Pacific Views
You've been had. You've been took. You've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok. - Malcolm X
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| Pacific ViewsYou've been had. You've been took. You've been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok. - Malcolm X |
On Tuesday's Morning Edition, Evan Thomas, discussed his new book, The War Lovers. During the last few years he realized that the reason America invaded Iraq war was because of the lust for war on the part of the Bush administration and a bunch of reporters (including himself) who thought it would be really exciting to have a war. When he realized that, he decided to look at another American War of choice: his book covers the Spanish-American war in which the US decided to grab an empire.
Thomas didn't spend much time on the modern war but did acknowledge it was a lust for war that drove our country into this war. But, what really got me about this story was although he realized there was no good reason to invade Iraq (except people wanted to "kick some ass"), he doesn't think things turned out too bad.
"We got sucked into something that actually has turned out OK. We did achieve some war aims, but we did it at great cost, and clearly we didn't know what we were getting into."
Nice that he thinks that, but it might be good to ask the Iraqi people how about America's war of choice has been for them. Perhaps someone can send Mr. Thomas a copy of Amnesty International's latest report describing how it is to live in Iraq these days where the government of Saddam was better at providing the basics (electricity, law enforcement, schools) than the current government. I'm sure the Iraqis are more than happy that people like Evan Thomas got their chance to kick butt on the Iraqis backs.
Posted by Mary at April 28, 2010 01:06 AM | Iraq | Technorati links |Even from a selfish American viewpoint, the Iraq War did not go well. We've made the region less stable, had no effect on the supply of oil, and lost trillions of dollars and more than 5,000 American lives. It's had a bad effect on the preparedness of the American military, too.
It's no wonder this guy couldn't muster up the self-knowledge to understand his own war lust. He clearly needs to get out of the Village more often.