Courtesy of Mish.
Cheney, Bremer Defend Invasion
The non-surprise of the day is that Bush Acolytes Defend Their Records.
Rather than seeing the new round of sectarian violence in Iraq as another hammer-blow to their 2003 decision to invade the country – as many of their critics do – several key figures in the Bush administration are using the conflict to defend their own records.
Leading the charge is Dick Cheney, the former vice-president who was the principal driving force within the administration behind the decision to go to war in Iraq.
Another former Bush-era official seeking to re-enter the Iraq debate is Paul Bremer, the former diplomat who was sent to run Iraq shortly after the 2003 invasion.
Mr Bremer believes the US should launch air strikes, push back the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis), which have taken control of cities across northwest Iraq, and says that the administration will need to put special forces troops into the country to assist the air campaign. He said that the US “lost our political influence” with the 2011 withdrawal.
Apart from the initial choice to invade Iraq, Mr Bremer’s move to disband the Iraqi army has been the most criticised single decision of the US occupation.
Confronted in a CNN interview with a 2003 speech when he predicted a “prosperous, democratic Iraq, at peace with itself”, Mr Bremer responded that “every single bit of that came to pass” but that “this has all been reversed in the last two years”.
Bremer Delusional
Bremer is clearly delusional when he claims a “prosperous, democratic Iraq, was at peace with itself” only to be reversed in the last two years.
The biggest threat to world peace was not Al Qaeda, but rather the extreme warmongers president Bush surrounded himself with. Every one of them should be tried for war crimes.
Isis Closes In On Iraq’s Largest Refinery
Today, insurgents broke through the defense perimeter at the Baiji refinery, Iraq’s largest. If the refinery goes, Iraq will have to import oil. …
