of an attack on Iraq" January 26, 2003
"War with Iraq" January 26, 2003
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