Is Iraq Now A U.S. Ally & Democracy?

[BlindBoo]

The entire intervention was a monumental strategic blunder.

But the best advise not invade and remove Saddamn came from none other than President Bush(41)

"While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs.....we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.

Reasons Not to Invade Iraq,

 

[paulitician]

It just keeps gettin' tougher ev'ry day...

Iraq outlook looks dim after pullout
2/26/12 - The situation on the ground seems to grow bleaker

Most Americans would just as soon forget all about the Iraq War, the eight-year conflict that some who promoted it now say was a great mistake. Still, Iraq remains in the headlines, but not in a positive way. Every day since the last American troops pulled out in December, the situation on the ground seems to grow bleaker. In an interview last week, a former United Nations official who worked there during the war offered the view: “We’re now at the nadir, politically, no question about it.” But then just a few days later, Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, hiding out in Kurdistan because Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wants to arrest him, proclaimed on television that his bodyguards and other employees are being held in secret prisons and tortured.

Looking over all of that, R. Nicholas Burns, who was undersecretary of state, the department’s third most senior officer, during former President George W. Bush’s second term, said: “The war was a mistake, the biggest strategic error since Vietnam.” In an interview, he cited among other issues the many thousands of Americans and Iraqis who were killed and the high cost, both political — “the tremendous damage to our image in the Arab world” — and financial. A recent comprehensive academic study put the actual costs of both the Iraq and Afghan wars at $4.4 trillion so far, counting expenses such as veterans medical benefits that no one in Washington seems willing to acknowledge. By contrast, the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent estimation was just $1.5 trillion.

After Bush negotiated an end to the U.S. military presence in Iraq near the end of his term in 2008, his politicians and generals began warning of three large potential problems: growing Iranian influence in the Iraqi state, increasing sectarian violence and the possibility that Al Qaeda in Iraq “will continue to grow in capacity,” as Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, who commanded U.S. forces there, put it during a news conference last fall. In interviews, several former officials and experts acknowledged that most, if not all, of that has already happened, in just the few weeks since the last American troops left. Last week, for example, Iran agreed to increase the electric power it supplies to Iraq by as much as 30 percent.

Some Sunni leaders, under sometimes lethal pressure from the Shiite-controlled government, have begun talking about breaking away from Baghdad and creating their own state. That has started talk of a possible civil war. And in the past week alone, about 70 people have died in bombings and other attacks. But no one seemed to anticipate what is arguably the biggest problem: The nation seems to be relapsing rapidly into brutal dictatorship.

Read more: Iraq outlook looks dim after pullout - Joel Brinkley - POLITICO.com

Yeah, a whole lot of blood & treasure spent over there. And it's very hard to be optimistic about things in Iraq.

 

[healthmyths]

Lots of discussion on this as we complete our withdrawal from Iraq. The Iraq War is now over. So were the goals achieved? Are they now a friend and new Democracy? What do you think?

YOU know INFORMATION helps form opinions and I would strongly recommend people download as I have over the last 6 years the following index which is updated every 2 weeks.
Iraq Index - Saban Center for Middle East Policy - Brookings Institution

The reason is IF more people were aware for example on page 24
In 2002 Under Saddam the Per person Gross Domestic Product was equal to $802.
As of 2012 estimated: GDP per person $3,808.. a 374% INCREASE!

SO do you think Iraqis are better off as allies of USA or if still lived under Saddam?

Others have estimated 800,000 deaths caused by Saddam not counting the Iran-Iraq war.
Estimates as to the number of Iraqis executed by Saddam's regime vary from 300–500,000 to over 600,000,estimates as to the number of Kurds he massacred
vary from 70,000 to 300,000, and estimates as to the number killed
in the put-down of the 1991 rebellion vary from 60,000 to 200,000.
Estimates for the number of dead in the Iran-Iraq war range upwards from 300,000.
Saddam Hussein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So by shear numbers from the start of Saddam's reign to 2003 he murdered 600,000.
16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003 Saddam murdered an average of 25,000 a year over his 24 years.
IF Saddam was STILL in OFFICE from 2003 to 2012 at 25,000 murders a year
another 225,000 or over his reign of terror nearly one million murdered Iraqis!

