If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
It is considered lunacy to suggest that the United States military in Iraq, despite the well recorded blunders and lapses, along with the diplomatic shortcomings—and in comparison to past military campaigns—waged an especially effective campaign to remove Saddam Hussein, stayed on to foster consensual government in the heart of the ancient caliphate, and defeated al Qaeda and its epigones in Anbar province. But that is about what happened—as attested by the Obama administration's sudden adoption ("greatest achievement") of that Sen. Harry Reid's formely "lost" war.
Earlier this week, the Washington Examiner posted this chart and the following data points:
- Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War -- more than $100 billion (15%) more.
- Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.
- Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.
- Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame.
- Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that time frame. The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.
- The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).
- During Bush's Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent about ten times more.)
By conservative standards Bush was profligate in spending and sponsoring new programs without sufficient funding; but compared to the alternative, that is, what we have seen from 2009-10, he was almost frugal. Such statistics on deficits, the war, and borrowing will in time tend to rehabilitate Bush's reputation, and remind us that the real problem are entitlements.
Note also that the return to the Clinton-era income tax schedules, this time will not result in balanced budgets, since there will be no comparable break on spending as once imposed by the Republican-led congress. So this time, we talk not of 40% on the top incomes leading to balanced budgets, but entertain thoughts of desperate additional taxes on inheritance, capital gains, new health care surcharges, lifting caps on income subject to social security payroll taxes, and a possible VAT--all at a time when states and municipalities are raising their own taxes. The level of the spending increases are simply staggering; on the rock-bottom interest rates on that soaring debt have for a brief moment given us a reprieve.
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Aug '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
There are at least three legal bases for impeachment proceedings: 1) Reckless Endangerment, 2) Implied Malice, and 3) Depraved indifference.
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
If one accepts the premise that Saddam's Iraq was never a serious threat,then the Iraq War was not only a total waste of lives and treasure, it also kept us from dealing with the real threat: Iran.
It should have been obvious that Saddam was simply using the illusion of WMD's to keep Iran from devouring him. The reason Saddam didn't want inspectors peeping too closely was that he didn't want Iran to know he didn't have any WMD's.
It should be obvious by now that our effort to build a lasting stable democracy in Iraq is doomed to failure and that whatever follows there will be more of a threat to stability in the region than Saddam ever was.
When we invaded Iraq, I thought, "Oh, this is clever. We're going to kill Saddam, hand over security to some military strongman and then pivot and take out the Mullahs of Tehran. Bravo!"
Instead, we engaged in the fantasy of "nation-building", under the supposition, I can only imagine, that Iraq's shiny, new democracy would somehow magically go viral in the region.
What a disaster. What a waste.
Edited on Aug 26, 2010 at 9:44amMay '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
How can the trolls be out so early? I just don't understand River's post. Are you trying to say Bush should have been impeached? Really???? And Kenneth -- who in their right minds STARTS with your premise? Do you, REALLY??? These strawmen are getting flimsier every day. Please make a serious contribution to Dr Hanson's observations or leave us alone.
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
Wow. Nice ad hominems. And the CAPITALIZING was a real contribution.
May '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
Calm down, folks. Consider it water under the troll bridge.
Kenneth, I agree with your premise that Saddam's sleight of hand was directed at Iran. However, I do think that the main goal of the Bushites was nation-building. They desperately wanted a real Arab democracy in the region. Most of our "friends" in that region are eremites, or principalities. Can't change them. The two most recalcitrant states were Iran and Iraq. If you use the MacArthurian theory that you hit the weakest point, not the strongest, Iraq was the more logical target.
Aug '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
No, I was referring to Obama, who is the subject of Mr. Hanson's piece.
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
EJHill: Calm down, folks. Consider it water under the troll bridge.
Kenneth, I agree with your premise that Saddam's sleight of hand was directed at Iran. However, I do think that the main goal of the Bushites was nation-building. They desperately wanted a real Arab democracy in the region. Most of our "friends" in that region are eremites, or principalities. Can't change them. The two most recalcitrant states were Iran and Iraq. If you use the MacArthurian theory that you hit the weakest point, not the strongest, Iraq was the more logical target. · Aug 26 at 10:12am
Iraq was a logical base for the invasion of the real threat: Iran.
To dream of establishing a democracy in the Arab world is to totally ignore the history of the Arab - and Muslim - world.
Unfortunately, starry-eyed multi-culturalists like Condoleeza Rice were enamored of the idea that everyone around the globe longs for Jeffersonian democracy. "Why, they're just like us! Yearning to breathe free!"
No, they're not just like us. Just ask the folks in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Edited on Aug 26, 2010 at 10:23amJul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
I knew that, River.
Or, should I say: I KNEW that, River?
Now shut up, you TROLL.
