Washington File

My father was in the Royal Canadian Navy. He is no longer alive. He passed away on June 3rd, 1995 at the age of 80 years old. He was on tne
RCN corvettes which escourted goods from Canada to England. Their ship holds were deeper so that they could drop depth chargeon the German submarines. He never talked much about WWII. My grandmother was English. I had several Great Aunts. I am only 55 yrs. old now War is not a great thing. I wish that people would think much more carfully about things. I wish for peace.

Thanks for the additional perspective, Angus. Yes, W's administration was able to execute their agenda on Iraq (and gain re-election in 2004) on the shoulders of a howling lynch mob. I been working in two predominantly anti-Bush, anti-Iraq War areas (Chicago, IL and Portland, OR) and yet, only in the past year have people begun to stop looking around and over their shoulder before voicing an opinion not in line with their federal government. Not long ago in Chicago, at 900 North Michigan, I was talking to a friend on how bad deficits are and some woman (well dressed, looking well off) set upon us: "We are at war!", "Nyah nyah ... liberals ... nyah nyah ... Democrats!" The funny thing was, we were talking about the Euro Zone and Germany breaking the 3% deficit cap requirements! That's how touchy things were for 4-5 years down here since 9/11. And for Don, one sign of how far things have fallen was the senior President Bush breaking down and weeping last weekend during a tribute to eldest son Jeb, who is retiring as Governor of Florida due to term limits. Jeb is the one that the family tabbed as next patriarch but Bush 41 probably realizes that he can never run for President as the family intended, W has messed things up so badly. One speaker on MSNBC even feels that George P. Bush (Jeb's son and GOP next gen rising star, often seen in People magazine) can forget about any political ambitions beyond Senate.

Iran and Syria must be grinning ear to ear like the Cheshire cat at the conclusions of the ISG report, however this could be a dicey time for them all the same. Yes, they have the upper hand; yes they have won the war for Iraq and the US has lost (just as I knew they would way back when before the first bunker busters fell on Baghdad, it was THAT clear to everyone no matter what some here may say to the contrary) but now they must be careful with their demands from a defeated and humiliated American adversary. It must be galling in the extreme to realize that you are the author of your own demise as the US is only now discovering, now that Syria and Iran sit waiting for GW Bush to grovel at their feet and beg for their help with insoluable Iraq. You did it to yourself George. We, that is to say, the peaceniks of the world who took to the streets in the hundreds of thousands, tried to tell you but you were so arrogant you thought you didn't have to listen. You thought the UN was "irrelevant", that you could act as you please whenever and wherever you pleased. Now you can ask yourself who is the irrelevant one. Thousands have died for nothing, American power, prestige, trustworthiness, justice and example lies in tatters: congratulations, you have managed in just 6 years what America's rivals couldn't do in two centuries. Now, THAT'S a legacy to be ashamed of.

If the Iraq war had gone well as TH posits, I would happily eat all of the crow that you could serve up. I am sure that some Democrats and Republicans who supported the war were doing so, not because they truly believed in it, but because in post 9/11 America it was considered treasonous to do otherwise.
Frankly, if George Jr. had simply talked to his father we probably could have avoided all of this. I remember during the Gulf War in 1991 many people, including myself, did not understand why the Allied Forces did not "finish the job" and topple Hussein. Now we know why. The military and, I assume, the political leaders understood that by removing Hussein you would create the exact power vaccuum that we have seen. Like Tito in Yugoslavia, one of the things that Hussein did was to keep three divergent groups from killing each other.
There is no question that Saddam Hussein is an evil man who brought death and suffering to his countrymen. At this point, I don't see how that is any different from the death and suffering that has been a direct result of the neocons' failed foreign policy.

In 1946, the USA helped establish the first major war crimes trials at Nuremburg. One of the charges that helped get some leading Nazis hanged was "Crimes against the peace", which is the "planning and waging of aggressive war". Those individuals who had their signatures on the plans for the invasion of Poland and the USSR were held accountable. As well, the defense of "pre-emptive war", which saw the Japanese strike out at Pearl Harbor and much of the Pacific in December 1941, was attempted by the Japanese warlords when they were on trial and was rejected by American courts.

