Rachel Maddow reviewed the various justifications for the invasion of Iraq which sadly were changing month by month under the Bush administration and I agree with her completely here. If Republicans are now screaming that we need to be “giving
September 1, 2010

Rachel Maddow reviewed the various justifications for the invasion of Iraq which sadly were changing month by month under the Bush administration and I agree with her completely here. If Republicans are now screaming that we need to be “giving Bush credit” for what’s happened since we decided to invade a country that wasn’t a threat to us, bring it on and let’s give them all full credit for the consequences of their actions and not just George Bush.

And as Rachel also noted, our military personnel who have been sent over there deserve to have their service honored. The people who decide to put on a uniform and defend this country are not responsible for the decisions made by their leaders. They’re just doing their jobs and that sacrifice is not being shared by the rest of the country. If we had a draft in place that did not exclude the rich, I don’t think we’d be occupying either Iraq or Afghanistan right now since more people would be questioning our military presence in either country if it was their kids being shipped overseas. Sadly our volunteer and over stressed volunteer military allows most of us to ignore what’s going on.

But back to Rachel’s segment on our justification on invading Iraq in the first place. Here’s the list

1. Iraq was behind 9-11 and had ties to terrorists.

2. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction that they were going to use against the United States.

3. Spreading peace and democracy.

4. We had to invade because Saddam Hussein was gaming the U.N. oil for food program.

5. Saddam Hussein was a bad man, which no one could disagree with.

Which, as she noted, the final reason they settled on had absolutely nothing to do with why we said we were supposedly justified in invading Iraq in the first place.

And then we have Republicans saying that President Obama should be thanking George Bush and apologizing for having opposed “the surge” which they falsely claim “won” the invasion of Iraq.

Rachel reminds us of just what “the surge” was. It was supposed to be “political breathing space” for a functioning government to be set up in Iraq, which has yet to happen, despite all of the claims by the likes of John McCain and his friends that “the surge worked!”

Maddow: Republicans are clamoring for credit here as this war finally ends. Well credit where credit is due. Two American things have been accomplished in Iraq. Tens of thousands, more than a million Americans, served their country in a horrible war for seven and a half years under horrible circumstances and under political leadership that was not honest about why they had been sent there. Those Americans are to be honored for what they did and what they gave and they are to be taken care of as veterans now that they’re home.

The other accomplishment in Iraq is that we have finally found a way to leave, to get combat troops out now. Those two accomplishments belong to… this president who was overseeing the withdrawal from Iraq and to the people who served, the people who served honorably these seven and a half long years.

Credit for all the rest of it, for the made up reasons for going in, for going in in the first place, for letting Afghanistan still out of control and in favor of this war, for the constant revision of the justifications for war to obfuscate the petty radicalism that really started it, Republicans you guys can go right ahead and take that credit. Go right ahead. Credit where credit is due.

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