Republicans Are Trying To Trick The American People Into Supporting Another Iraq War

There is an idiom, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me,” or as George W. Bush said, “fool me once…you fooled me, can’t get fooled again.” However one puts it, the proverbial definition is that after being tricked once, one should be very wary so a person cannot trick one again. Republican warmongers certainly understand they fooled Americans in 2003 and lied through their teeth to take the country to war against a sovereign nation with no connection to al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, or the terror attacks on 911. Now, they are back again lying, revising history, and attacking President Obama to trick the American people into supporting another war in Iraq because besides giving money to corporations, there is nothing Republicans love more than war; particularly against Muslims.

Over the past two days, and on the Sunday political programs, the dependable warmongers attacked the President and blamed him for everything from George W. Bush’s signing a Status of Forces agreement that removed American combat troops from Iraq, to not having a strategy to govern a democratically-elected sovereign Iraq, to failing to arm the very people wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq. Their goal, of course, is another war in Iraq and it reveals an important fallacy John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and other Republicans fail miserably to understand; Iraq is not an American state, or territory, and this nation has no right to unilaterally insert its military into any nation’s religious war regardless this country is responsible for the current situation in Iraq. It is important to reiterate that both Iraq and Syria were stable nations prior to Republican warmongers fooled Americans into supporting the invasion of Iraq.

What is, in one sense, stunning is that the warmongers are repeating the same lies they used to convince Americans this country’s peace and security is dependent on invading Iraq. Or, as George W. Bush put it, Americans have to kill Muslims because “they hate us for our freedoms.” Perennial warmonger Lindsey Graham even went so far as to warn that without a robust military engagement in Iraq, “I think of an American city in flames because of the terrorist ability to operate in Syria and Iraq.” As reported here yesterday, to incite support for invading Iraq, Condoleezza Rice said in 2002 that “there will always be some uncertainty” about Iraq, but “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” The Bush warmongers fooled Americans once, and due to their overwhelming success at scaring Americans into supporting a war in Iraq, they are using the same tactics.

Then there is “I never saw a nation America should not invade,” John McCain, who railed on the President for not arming and assisting the Syrian rebels, many of whom are charter members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that he met with in Syria and are now terrorizing both Syria and Iraq. McCain also blatantly lied and accused the President of failing to leave a residual military force in Iraq in spite of the agreement George W. Bush signed in December 2008 (Status of Forces Agreement) with Iraq to withdraw all American combat forces by 2011. McCain cannot comprehend that Iraq is a sovereign nation, and after laying waste to the country and creating the conditions that led to the current situation, Iraq told America to get out; something McCain cannot and will not accept.

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Even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined McCain and claimed that the President’s failure to build up Syrian rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad “left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled.” One is reticent to contradict Mrs. Clinton, but even she knows a fair number of the Syrian rebels battling al-Assad are members of ISIS wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq. If Clinton were not so anxious to display her war bona fides, she may remember President Obama saying that without knowing who the rebels were, or who they were aligned with, it was not prudent to “build them up” with American arms. However, when one aspires to the White House, it is important to appear “manly,” beat war drums, and forget voting for the invasion of Iraq that created the conditions in Syria, and now Iraq.

America has been at war with Muslims now for nearly thirteen years, and as President Obama said before the Iraq war, “Invading Iraq will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaida.” As George W. Bush said, “Mission Accomplished.” America’s invasion of Iraq did encourage “the worst impulses of the Arab world and did strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaida” that joined disenfranchised Iraqi Sunnis to create the conditions in Syria and Iraq. Conditions that Republican warmongers are rabid to perpetuate with a serious escalation of hostilities borne of America’s military and lies from Republicans.

Americans are weary of war, and oddly, the warmongers who cannot bring it upon themselves to spend one penny for this country, or Veterans, lust to spend billions on another costly war in Iraq; and they are using the same fear-mongering rhetoric they did to garner support for the last Iraq war. Including, by the way, John McCain claiming America cannot possibly wait for an Iraqi political solution that includes getting rid of Iraqi President Maliki. About the only thing McCain did not say was that America should invade Iraq for regime change.

The media has even repeated their failures leading up to the Iraq invasion by giving the warmongers a national forum to reiterate the same talking points that led to the war in Iraq. One would hope Americans have enough longterm memory capabilities to remember it was only eleven years ago that the same warmongers were using the same talking points and fear mongering to incite the nation to war in 2003, but Americans reveal time and again that they are likely to support failed policies over and over again in hopes of a different outcome. It is Albert Einstein’s notorious definition of insanity, and if any American truly believes another Iraq war will produce any different results than the last one, they are insane; or they just like the idea of American at war.

America at war is the real drive behind warmongers like McCain and Graham whose first response to any sovereign nation’s internal crises is involving America’s fighting men and women in wars. They will do anything to frighten Americans into sending their friends and families to kill Muslims regardless the long term cost in lives and resources, and they are using the same rhetoric that led to the current situation. One wonders if their ultimate goal is creating a feedback loop of war in Iraq because that is their only solution to a problem without a solution; a war among rival religious factions that did not exist warmongers lied this country into invading Iraq.

Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.