He Said It, Not Me

From the Lowell Sun in Massachusets:

“The invasion of Iraq I believe will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history,” said Odom, now a scholar with the Hudson Institute.

Odom is retired Army Lt. General William Odom, veteran of the war in Vietnam who, under then-President Ronald Reagan, served from 1981-85 as the Army's senior intelligence officer in his role as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, followed by the directorship of the National Security Agency (NSA), aka "the Puzzle Palace," from 1985 until 1988.

Odom believes our focus should have remained on Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden, and he would like to see our forces redeployed along the Afghan-Pakistan border where the folks who actually perpetrated 9/11 have been hiding FOR FOUR FUCKING YEARS.

If any Bushit, rightwingwad nutcases lurk here, I want to hear from you. First, tell me why the invasion of Iraq was justified. Second, explain to me how it can in any way be called a competent exercise of the use of military and political force in the US interest. Finally, show me how, in any way, we are better off economically, strategically, or in terms of national security as a result of invading Iraq.

Lastly, if you didn't see Andy Rooney on CBS's Sixty Minutes, please go read the transcript here. It's short and to the point, and Rooney, a veteran of WWII, reminds us of the dire warning from outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower in January, 1961.

We had a great commander in WWII, Dwight Eisenhower. He became President and on leaving the White House in 1961, he said this: “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. …"

Well, Ike was right. That's just what’s happened.

That's the reason we have this disaster in Iraq--the defense industry, holding hands with the energy interests, now determines all foreign policy, and the rest of national policy derives from that. We are citizens of an aggressive, imperialistic, and militaristic nation that is spiraling into destruction of its noble institutions, all for the sake of greed and power of a cabal of truly evil people linked around the Bush family, people whose sense of privilege enables them to commit war crimes and violate international law as well as the very best principles of the United States. We are a pariah nation now, lead by madmen who also happen to be amazingly stupid and incapabile of learning from their mistakes and who lack any redeeming qualities whatever.

It is time for them to fall and fall hard, or the future will be far more dangerous, violent, and uncertain. These really are the last days, in a sense, and what will befall all of us we will deserve if we let these few continue to pull the levers of government and industry for solely their own self-interest.