General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: POTUS Did NOT Defend The Iraq War [View all]DirkGently
(12,151 posts)They don't have to have been "the same." That's not the standard for comparison. No two evil, illegal wars of aggression are "the same."
We didn't follow "international norms" in Iraq. We made the inspectors leave because they weren't finding anything and Bush & Co. didn't like that result.
We didn't go into to liberate anyone from a tyrant, either. Reagan and pre-Kuwait Bush I loved the guy. Armed him. Protected him. Hussein was "our guy" until we decided we wanted his stuff.
We DID go in for selfish reasons. We DID meet with oil companies and draft plans to seize the oil fields immediately.
We DID kidnap, torture, and murder people -- per our own investigations -- without cause, and in violation of every notion of civilized treatment. We STILL have illegal prisoners in custody, and don't even have a solid plan to prosecute or release them.
There was no good, noble purpose for Iraq. Not even a passable rationale. That's the comparison being discussed, and there's no amount of sidestepping that protects the U.S. from charges of hypocrisy regarding the illegal invasion of a sovreign country in peacetime, on a pretext, for selfish reasons.