Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • COVID-19
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • The Swiss Way
  • Dick Young
  • Debbie Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

“If We Had Known What We Know Now”

May 19, 2015 By Debbie Young

It most likely will not be just Jeb Bush who will make flubs over the Iraq war. During the upcoming presidential campaigns, we can expect more false information, political reinvention, and revisionist analyses of the invasion, surge, and occupation of Iraq. As Victor Davis Hanson writes in NRO, candidates will be readjusting their positions to fit public opinion.

Yes, the war pushed by the Bush administration, but both Houses of Congress authorized it, with a majority of Democrats joining Republicans in the Senate. Especially enthusiastic was the rhetoric from Senators Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Harry Reid, and Jay Rockefeller, each of whom had the same access to U.S. and foreign intelligence as did the Bush administration.

The Iraq war was not just about WMD, Mr. Hanson writes. The writs included Iraq’s noncompliance with the 1991 ceasefire agreement; Saddam’s brutal repression of its civilian population (including genocide of the Kurds and Marsh Arabs); the 1993 assassination attempt on President Bush; and the harboring of international terrorists organizations (including one of the architects of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing).

Congress was on record as supporting 23 writs for the forcible removal of Saddam Hussein. These 20 plus writs, or “whereas” clauses, sought to reify Bill Clinton’s Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, which made it the official policy of the U.S. to remove Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Mr. Hanson continues,

Iraq was by turns a brilliant victory, a debacle, a solvable problem, a great achievement, and an ISIS-infested mess — again depending on the extent of American losses, the trajectory of the Iraqi government, and the particular election cycle in the United States.

There are constants, of course, that don’t change: Removing Saddam was a textbook operation; the effort to quell the ensuing chaos was a textbook case of mismanagement and incompetence. Yet the final assessment on the wisdom of removing Saddam Hussein in large part hinges on whether what followed was a dramatic improvement — in terms both of U.S. strategic interest and of the humanitarian effort to help the Iraqi people — that justified the terrible American investment. That assessment since 2003 has changed frequently, but most recently in a negative direction after the foolhardy complete 2011 pullout and the logical rise of ISIS.

As Hillary famously stated in 2007 in Iowa on the presidential campaign trail, “If we had known then what we know now, there never would have been a vote, and I never would have voted to give (President George W. Bush) that authority.”

To learn what we now know, read more from Mr. Hanson here.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Jeb Bush For President?
  • Draft Bush?!
  • Glenn Beck Throws Out Jeb Bush
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Debbie Young
Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.
Latest posts by Debbie Young (see all)
  • Don’t Believe ’em. They’re Coming for Your Gas Stove - January 27, 2023
  • The Power of Words - January 26, 2023
  • US Debt Now Exceeds Annual GDP? - January 25, 2023

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • “The Goal”: Strong Families, Resilient Faith, Thriving Middle Class.
  • You Want the Limo, Not the Public Bus
  • Globalism Has Made America Dependent on Foreign Countries
  • A NEW CONTRACT WITH AMERICA: Rick Scott Finally Gives the GOP Something to Run On
  • Escape From the City: You’re Going to Like What You See
  • Is It All Coming Apart in the Government’s Face?
  • America’s Colleges Have Become Progressive Liberal Rat Holes
  • Your Odds with Statins: 500 to 1?
  • The Fed – “Independent” and “Non Political” – Joins The Resistance
  • You Need to Seek Some Shelter for When Things Get Ugly

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • CATO: Global Freedom Is in Sharp Decline
  • Biden Administration Destroying Retiree Fiduciary Protections
  • 4 Life Changing Words for Your Survival Guy: “You Should Try This”
  • Suddenly, Holding Cash Looks Good Again to Many
  • Anti-Carbon Crusaders in Davos Talk ESG and OPM
  • Is Passive Investing Already Passé?
  • Welcome to Hotel California, Where You Can Never Leave
  • What You’re Telling Me Matters
  • Can Banks Compete with Apple Pay and PayPal?
  • America’s Super States and Stocks that Respect YOU

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • CATO: Global Freedom Is in Sharp Decline
  • TIME FOR A GONDOLA? Little Cottonwood Canyon Jammed with Traffic
  • Biden Administration Destroying Retiree Fiduciary Protections
  • 4 Life Changing Words for Your Survival Guy: “You Should Try This”
  • Anti-Carbon Crusaders in Davos Talk ESG and OPM
  • Welcome to Hotel California, Where You Can Never Leave
  • What You’re Telling Me Matters
  • The Rich Seek More from Bank Accounts
  • California’s Wealth Tax Will Drive Out Remaining Rich Residents
  • Political Establishment Irate over Conservative Challenges to ESG

Don’t Believe ’em. They’re Coming for Your Gas Stove

NH Republicans Favor DeSantis Over Trump By a Big Margin

CATO: Global Freedom Is in Sharp Decline

The Telling Depth of Media Propaganda and Censorship

MEDIA BLACKOUT: No One Will Cover Pharma Exec’s Virus Confession

TIME FOR A GONDOLA? Little Cottonwood Canyon Jammed with Traffic

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives