from: Jerry Buechler
It has been said that the President missed a shining moment to preserve peace in Iraq. Except, there never was peace. Negotiations died over a Status of Forces Agreement that would protect remaining troops from Iraqi Kangaroo courts and a Hydrocarbon Law that would allow Production Sharing Agreements with western oil companies. Maliki couldn’t secure either because of strong opposition by Iraqis and Iran to American occupation.
I agree with Alan Greenspan who wrote “this is a war largely about oil” Vice President Cheney held secret “Energy Task Force” meetings in 2001 and 2002 with oil company heads and the State Department and they decided that Iraq “should be open to international oil companies as quickly as possible after invasion.”
We abandoned the hunt for Osama bin Laden to pursue Saddam Hussein who had nothing to do with 9/11. CIA’s George Tenet said on “60 Minutes” , “We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction, control, or complicity with Al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America, period.”
Here is how Iraqi experienced our “Shock and Awe” attack. First, approximately 29.000 bombs and missiles were detonated in Iraq in 2003. 10,000 were non precision weapons and about 4,000 of the precision weapons missed their targets altogether wreaking death and destruction on civilian homes, and other inadvertent targets.
Second, household to household surveys estimated war deaths of 1.2 million Iraqis out of a population of 24 million. If the U.S. was invaded and the result was 1 out of 20 or 17 million Americans killed, I am positive we wouldn’t welcome the invaders as liberators. So, if another U.S. surge is needed, let it be a surge of compassion. Any finger-pointing has to include us.
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