History be damned

At long last, words of ownership for the Iraq mess have come from George Bush.

"As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq.”

Yes. By virtue of his office, the buck definitely stops right there. Evidently, though, the PNAC vision is alive and well, because not only is Saddam Hussein still described as having been “a threat”, it seems that the philosophy of preemptive war is still driving the White House.

As in the past, Bush acknowledged no regrets about launching the war despite the problems with his initial justification. He revisited a long list of other previously cited reasons, including Iraqi violations of a no-fly zone in its airspace, Saddam's invasion of Kuwait a decade earlier and Iraq's defiance of United Nations resolutions.

Ummm…. Something’s wrong with Bush’s memory here. Gulf War I was indeed over a decade ago, but it’s not as if there wasn’t a price paid by Iraq; the repercussions for Saddam Hussein were enormous. In fact, they were under extreme sanctions, and Saddam was only a threat to Iraqi citizens. They’d been paying the usual UN penance for a very long time.

Not only that, but US involvement in that first Gulf War was the result of our agreements in the region with Kuwait, and obligations (and a commitment) to the UN. Iraq was not a threat to the United States at all, Bush's version of history be damned. Basically, we’re still on course to hit the next potential problem right between the eyes.

So who’s next? My money’s on Iran, and this time we can feel really good about it, because apparently (unlike the last invasion), these folks are a “real threat”.

"I'm concerned about theocracy that has got little transparency, a country whose president has declared the destruction of Israel as part of their foreign policy, and a country that will not listen to the demands of the free world to get rid of its ambitions to have a nuclear weapon," said Bush.

So far, he says the US is pursuing the “diplomatic” course. We all know, though, what happens when we don’t get our way. Good thing we've got plenty of extra money to throw around, since we're apparently not going to be spending what it takes to rebuild SE Louisiana and New Orleans.

Polimom said this @ 7:04 AM