[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'B')y the time the vote was held, there was enormous pressure on all parties to vote "for." A vote against was painted in the light of virtual treason.

[Heineken]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... story.html

Here's an article that pretty much nails it.

[gollum]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'h')ttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-withdrawal-from-iraq-marks-the-end-of-american-supremacy/2011/12/12/gIQAStpTyO_story.html

Here's an article that pretty much nails it.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gollum', '
')If forced to choose between some anarchy and chaos or a continued corrupt system I'll take the anarchy, Freedom isn't always orderly.

[Keith_McClary]

The crime of aggression
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Nürnberg Tribunal condemned a war of aggression in the strongest terms: "To initiate a war of aggression . . . is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." It held individuals accountable for "crimes against peace", defined as the "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing...." When the United Nations General Assembly unanimously affirmed the Nürnberg principles in 1946, it affirmed the principle of individual accountability for such crimes.

[Heineken]

Of course, none of those details made it out of the mouths of our nightly news anchors. References to Iraqi civilian deaths---when made at all---were always vague and brief. Our media were only too willing to play along with the crimes and subterfuge and omissions. They operated virtually as an arm of the government. Very little criticism. That includes PBS, which for almost a decade served up softball after softball to interviewees.

Yes, there was a war going on. And that changes the rules, somewhat, for the news media. But this was (and is) virtually a permanent war. That's a little different from a news blackout on the eve of an invasion.

[eXpat]

Now that Iraq is over, comes to time for feedback, to see how well it went...
The Iraq war will cost little, and Iraq oil will pay for it.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f you can remember that far back, before the invasion of Iraq, Dick Cheney and friends were arrogantly sure that (a) the cost of the war would be minimal, and (b) Iraq's oil revenue would fund reconstruction efforts; it would virtually be a no-cost war, one that paid for itself.


Then, reality met fantasy and, as usual, reality prevailed.
Sunday, January 19, 2003:
--Q: Mr. Secretary, on Iraq, how much money do you think the Department of Defense would need to pay for a war with Iraq?
--A (Rumsfeld): Well, the Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that's something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question. I think the way to put it into perspective is that the estimates as to what September 11th cost the United States of America ranges high up into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Now, another event in the United States that was like September 11th, and which cost thousands of lives, but one that involved a -- for example, a biological weapon, would be -- have a cost in human life, as well as in billions, hundreds of billions of dollars, that would be vastly greater.

3/27/03 testimony before a Senate Appropriations Hearing
a. Rumsfeld:

I don't believe that the United States has the responsibility for reconstruction, in a sense...[Reconstruction] funds can come from those various sources I mentioned: frozen assets, oil revenues and a variety of other things, including the Oil for Food, which has a very substantial number of billions of dollars in it.


b. Wolfowitz:

We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.

[Heineken]

In a just society, those characters would be in jail. What a gang of smarmies.