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John McCain on Iraq: 'We Already Won That One'
On July 15, I attended a reception in Washington DC to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam. Geoff Millard and I spoke to Sen. John McCain. When Geoff introduced himself as chairman of the board of Iraq Veterans against the War, McCain retorted, “You’re too late. We already won that one.”
McCain is now the second U.S. official to declare “mission accomplished” in a war that continues to ravage the people and land of Iraq. “[I]t would be a huge mistake to see Iraq as either a success story or as stable,” Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan, wrote on Informed Comment. McCain's declaration of victory in Iraq is as specious as the one George W. Bush made after he strutted across the flight deck of the Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003.
Gen. David Petraeus is often credited with reducing the violence in Iraq after the “surge” of 30,000 extra U.S. troops. But the violence continues unabated. Every few days there are reports of suicide bombings, car bombs, roadside bombs, and armed attacks in Iraq. About 300 civilians continue to die each month and more than two million Iraqis continue to live as refugees.
I wonder how McCain defines "victory" in Iraq. The U.S. mission there has never been clear since the invasion in 2003. First the search for weapons of mass destruction proved fruitless. Then it became evident there was no link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Finally we were told the U.S. invaded Iraq to accomplish regime change and bring democracy to the Iraqi people. But if democracy is the goal, there has been no victory.
Neither Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki nor Ayad Allawi won a mandate in Iraq’s March election, which created a power vacuum. ”The shortages of power, which remain a chronic problem seven years after the American invasion, have combined with a near paralysis of Iraq’s political system and violence to create a volatile mix of challenges before a planned reduction of United States forces this summer,” according to the New York Times. Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, described the “elitist authoritarianism that basically ignores the people.”
Sunni Arab insurgents have taken advantage of the political vacuum to mount “effective bombing campaigns” and target the banks, says Cole. Last month, attackers in military uniforms tried to storm the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad, causing explosions and gun battles with soldiers and police. Fifteen people were killed and 50 were wounded.
Most Iraqis have less than six hours of electricity per day. Baghdad’s poorer neighborhoods have as little as one hour per day, leaving them without so much as an electric fan to withstand the blistering heat – 120 degrees in some places. The electricity shortages caused thousands of Iraqis to join street demonstrations in Baghdad last month.
The political situation in Iraq is worse than it was before the U.S. invaded. Although Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, he nevertheless raised the Iraqi standard of living to a respectable level. “Saddam [had] improved the school system in Iraq and literacy for women was phenomenal for that of an Arab country at the time," William Quandt, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of Virginia who has served as an adviser to the American government on Mideast policy, said on the PBS News Hour. "People didn't go hungry in those days in Iraq," Quandt added.
"We knew Saddam was tough,” Mr. Said Aburish, author of a biography of Hussein called ‘Secrets of His Life and Leadership,’ noted on PBS Frontline. “But the balance was completely different then. He was also delivering. The Iraqi people were getting a great deal of things that they needed and wanted and he was popular.”
Al Qaeda did not operate in Iraq before Bush’s “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Now Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia terrorizes Iraqis in areas like Amil in Mosul. “They say you have to slaughter soldiers and police,” Staff Col. Ismail Khalif Jasim told the New York Times.
There is a campaign of assassinations aimed at government officials across Iraq, the Times reported a few weeks ago: “Some 150 politicians, civil servants, tribal chiefs, police chiefs, Sunni clerks and members of the Awakening Council [former Sunni insurgents now aligned with the Iraqi government and U.S. military] have been assassinated throughout Iraq since the election.” Speculation about those responsible includes Shiite militia allies, Sunni extremist groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Kurdish political parties, and Iran.
Reconstruction of what we have destroyed in Iraq remains elusive. After six years and $104 million spent on restoring a sewage treatment system in Falluja, U.S. officials are walking away without connecting a single house. American reconstruction officials have also walked away from partially completed police stations, schools and government buildings in the past months. “Even some of the projects that will be completed are being finished with such haste, Iraqi officials say, that engineering standards have deteriorated precipitously, putting workers in danger and leaving some of the work at risk of collapse,” the Times reported earlier this month.
