It was twenty years ago today, George Bush said conquest is the way. The second President Bush followed in his father’s footsteps and did him one better–or perhaps worse. Adducing Saddam’s alleged WMDs and support for terrorism, as well as the need to spread democracy in the Islamic Middle East, Bush sent our military in to take out Saddam and remake the Iraqi political system. Then he claimed “Mission Accomplished.” Well, was that true?
I wrote a long article over at The Stream on this topic today.
American tanks in front of Baghdad’s “Victory Arch.” Wikipedia Public Domain.
The Occidental Jihadist 
Overall, well done.
Dubya’s war effort had political consequences. In Ohio, I volunteered at a local GOP phone bank in the 2006 midterm election. At the returns-watching party on election night, I witnessed the defeat of a number of wells regarded Republican officeholders. People who walked neighborhoods doing lit drops affirmed that fatigue with the war had turned voters against the GOP. The stage was thus set for Obama’s victory two years later even before the meltdown of the financial markets in 2008.
What really turned me against the war was watching two brothers go on six deployments between them and coming back with nothing enduring to show for their efforts.
The legacy of Wilsonianism is a gift that keeps on giving, even if we are now headed towards national insolvency, for which our interventions are partially responsible.
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Thank you for that sage commentary, Dr. Rieper.
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