Former Military Chief: Iraq War Was A 'Failure' That Helped Create ISIS

[Lakhota]

"We strategically marched in the wrong direction."

Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, the former U.S. special forces chief in Iraq and Afghanistan who was the country's highest ranking military intelligence official, says that the George W. Bush administration's Iraq war was a tremendous blunder that helped to create the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or ISIS.

"It was a huge error," Flynn said about the Iraq war in a detailed interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel published Sunday.

"As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him," Flynn went on to say. "The same is true for Moammar Gadhafi and for Libya, which is now a failed state. The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq. History will not be and should not be kind with that decision."

When told by Der Spiegel reporters Matthias Gebauer and Holger Stark that the Islamic State would not "be where it is now without the fall of Baghdad," Flynn, without reservations, said: "Yes, absolutely."

Read the entire interview here.

Former Military Chief: Iraq War Was A 'Failure' That Helped Create ISIS

Ex-US Intelligence Chief on Islamic State's Rise: 'We Were Too Dumb' - SPIEGEL ONLINE

That fits with what many of us already know - and accept as fact.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Obama paid him to say that

 

[Lakhota]

From the OP:

Ex-US Intelligence Chief on Islamic State's Rise: 'We Were Too Dumb'

Without the Iraq war, Islamic State wouldn't exist today, former US special forces chief Mike Flynn openly admits. In an interview, he explains IS' rise to become a professional force and how the Americans allowed its future leader to slip out of their hands.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

What a fucking joke..."On April 17, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Flynn to be the 18th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.[5] Flynn took command of DIA, July, 2012.[6] In October 2012 Flynn announced plans to release his paper "VISION2020: Accelerating Change Through Integration", a broad look at how the Defense Intelligence Agency must transform to meet the national security challenges for the 21st Century.[7]"

After Obama pulled out of Iraq to turn it over to ISIS, he promoted Flynn.

 

[MikeK]

Flynn's choice of words, i.e., "error" and "mistake" was purposefully gentle, almost forgiving. The Iraq invasion was no mistake. It was the most deliberate and egregious war crime in modern history. It was so arrogantly criminal the average American simply cannot believe something like that could get past the Congress.

The bottom line is they don't want to believe it.

 

[blackhawk]

Did you notice he also said the same thing about Libya and it now being a failed state as well?

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

Flynn's choice of words, i.e., "error" and "mistake" was purposefully gentle, almost forgiving. The Iraq invasion was no mistake. It was the most deliberate and egregious war crime in modern history. It was so arrogantly criminal the average American simply cannot believe something like that could get past the Congress.

The bottom line is they don't want to believe it.

The jury is still out as to who was at fault, but regardless, such a decision would not exonerate Obama and his myriad foreign policy failures.

Frankly, Bush was too Democrat for me, but less than Gore and Kerry. There it is.

 

[blackhawk]

Isn't this the same Flynn who's has said that people within the Obama administration were pressuring the intelligence analysts to cook the intel on ISIS and come out with reports more in line with what the administration was saying?

 

[BlindBoo]

Did you notice he also said the same thing about Libya and it now being a failed state as well?

I don't believe he credited the rise of ISIS to the fall of Qaddafi/Libya. Strategic blunder like Iraq? Yeah, it was.

 

[Timmy]

You know who else agrees with the General ? CAPTAIN OBVIOUS !!

Only a right wing hack would say invading Iraq was a good thing . Jeb Bush I'm looking at you!

 

[blackhawk]

Did you notice he also said the same thing about Libya and it now being a failed state as well?

I don't believe he credited the rise of ISIS to the fall of Qaddafi/Libya. Strategic blunder like Iraq? Yeah, it was.

No he didn't but because of that same strategic blunder there are ISIS elements in Libya as well as Syria and Iraq.

 

[SeniorChief_Polock]

Flynn is a fucking moron. I knew him when he was a snot-nosed Captain. I can see his brain hasn't progressed far in all those years. Was never worth a shit as an officer.

