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Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from HuffPost's signature lineup of contributorsHot on the BlogRichard A. ClarkeBernard-Henri LévyAlec BaldwinEvan Handler Richard A. ClarkeFormer Advisor to the President on Cyber Security GET UPDATES FROM Richard A. Clarke Like 3 Never Forget: Our Invasion of Iraq Was a Breach of Trust Posted: 03/19/2013 7:00 am Follow
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On Tuesday, at this 10th anniversary of the American Invasion of Iraq, we would do well to remind ourselves about some painful facts.
Keeping those facts in our collective memory may make it easier for us as a nation to prevent future mistakes. So, let us recall five unfortunate facts about the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
First, the leaders of the Bush administration were intent on invading from the beginning of their time in the White House. When the 9-11 attacks occurred, Bush cabinet members immediately discussed how that tragedy could be used to justify an invasion.
Bush himself asked me to try to pin the blame for 9-11 on Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney propagated a myth that a hijacker had met with Iraqi intelligence officials in Prague, even though we knew at the time Cheney said it that the report was false and that the hijacker was in Virginia at the time of the alleged meeting.
Second, the Bush-Cheney team settled on the excuse for invading that Iraq was making weapons of mass destruction. They trotted out to Congress, the American people and the United Nations a series of fabricated intelligence reports.
Iraq was allegedly buying "yellow cake" uranium from Niger. The documentary proof used turns out to have been a forgery. Iraq had mobile biological-weapons labs. The eyewitness has been shown to be a liar. Iraq was allegedly training al Qaida. The only evidence of that were the ravings of a terrorist under extreme torture.
The proof that these and other fabricated intelligence reports were erroneous was available well before we invaded.
Third, the mismanagement of the war cost thousands of American lives and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and disfigured, dismembered or traumatized tens of thousands of Americans. The financial and human cost of those casualties will be felt for decades.
The Bush administration had no real plan for occupying Iraq, but it dismissed the Iraqi army, despite the fact that the army had access to a trove of arms. An insurgency immediately followed, and for months thereafter, the secretary of defense not only refused to admit it, he banned the use of the word insurgency.
Fourth, those who profited most were Iran and al Qaeda. For years, Iran's aggression in the region was held in check by the Baghdad government. Since the U.S. invasion, Iran has gained greater influence throughout the area, undermining the U.S. and its allies.
Because we were busy in Iraq, U.S. military and intelligence assets were not available to end quickly the al Qaeda and Taliban presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thus, the people who actually attacked us on Sept. 11 were free for years to regain their strength.
Fifth, the invasion and occupation of Iraq added between one trillion and two trillion dollars to our long-term debt, depending upon what costs are considered (replacing equipment, caring for veterans).
Defense contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater made huge profits. Those expenses were initiated at the same time as the Bush administration began a tax cut. The financial difficulties our government and economy face today are in large part driven by those twin decisions.
It is appropriate that we thank our veteran soldiers and civilians for their service in Iraq, for they did what was asked of them. It is, however, inappropriate that we thank for their service the senior officials who concocted this debacle.
We may have as a nation implicitly decided that we would be better off without trials or even without a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but we should not forget what those officials did to us as a nation, to our soldiers, to our finances, to our moral standing in the world. For to do that, to welcome them back as elder statesmen, would be to offend our fallen and our wounded, and to reward duplicity by those who swore a public trust.
One of America's great strengths is that it looks to the future, not the past. It may also be one of our greatest weaknesses. We often pay a price for our collective amnesia or ignorance of our own history. Instead, we must remember, we must teach the history, not cover it up, and never forget it.
Richard A. Clarke, the counterterrorism coordinator at the National Security Council from 1993 to 2001, is chairman of Good Harbor Consulting and the author of "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror."
First published in the Orlando Sentinel.
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View AllFavorites Recency | Popularity Jay HaneyMy nuclear family imploded when I was 18. I've bee979 Fans 24 minutes ago (12:04 PM)Mr. Clarke, I've always admired you, sir, for being the only visible member of government to do something the entire W administration refused to do: take responsibility for the failures on 9/11. Watching the tragedies that have followed since that grand abdication of what should have been theirs has been a nightmare.You once asked for forgiveness for your and others' part in failing to stop 9/11. By virtue of your actions then and now (now, of course, encompassing this article), you are forgiven. The others...there can be none without them owning what was theirs all along.Jay_Haney: Mr. Clarke, I've always admired you, sir, for being thehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Jay_Haney/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238215199.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
MetaMD84 Fans 27 minutes ago (12:01 PM)We need a Truth Commission with Bush and Cheney testifying under oath. Simple. Let's get to the truth for our country"s sake, the sooner the better. Just look at the damage.MetaMD: We need a Truth Commission with Bush and Cheney testifyinghttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/MetaMD/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238214255.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
beaver72160 Fans 46 minutes ago (11:42 AM)Sad to see a couple of lies still being presented. The Congressional Authorization for War in Iraq listed 23 reasons for the war (in the introductory "Whereas..." paragraphs). Two of those listed WMD leaving 21 other reasons for the war. And as to the Iraqi lost of life one wonders why the death rate dropped from over 8 per 1000 per year to 5 per 1000 per year almost immediately (equal to 75,000 lives saved per year) and the population boomed from 22 million to 31 million during the war.beaver7216: Sad to see a couple of lies still being presented.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/beaver7216/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238209097.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
love4lifeNunya599 Fans 2 hours ago (10:42 AM)I'm not lying this time. Honest.~Richard Clarkelove4life: I'm not lying this time. Honest. ~Richard Clarkehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/love4life/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238193784.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share it This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program ufopp3493 Fans 31 minutes ago (11:57 AM)We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.
