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Highlands Today

Bush's Iraq mess still haunts us

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By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: October 7, 2009

After 9-11, President Bush did something the United States has never done before. He authorized the invasion of a sovereign country and made war against a country with a pre-emptive strike with the bombing of Baghdad in order to get rid of a dictator that was murdering his own people and violating their rights and storing weapons of mass destruction, (WMDs,) as far as we were concerned.

He did it because he and the American people had been convinced by Donald Rumsfield that a preemptive strike was necessary. Everyone was upset at the 9-11 terrorist strikes in New York, the Pentagon and the downing of the plane in Pennsylvania. We were being told the terrorists were radical muslim Arabs and the American people wanted some sort of revenge. That coupled with being told that Sadam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and could have been behind the attack and Osama bin Laden could be hiding in Iraq or Afghanistan. To support the contention he had WPDs, we were being shown aerial photos of large semi truck capable of hauling out nuclear equipment and/or chemicals for use against us.

Perhaps President Bush feels he learned a lesson from his actions after following public and media demands concerning the terrorist's acts of 9-11. We may not know until he writes his memoirs since he is keeping his opinions to himself regarding the actions of President Obama.

It would appear to anyone watching the news following the president that he is wooing the Arab and Islam worlds with his apologies and criticism of his predecessor in the Oval Office.

Second Guessing

I remember how it seemed everyone was convinced Donald Rumsfield was right and a pre-emptive strike was going to be necessary. It was compared with our defeat in Vietnam and how we should finish the Desert Storm war that Bush's' father had abandoned and get Sadam and his WMDs. We never found anything.

Afghanistan/Iran/Iraq conflicts

Now, our military leaders are telling us that it is essential that 40,000 more troops are needed in Afghanistan in order to complete the mission of ridding the country of the insurgents and Taliban warriors. Apparently Afghanistan's leadership is corrupt and/or incompetent and would be overrun with the more intelligent warriors of Islam who hate Americans.

American intelligence agencies are telling the president that Iran, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is the evil empire and is building a nuclear enrichment facility which is contrary to the IAEA rules.

It may turn out that Mahmoud is a very tricky and conspiring person and has secretly built the concrete facility in a mountain to make Americans think he is building a nuclear bomb making plant. Obama will order bombing actions against the facility only to discover there was only a big empty concrete building.

We could wind up getting a big black eye.

Bring 'em home

Only the Iraqis can do what is necessary to defeat the insurgents. What I'd like for Obama to do is start bringing our troops and all other Americans home and turn over Iraq to the Iraqis. And let the Afghans take control of their country. It will take a strong, powerful, unforgiving and evil dictator to control the radical people of those countries.

Then let the Arab/Muslim/Islam world know that we can be the most compassionate and generous country on Earth, however, we can be, if provoked, the most powerful, evil and unforgiving country this world has ever seen.

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, can be reached on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net

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