With assorted Republican presidential hopefuls declaring their candidacy, foreign policy is becoming a hot topic, with most of the candidates trying to out-hawk each other at every turn. Then there’s Iraq.
The 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq is looming large over all the campaigning, and most of the field is trying mightily to shed the legacy of this disastrously failed war.
Most are chalking it up to “bad intelligence” at the time, and conceding the invasion was the wrong decision, while trying to spin the war as something less disastrous than it actually was.
Jeb Bush, is facing the most heat on this issue, both because he is touting as a top adviser his brother George W. Bush, who launched the 2003 invasion, and because he declared that he would launch the war himself even knowing what he knows now, though he’s since tried to spin this as having “misheard” the question.
Chris Christie and Rand Paul are both saying they wouldn’t have gone to war, Marco Rubio says the war made the world a better place but stopped short of endorsing it, while Mike Huckabee called it a “botched military strategy,” and blaming the Iraqi people for not supporting the occupation more than they have.
Other candidates are so far avoiding comment, apparently seeing Iraq as such a losing issue that they’re better off avoiding any comment one way or the other.
Sure, now what most Americans aren't fans of the Iraq war they claim not to like it either. They should ask them what they would do about Iran, Syria, Russia. Let's see if they actually learned something from the Iraq debacle.
It certainly is scary that these buffoons are the " best" that can be found in a population of 300 million. For some reason they remind me of the fools that presided over the collapse of Rome.
The latest Bozo out of the GOP clown car, Mike Huckleberry, blaming the ungrateful Iraqi people for not supporting our glorious invasion!
"…blaming the Iraqi people for not supporting the occupation more than they have."
I'll admit, I lost a mouthful of coffee when I read that. Where do they find these nutcases? And as for JEB…the reality that he will not get elected because of his last name will sink in eventually. But in the mean time, it's great theater.
Most people are against the war only because the aggression did not result in success. Principled foes of the war, were against it when it was being contemplated. The Germans all loved HItler when the invasions were going well, too.