Due to the GOP clown car that is currently being loaded and gassed up for the 2016 Presidential run some very interesting questions have already been asked of these "candidates." The most important of which being, "Knowing what you know now, would you still invade Iraq?" From my perspective the answer should be quite easy...
No.
NO! NO!
NO WAY!
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? NO WAY!!!
Instead Jeb Bush came running and said YES! It wasn't about knowing what we knew then (which was all bullshit anyway, sorry Judy you don't get to play the bad INTEL card.) It was about knowing what we know now, the cherry picked intelligence from the Bush administration and the lie of weapons of mass destruction. Hell even using 9/11 as a justification to invade a country that had nothing to do with the attack or even the terrorists. But after some scrutiny in the media Jeb Bush flip flopped and changed his mind, this still doesn't change the fact that these fools; deep down still think it was a grand idea to invade Iraq.
George W. says that he still thinks about invading Iraq and that the decision still continues to weigh on him, I highly doubt that. I would give him more credit if he would have pulled a Lyndon B. Johnson and left the White House crying saying, "I got those young boys killed in Viet....er Iraq." Instead he left the White House as the worst President in generations with 4,000 dead American tax payers, a trillion dollars wasted in Iraq, billions of dollars still unaccounted for due to American contractors who fled without finishing their jobs and hundreds of thousand dead Iraqi civilians, plus the thousands of soldiers who survived and suffer from PTSD who still do not receive proper care.
The reason I am bringing all of this up is because certain folks in the media and 95% of the current republican party is beating the drum for war in Iraq once more. The threat of ISIS has them shitting all over themselves with anticipation that we will some how go back to war in Iraq with a full frontal ground assault. These people act as if ISIS was just created yesterday, that the 30,000 just appeared because the Obama administration pulled us out of the hell hole that was Iraq. A little history lesson perhaps, ISIS is a direct result of the Bush administration refusing to incorporate the standing military and police force that was in Iraq in 2003. Instead they were told to go take a hike and get lost or get killed, the Bush administration had grand ideas of creating a new military (with American money) and police force that would help enforce the new parliamentary style democracy that would shape the new country. Instead it backfired in our faces and now we watch as ISIS steamrolls over Iraqi towns, destroys historical sites and religious sites.
People like Lindsey Graham and Joni Ernst think that the U.S. military hasn't been put through enough in the last decade and they claim that these young soldiers are just itching to go back into Iraq. More bullshit from republicans who voted against any reform for the VA, voted against veteran job bills and refuse to do anything about PTSD treatment. I'll say the U.S. servicemen and women have been through enough over the last 12 years. These hawks that want war at any cost fail to understand that the country needs to replenish its military with volunteers, there is no draft and there sure as hell wont be a draft for another middle eastern war.
The media isn't innocent in this either, they do not challenge these idiotic statements or use the fact checking that is easily accessible. They let these politicians come on their Sunday or daily talk shows and drone on about how ISIS is a danger to the U.S. and how we should be fighting them over there. The media fails to bring up the fact that alliances with ISIS seem to be changing on a daily basis so when someone like John McCain and Lindsey Graham advocate for giving rebels arms, who are these mysterious rebels? How come the media isn't asking these Senators why they aren't imploring the other middle eastern states to get involved and stop this extremism?
It all comes back to the fact that as a society we have already forgotten what we put this country through from 2003-2010. We have forgotten the toll it has taken on our veterans and the failure we have given them because we cannot care for them. People claim to thank veterans for their service but they don't actually want to thank them, that would mean raising taxes to fund for mental health and helping those of us who served in these wars to get decent paying jobs. Instead a generation of soldiers are broken just like they were in Vietnam, we will be forgotten; just like those Vietnam and Korean War vets are forgotten. Instead we have a Department of Defense that spent millions of dollars to get sports teams to honor hometown vets and that is the most disgusting use of propaganda. When that money could have been used to help vets with PTSD get actual help; instead of getting pills thrown in their faces, or it could have went to help post 9/11 vets secure meaningful jobs or homes.
I'm afraid that there aren't enough veterans who would stand up against these clowns in the media and those in congress who seek to erase the serious struggles the Iraq invasion placed on our soldiers. I'm afraid that the revisionists will win because the public doesn't care, they just want to shake your hand at a parade and think they've done their good deeds. I'm afraid that our country will be thrown into never ending war because there will always be some boogie man in some far distant place. I'm afraid that while we let those who pound the drums for war the loudest that we are missing the small attacks that happen daily through the Internet. I'm afraid that my service to my country will end up being meaningless because I could not do enough to stop these fools from embarking on another middle eastern war and damaging another generation of volunteer soldiers. I'm afraid that the PTSD is the new norm with the military and that those who run DOD think that they do not have to fix those that became broken. I'm ultimately afraid that these politicians will convince the public once more that another dangerous and foolish war needs to be had, when we can't even care for those who served in the last 12 years.