President Obama is scheduled to reduce the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq from 80,000 to 50,000 by the end of August. But that does not mean stability has been attained, nor does it mean the occupation will end. The U.S. is sending civilian "contractors" - perhaps more accurately called mercenaries - to replace them.
The number of State Department security contractors will more than double - from 2,700 to between 6,000 and 7,000 - according to a July 12 report of the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting. The State Department has requested 24 Blackhawk helicopters, 50 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, and other military equipment from the Pentagon. The gigantic U.S. embassy and five “Enduring Presence Posts” (U.S. bases) will remain in Iraq. The contractors are simply taking over the duties of the departing soldiers.
Transferring military functions to civilians is “one more step in the blurring of the lines between military activities and State Department or diplomatic activities,” said Richard Fontaine of the Center for a New American Security in Washington D.C.
The U.S. government has changed the language describing military activity in Iraq from combat operations to “stability operations,” but U.S. forces will continue to kill Iraqis. “In practical terms, nothing will change,” Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza told the Times. “We are already doing stability operations.”
Bush’s war of choice in Iraq has caused 4,413 American deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates that between 97,110 and 105,956 Iraqi civilians have been killed. Untold numbers have been seriously wounded. By September, we will have spent nearly $750 billion on this war and occupation.
John McCain should examine the actual state of affairs in Iraq. It he does, he might stop declaring victory.
- Posted in
69 Comments so far
Show AllWe have spent over two trillion dollars Mr. McCain, how exactly have we won this war???
Is Iraq paying us in oil ?
Are we paying back the banks and other country's like China the money we borrowed to fight these wars?
Mission Accomplished Mr. McCain, 90 percent of Americans we are flat broke, and somehow, you are going to squeeze us for the money to pay back the war loans.
Thanks to George Bush , and Dick Cheney , we have increased our deficit form 4 trillion to 12 trillion, and now Obama has pushed to 14 trillion.
Do I feel more secure about my life or the future , no.
I feel like the Snake oil sales men that usually get run out of town, have hijacked and control Washington.
Only it isnt snake oil that they are selling.
We have spent over two trillion dollars, Mr. McCain! How exactly have we won this war???
A trillion dollars is equal to a million million dollars. Two trillion would be two million million dollars. And we have people here in our own country who are out of work and can't even afford housing or groceries.
FOR SHAME, FOR SHAME, AMERICA!!!!!!!
a trillion is not a million million, but rather a thousand million, just for accuracies sake.
If you're going to correct someone, make sure you're not incorrect!
A thousand-million is a billion. A thousand-billion or a million-million is a trillion, just for the sake of accurate accuracy.
Here's a fun primer from Chris Martenson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caMRBGmja3w
Fortunately, we narrowly missed having this jerk McCain as our president. Instead, we got a different jerk. This country will never be okay unless we can somehow stop choosing between the two-party, all-jerks system.
Shortly after the Republican convention in September 2008 presidential candidate McCain declared that "the Iraq surge (he was one of the few supporters of the surge)was a success and victory in Iraq was imminent". McCain's poll numbers surged after that remark until two weeks later the economic meltdown occurred thereby assuring there was no way the party in power could win the election.
Because "rival" candidate Obama never commented on, let alone criticized McCain's remarks, we can only conclude that Obama agreed with him.
If it is a victory then let's just declare victory and get out. I don't know how the Iraqis will settle scores and sort things out but I do think they will do a better job of it if we get out than if we stay there and continue to meddle. We will still have 50,000 troops there and an embassy of a thousand that will try to direct things but that will fail too. In the end we will all be gone and being throughly discredited will have absolutely no influence in the country. The Iraqis will find to other resources to rebuild their country. Now that's successful foreign policy.
My fellow prisoners, McCain is delusional. I hope that Millard called him on that misconception.
The Iraqi occupation has been a disaster for the U.S. and Iraq. The country was way better off under Saddam. Yet the U.S. government openly participated in a state execution and handed him over to his enemies to be hanged in public. I still don't know how the Bush Administration got away with that without more outrage. He was even hanged on New Year's Eve weekend. Happy New Year, everyone! Saddam's swinging from the gallows! That has to be one of the most disgraceful things the U.S. during this occupation. I don't care what Hussein did, he could have been imprisoned in the U.S. just as Noriega had been.