I would suggest that if America wants to maitain any moral leadership in the world, it should abide by the principles it claims to stand for and helped establish, namely justice and the rule of law. On long as they hold on the doctrine of American Exceptionalism, the emperor will truely have no clothes.

While it is true, as TH points out, that some Democrats voted to support the invasion of Iraq, they would not have done so knowing the truth. Kerry has already renounced his vote, Hillary has not because the GOP will rip her apart and make the issue about her (not the war). I could not imagine a repeat of the mythical USS Maine or Gulf of Tonkin incidents that were used by the US to enter wars against Spain and in Vietnam so, yes, I initially was in support of this war and regretted that Canada stayed out (after requesting a delay, as did France). None of the reasons for the Iraq war (WMD, Al Qaeda, 9/11) turned out to be true and none of the Bush Administration's reason-of-the-week (or is that day?) give me reason to support it. I was scammed. But please understand that Afghanistan is about 9/11 and we would be there as part of NATO even if Al Gore had (should have) won in 2000.

This may be the beginning of the end for a war that should never been started in the first place. Now the US is trying to change history as to why they went to war. The Bush administration has been deceitful lied to their own citizens and the world and now they will pay the price. The British and the Italians are deserting Bush and pulling their troop out.
A prediction: Afghanistan will then become the center of the insurgency and the Canadian soldiers will pay for the blind obedience of our politicians to the Bush doctrine! We must pull our troops out. ,

Bush is too foolish and cocky to admit that he has made the Iraq situation worse than before America invaded a few years ago.

Although the death toll may not be as extensive as it was under Saddam's rule (it may be worse, I don't think any one knows the exact amount of dead), it's obvious that it won't be more than a few years and the entire country will be raging with an unimaginable civil war that will leave millions dead.

America's presence may be angering the Iraqi's but clearly many Iraqi's are being killed by other Iraqi's. To many insurgents, it's not just a fight to get America out of Iraq, it's a fight to get any one out who does not agree with them.

With the mess that he has put the world in with the Iraq disaster and fueling Muslim radicals, Bush is giving a bad name to democracy.

The situation has even managed to rehab Hussein's image since many are concluding the the middle east state of affairs were better under his tyrranic rule (!).

Probably the worst legacy from any US president. He will be remembered for that.

Although I don't shed any tears for Bush, I think it has to be said that many supporters of the war in Iraq, including many Democrats are now conveniently distancing themselves from it because it has gone bad. One wonders how many Democrats would be condemning the war if the US was winning?

The one thing that Bush and his cronies are solely responsible for is the woeful execution of this war, poorly planned, poorly manned, poorly financed and just plain arrogantly executed...but the decision to go to war is shared by many on both sides.

This is certainly an interesting time in American politics. The Bush administration was the peak of a resurgent Republican party; has it also brought the conservative establishment to a dead end, through a misguided foreign and military policy? How this administration manages the American extrication from the mess in Iraq (with the Democrats peering over both shoulders) could have far-reaching ramifications for the GOP.

Let's not forget the other criminals involved. Rice, Powell, Blair, Straw, and every last one of the people that voted for and supported these regimes, not once, but twice.

If nations of the world really want to stop terrorism, all they have to do is this: Stay the hell out of other countries and their business, stop plundering their resources and subjugating their people.

I can't say that I feel sorry for Bush. He is the architect of his own downfall. The sad thing is that after nearly 3000 American dead, tens of thousands maimed, countless dead Iraqis, billions squandered, a tarnished international image as well as a diminished military capacity, all that Bush has to worry about is his pathetic legacy.

All the architects of this criminal enterprise will go unpunished, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Pearl, Frum will all continue to live their priviledged lives while the people effected by their criminal decisions, dead or otherwise, will have no justice.