In an article at Atlantic Andrew Bacevich asks some hard questions:
Killing people and bombing things has become a substitute for policy and indeed for thinking. Where there should be strategy, there is a void. Will a president who looks to the likes of Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn for advice fill that void? I don’t think so.
The operative question is not: Why did last week’s raid in Yemen fail? Instead, it is: What are U.S. forces doing there in the first place? How, at this stage of the game, is further expansion of the conflict once known as the Global War on Terrorism advancing the basic security interests of the United States? All that Mr. Trump is doing is to embrace the legacy of his predecessors: perpetuating what has become an open-ended war of attrition.
I would ask some others. Why did we invade Iraq? Why did we connive at the removal of Moammar Qaddafi? Why are we still in Afghanistan? Why are we supporting Al Qaeda in Syria to bring down Syria’s government?
The ability to wage war and a casus belli are not enough to go to war. While we should be prepared to go to war if we must, we should never do so just because we can.
I hope that before Bush dies he writes a book and comes clean on why we really invaded Iraq.
Steve
Because Saddam launched a plot to assassinate Bush Sr., and George w. (probably still believes) he could make a legacy and change course for the middle east by planting a western style democratic republic there.
We will all be long dead before we know if that worked.
When the “truth” comes out it won’t be the big surprise many are expecting. The Bush administration drank its own koolaid, it’s as simple as that.