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I'm not the only one

Disagreeable

Well-known member
Full article; link below; my emphasis.

"After hearing about six generals wanting Defense Secretary Rumsfeld fired, I am offering my thoughts on the tragic political and economic consequences of the Iraq war. Politically, I have voted Republican about two-thirds of the time over the last 30 years.
Long before the president declared in his state of the union address that Iraq tried to buy nuclear material in Africa, Alain Chouet, French intelligence head for weapons proliferation/terrorism, repeatedly warned the CIA that there was no evidence to support such allegations. His conclusion was reached after extensive investigations at French-controlled uranium mines and was substantiated by CIA-dispatched diplomat Joseph Wilson. When he verified the French findings and went public, the Bush administration tried to discredit him by leaking classified CIA information. A similar warning was issued by Germany who had investigated a claim involving forged documents about Iraqi biological weapons.
Paul Pillar, the former CIA official coordinating U.S. Middle East intelligence, stated in the widely respected journal Foreign Affairs that the administration "went to war without requesting - and evidently without being influenced by - any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq." A similar conclusion was reached by Tyler Drumheller, who was the European CIA head. There was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, and we basically went to war to bring democracy and/or Christianity to the Middle East, a misguided attempt to protect our oil interests, and/or to avenge the assassination attempt on Bush senior.
Bush does not tolerate dissent. Treasury Secretary O'Neill said Bush's second tax cut was unaffordable while economic adviser Lindsay said the Iraqi war would cost $100 billion-$200 billion. Both were fired. Army Gen. Shinseki was rewarded early retirement for suggesting that several hundred thousand troops were needed to win. By contrast, CIA Director George Tenet, responsible for the 9/11 and WMD intelligence failures, was awarded the presidential medal of freedom.
Contrary to Bush's repeated claims that the U.S. is safer from terrorism, Iraq has become the world's greatest terrorist training ground. Our continued presence has increased the number of radicals globally, and our world standing is near an all-time low. It seems likely that our activities influenced the rise of the Muslim radicals in Iran and the terrorist group Hamas in Palestine. In the end, the Shiite-controlled Iraq seems at best headed toward a semidemocratic state dominated by religious mullahs. Saddam Hussein is a despicable tyrant, but he likely would have invaded Iran if threatened by nuclear weapons development.
The central Iraqi question was raised by the London Times on Aug. 7: "How much longer are valuable lives to be sacrificed in the vain endeavor to impose upon the Arab population an elaborate and expensive administration which they never asked for?" This was on Aug. 7, 1920, as a ferocious insurgency threatened the British occupation of Iraq. We are repeating the same mistakes made in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
My focus is on the enormous costs of this failed Iraqi war, currently totaling $285 billion. If we include lifelong disability pay, psychological counseling and medical care for the 20,000 wounded; replacing worn-out equipment; death benefits; future Iraqi war costs, and a modest estimate of $10 per barrel rise in oil prices (plus 82 percent markup) due to a reduction in Iraqi production and the Middle East war/instability for just four years, the war conservatively costs over $875 billion.
What would you spend $875 billion on? My first priority would be global warming, the most costly future crisis in history. The rising seas and higher temperatures (increasing storm intensity) will cost trillions of dollars. More money needs to be spent on finding alternatives to fossil fuels, educating the public, scientific research, and subsidies for mass transit and noncarbon-based power.
Money spent in Iraq could have been spent to safeguard our trains, subways, ports, nuclear power plants, chemical and oil refineries; to secure our borders; to fight the drug epidemic; for deteriorating roads, bridges, water and sewer systems; airports; schools; community development; the Medicare prescription drug benefit; hurricane relief and preparation; possible flu pandemic; etc. One thing that money should not have been spent on was the huge no-bid Iraqi contract to Haliburton, Cheney's former employer.
The war has largely been financed by borrowing money. The rising federal deficit is making us less economically and politically secure, especially because foreign countries hold massive amounts of U.S. Treasury securities, particularly China and Middle East countries. Debt-holding countries can unfortunately influence our foreign and economic policies.
What's really sad is how much federal government time has been absorbed by this war. Our most important economic issue is the U.S. trade gap. Imagine the impact of that much energy directed to this problem. The U.S. taxpayers' money could have been better spent than on Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld's personal war in Iraq whose cost and legacy will indenture us for decades to pay off our current $8 trillion in U.S. government debt.

Dr. Glenn Petry, of Bend, is a Washington State University emeritus professor of finance and a Bend real estate developer."


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