So at least 225,000 people are alive that would have been murdered by SADDAM!

AND for YOU IDIOTS who claim 100,000 Iraqis killed due to USA Liberation...
YOU IDIOTS!!! WHO killed the majority of them?? THE TERRORISTS!

But you make excuses that Saddam oh he wouldn't have murdered another 225,000 and
of course he wouldn't have been involved in terrorism if he was still in power!

YEA...

 

[healthmyths]

Lots of discussion on this as we complete our withdrawal from Iraq. The Iraq War is now over. So were the goals achieved? Are they now a friend and new Democracy? What do you think?

YOU know INFORMATION helps form opinions and I would strongly recommend people download as I have over the last 6 years the following index which is updated every 2 weeks.
Iraq Index - Saban Center for Middle East Policy - Brookings Institution

Page 29 59% in April 2011 of Iraqis says Security has gotten better.

 

[Dr.Drock]

Lots of discussion on this as we complete our withdrawal from Iraq. The Iraq War is now over. So were the goals achieved? Are they now a friend and new Democracy? What do you think?

YOU know INFORMATION helps form opinions and I would strongly recommend people download as I have over the last 6 years the following index which is updated every 2 weeks.
Iraq Index - Saban Center for Middle East Policy - Brookings Institution

The reason is IF more people were aware for example on page 24
In 2002 Under Saddam the Per person Gross Domestic Product was equal to $802.
As of 2012 estimated: GDP per person $3,808.. a 374% INCREASE!

SO do you think Iraqis are better off as allies of USA or if still lived under Saddam?

Others have estimated 800,000 deaths caused by Saddam not counting the Iran-Iraq war.
Estimates as to the number of Iraqis executed by Saddam's regime vary from 300–500,000 to over 600,000,estimates as to the number of Kurds he massacred
vary from 70,000 to 300,000, and estimates as to the number killed
in the put-down of the 1991 rebellion vary from 60,000 to 200,000.
Estimates for the number of dead in the Iran-Iraq war range upwards from 300,000.
Saddam Hussein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So by shear numbers from the start of Saddam's reign to 2003 he murdered 600,000.
16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003 Saddam murdered an average of 25,000 a year over his 24 years.
IF Saddam was STILL in OFFICE from 2003 to 2012 at 25,000 murders a year
another 225,000 or over his reign of terror nearly one million murdered Iraqis!

So at least 225,000 people are alive that would have been murdered by SADDAM!

AND for YOU IDIOTS who claim 100,000 Iraqis killed due to USA Liberation...
YOU IDIOTS!!! WHO killed the majority of them?? THE TERRORISTS!

But you make excuses that Saddam oh he wouldn't have murdered another 225,000 and
of course he wouldn't have been involved in terrorism if he was still in power!

YEA...

You understand none of that drivel had anything to do with whether or not they're a democracy or ally, right?

 

[waltky]

Kurds hijack Iraqi oil...

Iraqi Kurdistan Halts Oil Exports, Defies Baghdad
Sunday, April 1st, 2012 : Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has halted oil exports, accusing the central government in Baghdad of failing to pay the oil companies working in the oil-rich area.

Kurdistan's Ministry of Natural Resources said Sunday that “there have been no payments for 10 months.” But officials in Baghdad have said more than $500 million have been approved and is awaiting the final paperwork. The friction between Baghdad and Kurdistan, autonomous since 1991 with its own government and armed forces, centers on control of oil fields and revenues in the north.

Iraqi lawmakers are still haggling over a national oil law that is meant to create a more solid legal framework for companies working in the OPEC nation. Tensions between the Kurdish leadership and Baghdad have also been rising on the political front.

In December, Iraq's highest ranking Sunni official, Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, fled to Kurdistan to avoid an arrest warrant. Baghdad's Shi'ite-led government has accused him of running death squads, a charge he denies. Kurdish officials have refused Baghdad's request to arrest Hashemi or hand him over.

In a move likely to exacerbate the tense situation, Hashemi left Iraq on Sunday for predominantly Sunni Qatar. He is expected to stay there for several days.

Source

 

[paulitician]

Blowback.

 

[saveliberty]

One way you can tell if they are our friends is if Carnival Cruises docks there...