~Richard Cheneyufopp: We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. ~Richard Cheneyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/ufopp/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238213220.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
Tell them, because our fathers lied."
Rudyard KiplingAuntFaintly: "If any question why we died, Tell them, because ourhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/AuntFaintly/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238185674.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share it Jay HaneyMy nuclear family imploded when I was 18. I've bee979 Fans 23 minutes ago (12:05 PM)One of my favorite Kipling quotes, written in response to another fiasco called the Great War then, World War I now.Jay_Haney: One of my favorite Kipling quotes, written in response tohttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Jay_Haney/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238215546.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
SunnyDaySamTo Err is Human, to Forgive is Canine1721 Fans 3 hours ago ( 9:02 AM)Excellent article. Thank you Mr. Clarke.SunnyDaySam: Excellent article. Thank you Mr. Clarke.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/SunnyDaySam/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238172800.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation. For those on the right, the successes of the Clinton governing policies were leading to an intolerable situation, people may come to view government as a helpful presence in their lives and want more of it. This would lead to a national acceptance of higher taxes to pay for it and also a government that might put limits on the Ayn Rand types whose main goal is to swell their wealth and power.
The right came to power not with the idea that they could govern better, but to discredit government in the eyes of the voter so they would want far less of it. The underlying motivation for the tax cuts and the Iraq war was not fiscal stimulus or protecting the country, but was to under mine the peoples confidence in government. They also knew that with the proper song and dance they could convince a significant portion of the population that all this was a good thing.
For that tiny sliver of the population that controls the lion's share of our national wealth, a well run national government that functions for the benefit of all is an enemy that must be destroyed.PayingAttention: It is hard to fathom how far our nation's esteemhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/PayingAttention/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238168119.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
HUFFPOST SUPER USERKatherine GuidryReal Estate Appraiser & Environmental150 Fans 4 hours ago ( 8:22 AM)We can never hope to recover our strong sense of judgement that Americans see as part of our identity until this war is dealt with in a true court of law...hoping the state of Vermont invites Bush and Cheney to their lovely state to begin this processKatherine_Guidry: We can never hope to recover our strong sense ofhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Katherine_Guidry/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238166221.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation. By the way, when are we going to stop hand-wringing about our unnecessary wars and actually change our government to provide accountability and more responsiveness to the people's wishes?
Sadly, the answer to that is -- Never. All the hand-wringing is just part of the National Memory Hole sweep-up process and clears the way for the next unnecessary war. That's the American Way.Trydecency: Good summary of the Iraq debacle, but what else ishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Trydecency/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238162256.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share it
beaver72160 Fans 32 minutes ago (11:57 AM)Don't leave out the Afghanistan war. I have no idea why were are there, why we escalated, what we have gained from the escalation. It is one thing to remove the Taliban but why all these extra human and financial costs? If it was to find bin Laden, he was in Pakistan.All US wars have been based on lies, either entirely or in part. We still don't know why we had the War of 1812-was it a British invasion or an attempt to take over the "Northwest Territories and the Indian lands there? Lincoln talked about saving the Union to some, and, later, freeing slaves to others. The Mexican War was based on a fight that may or may not have happened in what may or may not have been the US. (See Spot Resolution). We still don't know about the USS Maine. Wilson lied about captured communications between Mexico and Germany in WW1 and wanted to do a pre-emptive strike against Germany. Pearl Harbor made sense but Roosevelt really wanted war with Germany and used that as an excuse. Korean War was a result of Truman's flip-flop, first declaring Korea was out of the zone of security and outside of US protections. And then there is the Gulf of Tonkin.
One of the lies out of Iraq was that "For the first time, the US went to a pre-emptive war, a war based on lies."beaver7216: Don't leave out the Afghanistan war. I have no ideahttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/beaver7216/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238213126.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
HUFFPOST SUPER USERgreytunesAll shall be punish'ed622 Fans 5 hours ago ( 7:38 AM)Excellent post and critique of our actions in Iraq.greytunes: Excellent post and critique of our actions in Iraq.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/greytunes/iraq-war-anniversary_b_2904285_238160691.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation.
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