This weekend marks the third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Irak. The invasion was the implementation of the ‘Bush Doctrine’ of preemptive war. The war has been an unimitigated disaster, ripping apart families across the United States, destroying American influence in the world, and increasing the threat of terror everyhwere. Der Spiegel reports on the angry mood in the US three years after the launch of the war:
Zum Jahrestag des Irak-Krieges hatte Bush in dieser Woche die US-Bürger erneut um Geduld gebeten. Jüngsten Umfragen zufolge ist der Präsident jedoch im Ansehen seiner Landsleute auf dem Tiefpunkt angelangt. Nur etwa 36 Prozent sind noch mit seiner Amtsführung einverstanden. Laut einer Umfrage des Gallup-Instituts meinen inzwischen 57 Prozent der US-Bürger, die Invasion im Irak sei ein Fehler gewesen. 67 Prozent sind sogar der Ansicht, Bush habe keinen Plan, um die Lage im Irak in den Griff zu bekommen.
So to mark this occasion, the White House has one of its most useful liars – NSA advisor Stephen Hadley – produce a National Security Strategy document (pdf) – which reaffirms the correctness of the Iraq War strategy of preemption while it paves the way for a strike on Iran. The fact that Hadley and the other analysts at the NSA could point to Iraq as a success story and a vindication of the Bush Doctrine is further evidence that the US government is derailed locomotive heading in the wrong direction. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert put it best in his latest piece (which can be read here).
Invading Iraq was a disastrous move by the Bush administration, and there is no satisfactory solution forthcoming. The White House should be working cooperatively with members of both parties in Congress to figure out the best way to bring the curtain down on U.S. involvement.
Before that can begin to happen, the administration will have to rid itself of the delusion that things are somehow going well in Iraq. The democracy that was supposed to flower in the Iraqi desert and then spread throughout the Middle East was as much a mirage as the weapons of mass destruction.
President Bush continues to assert that our goal in Iraq is "victory." Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently told Tim Russert that things were going "very, very well" in Iraq.
They are still crawling toward the mirage. It’s time to give reality a chance.
Bush Doctrine Incompetence Irak-Krieg
