Iraq war horrors predicted, ignored

When US President Bush pushed the USA to attack Iraq back in 2001, anyone - Republican or Democrat - who opposed the (quite possibly illegal) incursion was called a traitor, anti-American, wimpy, voting for a "surrender" to terrorists ... and the lurid list of accusations by the Bush administration went on.

The result was that the Republican-dominated Congress easily passed the bill funding the military offensive.

With Friday's release of the shocking Prewar Intelligence About Postwar Iraq report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee, it turns out that all the horrific problems the US, Iraq and other nations currently face because of the ongoing, seemingly never-ending war instigated without cause by President Bush were predicted.

Predicted.

The report is 229 pages.

I swear, I don't know how those who engineered the Iraq attack can sleep at night, let alone continue to call people who object to this American-led and -fed bloodbath, "traitors" or un-American or "voting for surrender" if they elect a democrat.

But we have to note members of both parties who voted to give Bush authority to attack Iraq - had access to this report, and (fewer) members of both parties voted *against* it for the very reasons cited in this report.

The report says (all those years ago), an attack on Iraq feeds into the terrorists' plans to recruit members because the US will be seen as an aggressor and occupier if it invades Iraq, not "greeted as liberators."

As suggested by President Bush's father, former President George H. W. Bush, and others well versed on Middle Eastern culture and policies, even the attempt to establish a stable democracy in Iraq would be a "long, difficult and probably turbulent process."

The newly declassified documents carry plenty of evidence that Bush and members of his administration were well warned of the probability of a horrific conundrum if a war were started in Iraq.

US Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.VA) says, "Sadly, the administration's refusal to heed these dire warnings, and worse, to plan for them, has led to tragic consequences for which our nation is paying a terrible price."

President Bush says he remains steadfast about his decision to continue the war in Iraq, defending his desire to get rid of Saddam Hussein.

The National Intelligence Council's findings were most heavily used in the report, drawing its information and conclusions from a number of intelligence agencies (more than 80 are listed); the report was widely distributed to White House staff, national security, diplomatic and congressional offices.

In addition to playing into the hands of terrorists and creating mayhem in the nation, the invasion was predicted to detonate several tribal and civil wars within Iraq unless they were stopped by the "occupying force."

More, "Score settling would occur throughout Iraq between those associated with Saddam's regime and those who have suffered most under it."

The occupying force would have to provide massive military, economic and restructuring support to the nation destabilized by an attack because its only real resource is oil, and petroleum production has been significantly hindered by the war.

Instead of seeking bids for restructuring the nation - a hundreds of billions of dollars effort - Bush and Cheney gave the work outright to Cheney's former employer Halliburton, which is moving its main headquarters to the nation of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to avoid paying taxes in the US.

Meanwhile, Iran and other neighboring countries were predicted to jockey for influence in Iraq if Saddam were deposed.

Iraq's so-called "weapons of mass destruction?" Were never found. Further, other nations proceeding with potential programs incorporating weapons of mass destruction had nothing to do with Iraq and continue to develop whatever they were developing before the invasion of Iraq.

By the way, did you know that Saddam's warehouses of standard weapons found in Iraq were not locked down by the US Military. One intelligence officer in Iraq after the invasion reported that because the US military was not prepared to assume responsibility for the huge inventory of weapons, insurgents raided the warehouses day after day following the declaration of "mission accomplished" by President Bush.

Despite suffering the slings and arrows of Bush administration bullies and arm twisting to manufacture the Congressional vote to put our soldiers in harm's way, I thought you'd like to see the names of the US Representatives and Senators who, way back when, voted against funding the original assault on Iraq,

Many of them quoted the very points cited in the Intelligence Report - and were ridiculed or dismissed as "typical liberals, loony lefties, and even anti-American." You'll have to scroll down the roll call to see the entire list.

Meanwhile, as Bush swears he supports our troops: why have the Marines just reported that they have only received 10% of the protective armor they requested months ago? Why aren't there enough resources to treat our wounded and maimed veterans here at home and that substandard and dilapidated VA treatment centers have been discovered? (BTW, the Washington Post reporter who broke this story was called "un-American" by some for her reporting). Why are so many coming home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - only to find, again, too few resources to treat them, leaving their families to suffer along with them.

Then there's the pesky problems of veterans committing suicide after their return from Iraq, which has been declared a problem but not studied well enough to know just how extensive it is.

Again, I ask. Why did President Bush invade Iraq when clearly he had no realistic military task, goal, plan ... or dare I say, even a clue?

He has had five years to attend one funeral of one soldier killed in Iraq and still refuses to. He's had five years to explain the real reason we invaded Iraq (all the reasons he has told us over the past five years that we entered this war turned out to be untrue), but instead he only uses rhetoric that he hopes will frighten us to control our behavior and our money.

Actually, I finally bought into the politics of fear.

What Bush, Cheney and their henchmen are doing to our nation scares the hell out of me.