Edited on Aug 26, 2010 at 10:24amAug '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
No, Kenneth, it's not at all clear - then or now - that Saddam wasn't a threat. The U.N. considered him a threat. Do you forget the 16 U.N. declarations, making it clear that he was in serious violation, and under threat of violent action?. Middle East security services believed he had components. You don't recall that before Bush, everyone, including Bill Clinton, Gore, Tony Blair and the Brits, et al, publicly stated that he was a menace?
Bush, thanks to bad advice from Karl Rove, didn't defend himself; and that made a bad PR situation much worse.
Yellow cake from Iraq has turned up elsewhere. Saddam had materials, and he wanted nukes. There was no way to be certain how close he was to having them at the time. History will vindicate our motives.
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
VDH,
My apologies for hi-jacking your thread into a controversy over the wisdom - or lack thereof - of our Iraq adventure.
My point was, to the extent that it was congruent with your original post - that every government expenditure, whether we're in a position of deficit or not - should be scrutinized from the standpoint of whether it was wise and effective.
And my conclusion, obviously, is that the Iraq war was a total waste.
But at least Bush was, if mistaken, on the side of the angels, while Obama's profligacy is positively corrupt.
May '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
Japan had no history of democracy prior to 1945. In Germany the Reichstag had no real parliamentary function until 1919 and we know how well that worked out. Can you real dismiss a whole people and say that they are incapable of self government?
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
River: No, Kenneth, it's not at all clear - then or now - that Saddam wasn't a threat. The U.N. considered him a threat. Do you forget the 16 U.N. declarations, making it clear that he was in serious violation, and under threat of violent action?. Middle East security services believed he had components. You don't recall that before Bush, everyone, including Bill Clinton, Gore, Tony Blair and the Brits, et al, publicly stated that he was a menace?
Bush, thanks to bad advice from Karl Rove, didn't defend himself; and that made a bad PR situation much worse.
Yellow cake from Iraq has turned up elsewhere. Saddam had materials, and he wanted nukes. There was no way to be certain how close he was to having them at the time. History will vindicate our motives. · Aug 26 at 10:39am
To the extent that Saddam represented a potential threat, it was not existential in our terms, and could have been dealt with quite handily without bogging ourselves down in a fruitless attempt at nation-building. Israel proved that with their destruction of his Osirak reactor.
Iran is an existential threat.
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
EJHill
Japan had no history of democracy prior to 1945. In Germany the Reichstag had no real parliamentary function until 1919 and we know how well that worked out. Can you real dismiss a whole people and say that they are incapable of self government? · Aug 26 at 10:42am
Yes. So long as they adhere to Sharia.
May '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
But, Kenneth, Iraq's was a secular dictatorship. Saddam was not an ayatollah.
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
My point, exactly. The ayatollah's are implacable. Saddam just wanted his palaces and admiration in the Arab world.
Who represented the greater threat from his standpoint? The UN? Or Tehran?
He calculated -quite rightly - that he could withstand a 17th or 18th or 19th stern letter from the UN. But if the Mullahs got wind of the fact that he was essentially dis-armed, well, that was another matter, entirely. Do remember that Iraq is 2/3 Shiite.
May '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
Then why didn't the 2/3 of the population dispatch Saddam and align with Iran?
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
Huh? You don't seem to understand the dynamic of dictatorship.
The Bolsheviks were a tiny, tiny minority in Russia, but they had the guns.
Fewer than 10% of Germans were members of the Nazi Party. But they had the guns.
Few people, whatever their religious leanings, are eager to stand up to a dictatorship when the repercussions involve rape-rooms and being fed into industrial shredders.
Come on....
May '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
The overthrow of Saddam Hussein was Joe Biden's finest hour.
Still annoyed that you haven't weighed in on the comparative effectiveness of Gaius Julius Caesar, Gnaues Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Antonius Orator in dealing with pirates. What do we have to do to summon you, Perfesser? Turn thrice widdershins?
We've spent too much, says the Prez (this apparently occured when he was out golfing and somebody snuck into the WH basement and spent a lot on worthless crap.) "Now that I've gotten you into this horrible mess, we have to raise taxes."
Happens every thirty years. Then, when people don't like it, blame them for not being smart enough to appreciate your awesomeness.
Jun '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
No one foresaw it at the time of the invasion, but the conquest of Iraq did draw in al Qaeda terrorists from all over the region. We killed somewhere between thirty and fifty thousand of them over the next 5 years. Al Qaeda was annihilated and left without the manpower to further challenge us. How much safer is the American mainland due to our efforts in defeating terrorism in Iraq? We can never know, but certainly the victory counts for something. Maybe even much.
Jul '10
Re: If Only Facts Were Enough to Cure the Blame-Bush Psychosis
Biff! Bam! Kapowwey!
We're having fun!
Let me simplify my position:
So just imagine an alternative scenario:
We had that chance. But we chose the fantasy of democratic nation-building, instead. And now we have an Iran close to being armed with weapons which represent an existential threat.