Not to mention all the lives and money wasted for nothing. Iraq is a shambles, with no infrastruction and no security. What kind of victory is that? McCain is brain dead. I hope he finally gets booted from the senate in November.
McCain and the rest of the Repukes led by Cheney & Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Kristol, Feith, et al, would beg to differ with you.
The sole reasons for invading Iraq were to secure access to the vast oil resources for western multi-national corporations, and to establish forward military bases for US and other forces to enable the continuing theft of energy and other resources in the greater ME.
Oh, and to fight the "war on terror" created by the neo-cons invasion of NY on 9/11.
The "shambles" the United States of America left Iraq in was in fact a great victory for Israel.
By America's own declaration of war, the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary.
Public Law 107-243 -
The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to—
(1) defend the national security of the United States against
the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and
(2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council
resolutions regarding Iraq.
Iraq was not a continuing threat.
Iraq was not violating UN SC resolutions.
John McCain is lying, or delusional, or both.
I would say both.
Gee Senator, too bad you wern't elected resident.Maybe you would have declared victory in the" stans "too,and our occupying forces could come home.
peace
Not so fast. Remember McCain said he would be prepared to stay another 100 years.
I've got a cot and a pup tent he is welcome to live in over there.
Senator John McCain is SO full of bullshit that it stinks from high heaven to hell and back again!
What Senator is NOT full of BS?
Congressman, Alan Greyson, in Florida is pretty good.
He wouldn't take any crap from McCain.
But, most of our politicians are full of it.
Grayson is a House rep. not a Senator. The rhetoric sounds good but...
Senators not full of BS, can there be 10? .... Who are not near total sellouts?
Well, yes Grayson isn't a senator, but I'd suggest: Bernie Sanders-VT, Barbara Boxer-CA, Al Franken MN, Russ Feingold, MN (some but not full of BS yet).
Most of the rest are as crooked as corkscrews.
It should be pointed out to Elmwood that not one of those politicians that he has named has called for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops and mercenaries from Afghanistan and Iraq. Furthermore, every one of those people on his list is an avowed Zionist which strongly suggests that those politicians have indeed sold out to the vested interests in this country as well as the interest of Israel.
Russ Feingold is one of the Senators from WI not MN.
That's a good question, socialist!
Little Johnny McCain, injured and imprisoned during another illegal, mistaken, illegitimate war halfway across the world is now celebrating another illegitimate war...imperialists never learn.
Little Johnny McCain, injured and imprisoned during another illegal, mistaken, illegitimate war halfway across the world is now celebrating another illegitimate war...imperialists never learn.
Victory? What a relief. Now I can finally confirm my travel plans to Iraq so I can visit the amazing Baghdad Museum!!!
Replacing troops with mercenaries sounds like a sure way to step up the violence in Iraq. It makes perfect sense: the media will extol the good works of our military while the mercenaries ruthlessly protect the development of oil infrastructure and continue to spread terror, all under the mainstream media wire. That's the future of Iraq.
I'm not even going to bother to express my disgust at the lies and carnage and barbarism of our military--I can't, as its intentional evil boggles my imagination. More important is the ignorance of the US public--this has been the true military victory, accomplished through the media, particularly television, our true educational system (the public schools' role seems mostly to bore and frustrate our youth to the point of intellectual vacuity). Psychological warfare has defeated the USians, who still, against all evidence, imagine they are beloved by their leaders, who they think are doing everything to keep "We the people" safe and prosperous.
Will the USians figure out that we have fought for the profits of the military-industrial complex, and will continue to do so however our continuing occupation and brutality is spun? No, they won't. McCain said we won, so we won. Will they care about the millions of children, women, and innocent men who have been slaughtered, or the high rate of deformity and mortality of the births there? I'm afraid not.
My, I've become misanthropic in my old age. But I'm doing what I can: clueing 200 or so students per year into this bullshit. You should see the shock on many of their faces when only a slice of the grim reality is brought to their attention. Sadly, you should also see the complicity on the faces of many others.
ELIZABETH: Among the two-hundred students that you tap may be one or two who go on to make major ripples. I salute your efforts and see things as you do. However, I think every sentient being has their limit. It may soon prove evident that the outrage meter has reached critical mass for enough persons to cause the human equivalent of an earthquake. I hope so. If not, nature is also prepared to rock and roll. Permutation(s) happens.
Thanks, Siouxrose--I do hope that opening some minds will have an effect. Elmwood is right that my teaching is probably considered subversive to some. I do offer various views, and encourage those students who support the wars to have their voice and even to contribute reading material for the class. This, so far, has had the advantage of satisfying those who would find me subversive while further opening the eyes of those who've never thought of the reasoning of the wars much before--they see what a load of crap the warmongerers are perpetrating. I never preach. That would surely get me fired--I'm an adjunct--and thus would end my ability to get some sense out. In any case, that's my strategy, and so far I haven't gotten a call from any dean. The possibility is always in the back of my mind, though, so I keep in the front of my mind the fact that "protecting" myself by avoiding such issues would be a cowardly, traitorous act.
If there's ever going to be any significant push against US imperialism, it's going to have to move from the bottom up. We can't wait for a politician to save us. Yes, there have been some third party candidates I'd love to see in the presidency, but that's a pipe dream. We live in a media-controlled oligarchy, and no change will occur unless the public stops listening to it and begins speaking out. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to try to bring some information to people who would likely never find it on their own.
Keep teaching Elizabeth, but your teaching will be called subversive. Most USians grow up believing the USA only acts from good motives with good intentions. Pointing out facts undermines that faith and suggesting that US sends its military forces do bad things for bad reasons is unwelcome news. What of those people who give lives, lives of loved ones based on the faith that it was for a noble purpose and who learn that they have been duped both on the cause they serve and on the myth of gratitude from their nation?
Sadly grownups need to know the truth, their children need to have them give up their illusions.
Television could enlighten 200 million USians in one year, but the owners of the media, who also happen to make lots of money from the wars, make sure the viewers are kept confused and misled.
A few thousand readers of CD and internet news may have a sense of the global BS this nation produces, but they can be crowded into free speech zones. This November the people with money buy their elections with the help of the supreme court they bought and they will show us who really runs this country and how much our squawking does not really matter too much.
McCain isn't lying, by "we" he means the elite that has already made billions with the Iraq occupation. So he's right, "we won".
The US is in Iraq to stay and more billions will be made during the next decades by a very small number of people to the detriment of 99,99% of the American and Iraqi populations.
The good thing about Republicans is that they don't pretend to be other than the swines that the world knows they are.
Democrats are worse, they pretend.
The two most important points posted adjacently: "The Victors", in this scenario, didn't turn around the USS Abraham Lincoln just for better lighting and a panoramic ocean view, but to also put a slap in the face of International Solidarity on May Day. The first public statement by Herr Bush at Camp LeJeune NC, to the "woofing" approval of The Troops was "Our first objective was to secure the southern oil fields...pause...we achieved that objective('hooah!!')."
And that's why the second point is of importance; I'll have to do a re-read, but to me the only thing, regardless if it was being accomplished or not, that is mentioned as a goal is democracy..."But if democracy is the goal, there has been no victory." So, to pull a "Sharrod" over everyone's eyes I can say, "Marjorie Cohn says 'democracy is the goal' in the Middle East."
Point being is that The Troops should be protected by everyone having a clear understanding that the goal is oil and it's management: not freedom, democracy, or even security from "terrorists". Some people are saying only the Chinese are getting oil management rights in Iraq, but Exxon and Shell signed deals 1/25/10, that "jolly" day Chemical Ali was paraded around in his underwear, then executed; and during the September 11 flag waving of '07 Hunt Oil got things started with the Kurds, "contract"-wise.
And, of course, the most hideous part is the means to achievement of those oil goals. This includes operating under the principle that, as then Senator Ted Stevens said, I believe circa 2005, during the summer at the beginning of questioning "torture", but still at the baaing hound smug Neocon arrogance apex."..that there are two types of people in the world, Classified and Unclassified(I may have them reversed)...and that it is totally ethical for those of the Classified to coerce/influence one party of Unclassifieds to massacre (as in El Mozote) another party of Unclassifieds...'to make a political statement.'"
So...as in Cheney's victorious "so": these suicide and other bombings going on in Iraq are nothing but some type of not really important political...well, they're not even really statements at this point...but probable a little foot note for some historical intern -- or so the so called Victors hope. For , I like how Martin Scorcese does it in Gangs Of New York, if The Mob ever gets the notion that the body bags of The Troops are indeed for who get to get paid billions of dollars for counting how much oil flows through pipes and into ships...then this phrase "turning point" I've been reading of lately can come to pass in the Middle East/Africa...etc.
"But if democracy is the goal, there has been no victory."
Democracy is no more the goal there than WMD were ever the reason for invading and destroying Iraq. The whole point of this massive criminal action was simply to destroy a country so Georgie Boy could get his pathetic rocks off as a "war president" and one-up his old man. Oil is certainly an economic incentive, since we steal that wherever and whenever we possibly can, but this invasion/occupation has nearly bankrupted us and no one in power gives a shit because the real reason for doing it was to make little Caligula feel good about himself.
Now Obama is imitating Bush the Ultimate Asshole because he's stupid enough to agree with McCain that "we already one that one [Iraq]." Obama wants to show the world he has just as big a war dick as Bush had. They're all totally insane and we've been driven collectively insane because we've been paralyzed to remove them from office--all of them. By any means necessary, yet we haven't decided it's at all necessary because we're transfixed by TV, the internet, cell phones, and about a hundred other electronic gizmos that consume most of our time. The rest of our time's taken up worrying about not having adequate (or any) health care or job security, if we have jobs at all. No time to worry about silly wars!
So our criminal government marches from one catastrophe to the next, in behalf of corporate capitalism, because they're all too fucking stupid to realize self-destruction when it stares them in the face every day. And we're too apathetic to worry about getting rid of the bastards who have wrecked the whole country, and several other countries into the bargain.
Good comment. that is exactly how I feel.
EPHRAIM: As your favorite (LOL) proof-reader, I'd like to point out that in your 3rd paragraph, 2nd sentence you say, "we already one that one." Interesting Freudian slip... carries a nice little monotheistic, no other gods (but THE one) before me; and as you know, that god has morphed from Jesus (and/or His Father) into the angry jealous champion of war and endless conflicts. Your misquote is a subliminal reminder that Mars (the one and only!) rules so long as the USA lays its homage to the MIC!
I should say I planted that misquote to see if anyone would notice. But alas, I too make mistakes. Thanks for pointing it out. Would McCain have the vaguest idea what you're talking about if you floated the Mars theme by his doddering head? These fools really think they're doing the Christian thing in utterly destroying every country they set their greedy sights on. They're exact counterparts to the Taliban, and just about equally illiterate, I'm convinced. The rest of us are trapped between the two poles of idiocy they represent, with the very future of humanity and the earth in the balance, hinging on warring religious dogmas. Capitalism in Christian disguise is our reigning dogma, and it looks like Mars has been chosen to further its world-dominating aims.
Mars, the planet not to be confused with the god of war, will only be inhabited if there are resources capable of being useful on Planet Earth. There was a lecture from a university on this.
http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep533/SPRING2004/lecture19.pdf
You may want to check this out for more on Mars,
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Tech/Space/mars.html
That could be a planet worth colonizing and nobody can complain about lost lives there.
When Geoff introduced himself as chairman of the board of Iraq Veterans against the War, McCain retorted, “You’re too late. We already won that one.”
McCain represents perfectly the addled lunatics who run the U.S. military and government.
The perfect comeback to McCain's “You’re too late. We already won that one.”
"Then there is no reason to maintain our military presence in Iraq."
WTF
Absolutely correct. And if there was actually a genuine opposition party in this country then Americans would see the Democrats making that exact statement on the House and Senate floors. And in light of the released documents which have revealed the large number of Afghan civilians who have been slaughtered by the U.S. military they should be doing the same thing in relation to Afghanistan. But it is extremely doubtful if the Democrats have the courage, if not the common sense and moral fortitude, to back up those demands by cutting off the funds for both of those idiotic and most unnecessary occupations.
750 billion. When do we get paid back? They said this war would pay for itself.
Speak for yourself McCain. I haven't won anything. NOT IN MY NAME, only at my expense.