 

[Timmy]

Our military leaders have been a bunch of fuck ups since before 911 . Major fail everywhere !

 

[SeniorChief_Polock]

Our military leaders have been a bunch of fuck ups since before 911 . Major fail everywhere !

That's totally incorrect. The majority of military leadership is OUTSTANDING.
It's those pro-same-sex imbecile that Obama keeps appointing to the Joint Chiefs that are tremendous fuckups.
Active duty and retired OVERWHELMINGLY loathe Obama. That's a fact.
And the loathe-level surpasses the loathing we had for Clinton. And that was an all-time loathe - runner up was Jimmy Carter.
Those are facts. Suck on 'em.

 

[guno]

You know who else agrees with the General ? CAPTAIN OBVIOUS !!

Only a right wing hack would say invading Iraq was a good thing . Jeb Bush I'm looking at you!

why he invaded

 

[The Rabbi]

What a fucking joke..."On April 17, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Flynn to be the 18th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.[5] Flynn took command of DIA, July, 2012.[6] In October 2012 Flynn announced plans to release his paper "VISION2020: Accelerating Change Through Integration", a broad look at how the Defense Intelligence Agency must transform to meet the national security challenges for the 21st Century.[7]"

After Obama pulled out of Iraq to turn it over to ISIS, he promoted Flynn.

Another leftist post debunked.

 

[The Rabbi]

Our military leaders have been a bunch of fuck ups since before 911 . Major fail everywhere !

That's totally incorrect. The majority of military leadership is OUTSTANDING.
It's those pro-same-sex imbecile that Obama keeps appointing to the Joint Chiefs that are tremendous fuckups.
Active duty and retired OVERWHELMINGLY loathe Obama. That's a fact.
And the loathe-level surpasses the loathing we had for Clinton. And that was an all-time loathe - runner up was Jimmy Carter.
Those are facts. Suck on 'em.

Our military was the best trained, best equipped and best funded in the world. We can and will beat anyone on the battlefield.
The problem are the civilian weenies issuing ROEs that defy common sense and siding conssitently with our enemies.
Give them a mission and cut them loose, is what I say.

 

[Timmy]

Our military leaders have been a bunch of fuck ups since before 911 . Major fail everywhere !

That's totally incorrect. The majority of military leadership is OUTSTANDING.
It's those pro-same-sex imbecile that Obama keeps appointing to the Joint Chiefs that are tremendous fuckups.
Active duty and retired OVERWHELMINGLY loathe Obama. That's a fact.
And the loathe-level surpasses the loathing we had for Clinton. And that was an all-time loathe - runner up was Jimmy Carter.
Those are facts. Suck on 'em.

Whaaaa. Blame the boss for putting standards on me , whaaaa!

You get a trillion dollars and ten years to put together and train a local army for Iraq .

FAIL!

Oh but we can't diss the pentagon . Maybe that's the problem. They get a blank check and no criticism .

 

[The Rabbi]

Our military leaders have been a bunch of fuck ups since before 911 . Major fail everywhere !

That's totally incorrect. The majority of military leadership is OUTSTANDING.
It's those pro-same-sex imbecile that Obama keeps appointing to the Joint Chiefs that are tremendous fuckups.
Active duty and retired OVERWHELMINGLY loathe Obama. That's a fact.
And the loathe-level surpasses the loathing we had for Clinton. And that was an all-time loathe - runner up was Jimmy Carter.
Those are facts. Suck on 'em.

Whaaaa. Blame the boss for putting standards on me , whaaaa!

You get a trillion dollars and ten years to put together and train a local army for Iraq .

FAIL!

Oh but we can't diss the pentagon . Maybe that's the problem. They get a blank check and no criticism .

What an ignorant asshole you are. The civilians put restrictions, impeding the military's ability to carry out the mission. It was like they told the soldiers to fight one handed to make it fair.

 

[Timmy]

What restrictions ? Did they need another trillion in order to train the Iraqis ?