Acheson, that brilliant strategist and close friend of Archibald MacLeish, criticized advocates of “massive retaliation” in the 1950s. It would be mad, he said, to “embrace disaster in order to escape anxiety.”
• • •
Deployment of military force can bring the immediate illusion of “success” but always results in unforeseen consequences and collateral damage that complicate further the achievement of America’s main objectives.
Ambassadors Thomas Pickering and Luers, cited in the excellent J Street, an organization of reasonable American Jews who support a just and lasting Israeli State.
East-Azerbaijan is an important province in north-west Iran. When Republicans talk about War with Iran, as they do every dat on the primary campaign stump, presumably they are aware of the 4,00,000 armed patriots in East-Azerbaijan.
The Republicans talk about War with Iran as if it would be like the War we were lead to believe Iraq War would be. This series of blog posts explores how realistic that hope would be.
CAN WE BOMB IRAN, SMASH IT TO SMITHEREENS?
You betcha.
We can bomb anybody, anywhere in the world, and do it thoroughly.
We did this to Bagdad, . . .
with MOAB, what we call the Mother of All Bombs, without breaking into a sweat . . .
An Atomic Bomb blast is bigger and prettier,
but chemical bombs do well enough; so who needs Atomics now-a-days?
No Americans were injured in the fire bombing of Bagdad . . .
. . . and this young man was fortunate
to be liberated from the Tyrant,
Saddam Hussein.
to be liberated from the Tyrant,
Saddam Hussein.
WAS THE IRAQ WAAR A WALK IN THE PARK?
The Iraq War was billed as being "a walk in the park," "where we would be greeted with flowers as liberators", in DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld's phrases.
I wouldn't describe it that way:
About 4,000 American soldiers killed . . .
about 34,000 wounded . . .
Olson Brandon, from an impressive collection of
Iraq war images entitled
more than 1,000,000 Iraqis killed . . .
This estimate of Iraqi dead
is conservative.
A U. S. Marine is next to the dead body
of a suspected insurgent during the battle for
Fallujah, 2004. Salon.com,
Photo byMARCO DI LAURO
1,556,156 Iraqis were wounded, . . .
Photojournalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
The Guardian 14 March 20008, Baghdad;
September 12 2004:
Dead and critically injured Iraqi civilians
lie in Haifa Street after US helicopters
opened fire on targets in the area
3,216,107 displaced to Syria and Jordan as of 28 February 2010. . .
From a current story in the Daily Koss
From the Christian Science Monitor, displaced Iraqi school children
attend summer school to try to catch up
. . . and 1,900,000 still living in Iraq but without a permanent home
Some or our soldiers were welcomed . . .
Some did not like our troops very much
Vice President Dick Cheney, a vocal proponent of the Iraq War, said
In fact, there were two Wars. Afghanistan is not finished and the Iraq War lasted six years. The total cost to the American citizen ,in a Brown University estimate, is 3.3 Trillion Dollars.
The difference between a billion and a trillion, illustrated:
Grin and bear it, these guys seem to say
Some or our soldiers were welcomed . . .
Change.org, urging improved help for displaced Iraqis.
and even seen as heroic
We were not hospitable to everyone, an expected consequence of the stresses of War and a reason to avoid War if it can be avoided:
(I see these guys as heros)
GI's resting during the assault on Najaf.
Some did not like our troops very much
Najaf; August 20 2004: An Iraqi Shiite man
loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
prays in front of the door of a tomb,
The Guardian photojournalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Our opponents in Najaf.
Resembles a friend of mine.
Making enemies isn't good.
Not to forget the Kurds, our staunches friends:
The Peshmerga, perhaps the finest fighting force
outside Pastunistan. National Geographic photo.
Kurdish girl.
Many on all sides just mourn their losses:
Vice President Dick Cheney, a vocal proponent of the Iraq War, said
"every analysis said this war itself would cost about $80 billion, recovery of Baghdad, perhaps of Iraq, about $10 billion per year. We should expect as American citizens that this would cost at least $100 billion for a two-year involvement."
In fact, there were two Wars. Afghanistan is not finished and the Iraq War lasted six years. The total cost to the American citizen ,in a Brown University estimate, is 3.3 Trillion Dollars.
The difference between a billion and a trillion, illustrated:
Ten thousand dollars:
One million dollars:
One hundred million dollars:
One billion dollars:
One trillion dollars:
Bushco (my term for President George W. Bush and his Republican friends who began two wars) borrowed much of the 3.3 trillion dollars from Communist China, our former bitter enemy
while Bushco was cutting taxes on the richest of us, at a cost of 2.27 Trillion Dollars by 2010, and rising. . .
. . . resulting in the national debt that Republicans now decry.
Republicans who urge War with Iran, now demand tax cuts and reduction in the national debt. Thomas Friedman, not noted for liberal ideology, in a February 11, 2012, New York Times OpEd piece, urged a crushing defeat of the RepublicanParty in the November elections, for its idiocy, in the hope that a truly Conservative Party will take its place. Urging War with Iran with no mention of its financial and human cost nor of its unexplained and perhaps unintended consequences, is idiotic, as we shall see in future posts on this blog.
William-Adolphe BouguereauIt is not known if Bushco sleep comfortably an night, or if the Furies haunt its members. Can't imagine what goes on in the heads of million-killers. Probably not much, I fear.
THE IRAQ WAR WAS A GREAT GIFT TO IRAN, BUT WHO KNOWS IF INTENDED?
Who ever knows what those in power intend? Surely not I. But Iran is a Shiite Muslim State, surrounded by a great sea of Sunni Muslims, who regard the Shia as apostate, unclean, and to be destroyed. Bushco gave Iran a Shiite government in Iraq, replacing its bitter enemy, Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim. Iran should give daily prayers of thanks to Bushco, but doesn't, because Iranians hate Americans so much. Still. Thank you very much, Dwight David Eisenhower. See the forthcoming blog post.
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