On the 15th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq

In 2003, the Bush Administration, under the pretense of ridding the world of a dangerous dictator who possessed “weapons of mass destruction,” invaded a nation that had not attacked the U.S. during its entire history. The invasion and subsequent occupation led to the deaths of as many as a million Iraqis, a large proportion of them children. This was in addition to the million or more Iraqis that died as the result of sanctions imposed by the U.S. after Desert Storm in 1993.

The Bush Administration invaded Iraq mainly to enrich the military/industrial complex that has driven so much of our foreign policy since the end of World War II. During the mobilization, the government even conducted classes for businesspersons who wished to profit from the procurement bonanza. It was all transparent. Very little was hidden from anyone who took the trouble to look.
No good came out of the invasion or occupation to anyone but defense contractors, who are still gorging themselves at the public trough. Attacking a nation that has never threatened you is a war crime, pure and simple. George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the other neoconservatives in the administration all have blood on their hands that will never be washed out.
Watching the CIA testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee several days ago reminded me of the talk leading up to the invasions of Vietnam and Iraq. Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence told Congress that “[t]he risk of inter-state conflict is higher than any time since the Cold War.” CIA Director Mike Pompeo, FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, as well as the heads of the Defense Intelligence Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley and Robert Cardillo, answered questions by the committee members.
As you might guess, the picture they presented was bleak. That the most powerful nation in the world, whose military expenditures exceeds those of the rest of the world combined, should be worried about enemies is ridiculous. It appears as though the defense industry is getting hungry and needs another war to restock their coffers.