I remember how astonished I was when Bush told us that he actually needed to spend 60 BILLION dollars to invade Iraq to keep us safe. Times certainly have changed ever since this new method of transferring public monies into private hands was initiated. Where are we at now? A trillion? Probably close. With this kind of money the death of innocents rates very low on the scale of importance. George H.W. Bush once proclaimed that keeping his lifestyle was paramount. The lifestyle folks have done a heckuva job sticking to their guns, literally and figuratively. Few realize, however, that they down their $150 steaks with the blood of children. Of course, they always say a prayer to their version of Jesus first which makes it alright. Bon Apetit, guys! Ooh, you got a little dribble there on your lip...
McCain is a bloviating, braying jackass-- no question.
But this foul eructation is pretty much the default position of ALL of our Elected Misrepresentatives. The others are just more discreet about it.
A more glib and rhetorically sophisticated politician, including but not limited to our reigning monarch, wouldn't use the naked term "win"-- and may even respond to the question by rejecting the simple assertion that the US "won" in Iraq.
But "win" is an ambiguous abstraction and generality; only children and the simpleminded (including Philosopher-Jocks like Vince Lombardi) put any stock in it.
IMO, there's no Elected Misrepresentative in DC, i.e. Congress or the White House, who wouldn't "On Balance" endorse the illegal pre-emptive invasion and occupation of Iraq-- and if pressed, say they'd do it over again.
Even the nominal "anti-war" individuals and caucuses express their opposition by attacking the quality, cost, or necessity of various aspects of it. In calmer moments, they may even generally advocate forsaking our traditional belligerence and instead establishing a Department of Peace.
But no Amerikan politician bluntly asserts that the "win/lose" question is utterly specious, since it doesn't apply to unilateral invasions and other undeclared military hostile actions.
They may not bray as stupidly as McCain, but they all behave as if, regardless of whether "we won" in Iraq, Amerika is always and forever a nation of Winners with a proud tradition of leadership by Winning Warlords, and an equally proud tradition of maintaining the Winningest troops in the world.
God bless 'em all, and God Bless the You Ess Eh!
Perhaps if McCain had explained afterwards that he was using "won" in this chauvinistic Special Olympics sense, he would've been spared this criticism.
McCain is a phony "war hero" (see McCain-Songbird) who has lost his marbles.
A total ass!
It's been pretty clear for some time that McCain is losing his mental abilities as well as any moral standards he may have ever had. Next he will be pooping in his diapers the way things are going. Yet, he is one of an elite group of 100 very wealthy and powerful men, the U.S. Senate. Go figure. It makes no sense to me that such a dingbat could be re-elected even once. He should quit the Senate.
Ultra blatant jerks like McCain hold on to political office because they're still desperately needed by many USAan's, whose delusional grasp of reality needs systematic and chronic sugar coating.
A poster above noted that national voters narrowly avoided electing McCain persident only to gain, for their seeming marginal caution, a far-more slippery, but no less profound jerk.
All True, IMO.
We're not so much a duopoly, in the end, as a Jerkopoly.
What America has done to the Iraqi people for many decades, will be a blight on the soul of America for years to come, if not forever. Many younger Americans do not remember the first gulf war and the economic sanctions that followed against the devastated war torn country. How anyone who watched and studied the first gulf war and the sanctions could ever believe that Iraq was a threat to America is beyond me.
America's pre-emptive strike against the country of Iraq, a nation that had been reduced to what one of the generals called the pre-industrial age. Then it had been held in siege for 13 years unable to rebuild or support their population. 3 to 4 thousand children were dying every month due to war and sanctions. How dare John McCain or any American brag that we already won the war against Iraq. It wasn't even a war. Iraq was not a threat to America or any neighbors at the point of U.S. invasion. Iraq was the victim of U.S.previous war, continued bombings and sanctions when attacked. Iraq was not the villein to be beaten. They had already been beaten by a first gulf war, continued bombing and sanctions. How dare America invade a wounded, dying,nation of Iraq and brag that we won? Why aren't all U.S. Officials involved in the decision to invade the war, sanctioned, devastated, Iraq in federal prison?
John Mc Cain also believes we won the Vietnam War ...and that he is a war hero.
Americans have mostly forgotten how we inflicted untold death and misery on the peoples of south east asia.
Someday, Irag (and Afghanistan) will be portrayed as great victories by the selfless military of the US.
Teach you children well.