ClydeStyle

Tag: Iraq War

  • How do you feel now?

    This is blog 2 of 5 in this series regarding history and what your feelings are about it today.

    Given what has taken place in the last couple of months, this is very timely, and A.I. has helped to make it easier.

    The George W. Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was primarily based on the belief that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and posed a threat to the United States and the international community. The administration also cited Iraq’s alleged support for terrorism and its violations of UN Security Council resolutions as justifications for military action. 

    Specifically, the Bush administration claimed Iraq was actively developing WMD, including nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. They also asserted that Iraq had ties to the terrorist group al-Qaeda and that Saddam Hussein’s regime posed a threat to regional stability. These claims were used to garner international support for the invasion, with the US and UK arguing that the invasion was authorized under existing UN resolutions. 

    However, the claims about WMDs were later found to be unsubstantiated. No WMDs were discovered in Iraq after the invasion, and intelligence failures and flawed assessments were identified as contributing factors. The invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq led to a prolonged and costly conflict, with significant loss of life and long-lasting consequences for the region. 

    The Bush Administration, due to the false information and lies, cost the U.S. nearly one trillion dollars for that war that lasted from 2003 to 2011, which is about 255 billion per day.

    In summary, while the legality of the Iraq War remains a subject of ongoing debate and many have argued that the invasion was illegal, the UN’s inability to pursue charges against the Bush administration stems from a combination of factors, including the lack of Security Council authorization, the US veto power, and the limitations of international legal institutions like the ICC.

    We did nothing for the Middle East. We did not stop terrorism. We senselessly killed more than 655,000 civilians violently, and there were no consequences for the Bush Administration in this life.

    In June, the Trump Administration, without congressional support, bombed Iran. Is history repeating itself? What say ye?

  • Was it all worth it?

    Finally!

    Combat troops are out of Iraq and by the end of 2011 the rest of more than 50K soldiers left will come home.

    It seemed like we were never going to get to this point. We heard words like “leave responsibly” and “finish the job” and so we waited  — patiently most of us – until the Obama administration made good on a campaign promise to end this war.

    The looming question being asked today is: “Was the war in Iraq worth it?”

    Some experts were quick to say “too early to tell.” Some war activists were quick to say “hell no, it wasn’t worth it.” The American people then began to line up and choose sides. Politicians struggle to try and say the “right thing” so as not to anger their constituents. We’re so predictable.

    Seven years after the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, our troops headed out like thieves in the night. No celebrations, no victory songs, no pomp and circumstances … they just left. Where are the ticker-tape parades? If the media didn’t tell us, we would have never known they were leaving. Many of the troops interviewed seem to just be glad they got out in one piece. I’m glad they did, too.

    Maybe they were thinking about their fallen comrades – more than 4,400 of them – which make us all, deep down inside want this war to be worth it. With a price tag of $750 billion of our children’s future spent, we try to remember the most important things and forget some of the things that haunt us now – and will continue to for a long time.

    We’d rather remember the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue or maybe even his capture or execution. We try to forget that we put him in power over there in the first place, or that we never found any weapons of mass destruction. I even feel like I lost part of my Christianity for cheering with friends the day Saddam’s sons were gunned down in a vicious shoot out.

    We’d rather remember the photos of the Iraqi people voting or their children going to newly-built schools. We don’t want to even talk about the number of Iraqi people who died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whether it was from a terrorist bomb or one of our bombs, I’m still waiting on an official count of their numbers. We don’t even talk about it, which should let you know how bad it really is. It makes me sad to even think about it.

    The bottom line is that if we even have to ask this question, then we probably already know the answer. Was the Revolutionary War worth it? Were WWI and WWII worth it?

    If my son comes home from school crying because some kid bullied him and his father allowed it and I go and beat up the man and spank the boy in front of my son, was that worth it? If a felon attempts to rape my daughter and I shoot and kill him, was it worth it? When did violence become the first option in solving problems?

    NOBODY WINS IN A WAR and NO WAR IS EVER WORTH IT!

    The only lesson to learn here is that America needs to get the beam out of its eye before trying to get the speck out of another country’s eye.

  • Absolute Truth

    I remember in the 70s and 80s watching the “In Search of …” series on TV.

    I recall thinking to myself how these people had chosen an impossible task. They were looking for things like “Big Foot”, “The Loch Ness Monster” and “Noah’s Ark”.

    It wasn’t going to happen.

    They were not going to find those things – and I knew that at age 10.

    And I wondered how long it would take them before they got tired of searching and began to manufacture truth to prove a point.

    You know what I mean – coming up with evidence that may not point toward whatever they were looking for, but could be used for such.

    They would use it to justify what they were doing and – as long as we watched – they could keep going with their creation of truth.

    It seems today that too many people believe that truth is just that – manufactured.

    I wonder how many of us, in whatever we are searching for, are really searching for absolute truth?

    Not absolute truth according to me, TV or this scholar or that scholar – I mean good old-fashioned universal undisputed Truth with a capital ‘T’.

    Today, Webster’s dictionary defines truth as: “a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true … actuality.”

    About 50 years ago, Webster’s dictionary defined truth as “agreement with reality; external principle of right or law of order.”

    It seems in these two changing definitions we have clearly lost some things over the last 50 years.

    Two things in particular:
    1. Truth now has to be accepted as such – whether it’s real truth or not. If enough people believe it, then it will be accepted as truth
    2. Truth no longer has to agree with reality or what is – as the latter definition states. We have made reality relative to us. Is that legal?

    Have you ever put your trust in something (or someone) only later to find out that it was all a lie? The truth you thought you had then was eventually trumped by reality.

    It hurt like hell, didn’t it?

    You are not alone.

    There have been many who were presented with information that was bogus – from pyramid marketing scams to information about your partner – we somehow found out the real truth – and discovered we had been had!

    To add insult to injury, some of us even try and keep the lie going once we discover the error for fear of looking like a fool – or because we’ve invested too much in the situation.

    This happened to us with the war in Iraq.

    Whether the Bush administration or Congress knew prior or not, we went to war because we were told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

    That lie got us over there and then we needed another lie to keep us there.

    Our government gave us three:
    1. Saddam was a bad person and a threat to us.
    2. The Iraqi people needed to be liberated.
    3. Being in Iraq would make us safer because we would then be fighting the war on Terrorism on the terrorists’ turf.

    But the question remains: What about the WMD?

    The problem is that no one will discuss is how we were lied to and how our sacred trust in our government was violated.

    Even with a new administration, we are still fighting under these same false pretenses. We don’t need to be saved from terrorists – we need to be saved from ourselves.

    Absolute truth is just that.

    It doesn’t need to be rationalized or require a lot of explanation.

    It’s truth.

    God created it that way so we wouldn’t struggle to find the source – which is God Himself.

    This is why Proverbs 4:7 says: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

    I encourage you in whatever the field of study, whatever the circumstance, keep searching for absolute truth.

    It’s there. You have to first desire it.