It is only Money

[Plane]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/investigation-into-missing-iraqi-cash-ended-in-lebanon-bunker/ar-BB8Prc5

Ok ,The Bush Administration gave as a gift to the new Iraqi government enough cash to make their payroll , I already knew this.

A good bit was stolen I knew that.

But that a whistleblower would tell where it is sitting, this is amazing.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Perhaps it it not possible for one reason or another to send troops into Lebanon on a raid to steal BACK this money.

But it would make a great action film, wouldn't it?

[Plane]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kings_(1999_film)


Seen it.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Not quite the same film.
But close.

I saw it too.

[Plane]

  I wonder how many treasure troves are compiled here and there in the world ?

   Everywhere bad government makes graft easy and the future of the government uncertain.

   There must be dozens of the things.

    Which is another thing that bad leaders would rather have than universities and hospitals and infrastructure,...golden parachutes.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The invasion of Iraq was the epitome of really bad government.

It was the wrong thing to do, done in the wrong way, and produced the wrong results.

[Plane]

  The invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do and should have happened a lot earlier.

    It was good for us and it was good for them.

    The gains that were made have been squandered recently be people who didn't understand that there is any reason to care what happens to people who are so far away.

   It is turning into a good idea again, and if we do not take over the situation soon we will again wish that we had.

     And after a few years , when it has grown really tough to do we will be presented with no real choice .

[Xavier_Onassis]

The results are that many more Iraqis are now dead and have been driven from their homes. It was in no way the right thing to do.

It cost us a fortune in money and 5000 lives and many more soldiers crippled forever. It was a huge FAIL for this country.

[Plane]

The results are that many more Iraqis are now dead and have been driven from their homes. It was in no way the right thing to do.

It cost us a fortune in money and 5000 lives and many more soldiers crippled forever. It was a huge FAIL for this country.

No.

Saddam Hussein was bent on aggrandizement and had already killed more people than died in his war with the US.
 Unless Iranians and Iraqis do not count.

It could have been done better, but by better I mean not wasting so much time after he was first defeated.

By not being sufficiently aggressive, President Bush 41 converted an hundred day war into a decade long war.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The First Iraq War was entirely avoidable. The US should have made it very clear that Kuwait would be defended, and what it did was announce that this was not the case, that "The US does not have a position on the borders between Middle Eastern countries."

Maybe this was done intentionally, maybe not, but the first Iraq War could have been avoided, and was not. Olebush was ex-CIA and liked to play these manipulation games. That is how the CIA has caused many of its problems over the years.

[Plane]

  Are you telling me that a clearly stated and credible threat would have served peace better than a diplomatically vague answer?


    If you are - I might agree, but Saddam could have rolled those dice anyway, he was that sort of guy all the time.

   Hadn't he already killed millions at that point?

[Xavier_Onassis]

I doubt if he killed even one million. But the US is not supposed to be the world policeman.
We did not invade Iraq in the interests of saving Iraq. It was all about oil, and it still is.

Olebush had the ambassador give the exact answer that was sure to provoke Saddam to do something rash.

The US has ALWAYS had a position on Middle Eastern borders. We defend Israel's land grabs and even who rules in various parts of Lebanon.

The First Iraq War was unnecessary and could have been prevented,

The Second was deliberately mongered and poorly executed. No one has ever been worse at USwars poorly fought than Cheney and Rumsfeld. And they had some mightly competition from guys like MacNamara and Westmoreland.

[Plane]

  You are totally wrong to consider that there were two wars,

    there was only one , but President Clinton was fighting it very poorly.

    Are you really saying that the ambassador being vague in answering caused Saddam to become different than he usually was?

      I think the Iran Iraq conflict passed a million casualties before its fourth year, but I can check.

[Plane]

Hmmmm....

I may or may not have overestimated the scale of that war.

But I consider the point that I was trying to make still valid , that Saddam Hussein was prone to make war.

http://www.history.com/topics/iran-iraq-war

During the eight years between Iraq’s formal declaration of war on September 22, 1980, and Iran’s acceptance of a cease-fire with effect on July 20, 1988, at the very least half a million and possibly twice as many troops were killed on both sides, at least half a million became permanent invalids, some 228 billion dollars were directly expended, and more than 400 billion dollars of damage (mostly to oil facilities, but also to cities) was inflicted, mostly by artillery barrages. Aside from that, the war was inconsequential: having won Iranian recognition of exclusive Iraqi sovereignty over the Shatt-el-Arab River (into which the Tigris and Euphrates combine, forming Iraq’s best outlet to the sea), in 1988 Saddam Hussein surrendered that gain when in need of Iran’s neutrality in anticipation of the 1991 Gulf War.