On the eve of the Iraq war I started writing an email that morphed into my various blogs. I foretold where it was going and all the lies told to lead us into it. My worst day was when John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards voted FOR the war. My second worst was when Colin Powell stood and delivered a series of obvious lies to the United Nations to justify it. My country that I have loved all my life would now stand in the eyes of the world as an aggressor nation run by soul dead adventurists and the people will know it in their hearts, even as they wallow in self denial. Worse than that, the war will be run by incompetent adventurists who caused the deaths and sufferings of millions, competent only at becoming more wealthy and avoiding a personal responsibility or price for what they have done.
This is from in interview with author, Phil Klay, an Iraq War veteran:
I have very complicated feelings about the war. There was a lot of wishful thinking. You want to talk about narratives that don't correspond to reality. There was a lot of willful blindness. It's not so much a pro- or anti-war stance as a question of competence. I saw Donald Rumsfeld selling a book of leadership tips on Meet the Press and the Today Show, and I was like, how is this possible? I understand why anti-war folk don't like Rumsfeld, but if you were pro-war you really shouldn't like him, because he messed it up and invalidated your whole world view. You should be concerned about the untold thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghans. All because of somebody being an incompetent Secretary of Defense. He refused to acknowledge what was happening, and presided over gross waste, fraud, and abuse—and Abu Ghraib. That's objectively a bad legacy. Are we really taking this seriously? Or is politics like sports teams: Even if they suck, they're your team.
That interview.
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