When did you realize going into Iraq was a mistake?

[NoBushSpokenHere]

Poll question: When did you realize going into Iraq was a mistake?

Curious here. I will post my opinion later.


When did you realize going into Iraq was a mistake?

[Swamp Rat]

1. 1990

[hobbit709]

I agree with Swamp Rat

[GoneOffShore]

26. I'm with Swamp Rat

[featherman]

2. Well before the media run up... it was obviously stupid and immoral

to attack a country that had done nothing to us.

[Yael]

3. I gave our congress the benefit of the doubt. I fell out of favor in late 2003

and starting getting active against the war in 2004.

So many of you saw this. I am ashamed that I didn't.

[MADem]

4. Before the vote, but I knew that we'd go nonetheless.

Rumsfeld was quite determined. DOD was pumped. There was nothing those of us who weren't "onboard" could do, really.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. 1997

[FrenchieCat]

6. Before.......

As soon as I heard the rumblings of it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Before I even regales congress critters with actual info

and it turns out I was right and they were wrong

Oh and I started singing the I word back then

[totodeinhere]

8. I saw through it from the beginning. But it's just too bad that Hillary didn't.

If I and so many others knew that the whole thing was a fraud, why didn't Hillary and why did she vote to authorize the war?

[Maestro]

9. Long before the run-up to war.

I knew that given Saddam's unpopularity in the Arab world, I knew there were no links to Al-Qaeda and given that the inspectors could find no evidence of WMDs per Hans Blix, I knew there were none despite the yellow cakes claim from the neocon dreamworld.

[gateley]

10. After vote and before Mission Accomplished.

It pains me to admit that I bought into the lie. No more, and never again.

[Cha]

16. I got on DU in late September 2002 and

from the discussion about the bushes' reps and the links to articles explaining why it sucked I was totally against it and went to NYC with my sister for the Protest when the "World Said No to War" on Feb 15, 2003.

[Mike03]

11. Without question, before the first bomb was dropped. It was so obvious!!!!!!!!!!!! NT

[flowomo]

12. my first public statement was my 9/26/02 newspaper column:

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2002/09/26/editorial/rich_lewis/lewis1.txt

I knew before this, but wrote about there for the first (but not the last) time

[marlakay]

13. Read book by Richard Clarke

where he said it was all wrong and that he heard them mention Iraq in a meeting the day after 9-11.

I can't remember when the book came out whether it was before or after the war but I knew in my heart watching Powell that day at the UN that he was lying. I could see it on his face.

And I have NEVER trusted any of the Bush people. My husband was a Nam vet and we could see it happening again.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

14. Before the IWR vote, I wrote my rep/senate in Sept of 2002

Asking them to vote No, along w/ my reasons. All three wrote back, They agreed and why. Stupak, Levin, and Stabenow.

I will admit that Powell testimony fucked w/ my head abit thou.

[TheWraith]

15. As soon as the initial plan was put forward.

An objective observation of military history will show you that the Iraq War had all the warning signs of a potential clusterfuck. Hostile population; false pretenses; lack of clear objectives; and lack of competant strategic planning.

One of the rules to remember when planning for a war is that if your strategy requires things to go smoothly for you, you're already fucked.

Second rule: while oppressed people may welcome you as liberators, that phase lasts about 35 minutes, after which you'd best be on your way out lest they exercise their new freedom by shooting your ass.

Third rule: War is not anything that you want to do in half-measures. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing fast, with overwhelming force, and then afterward run like you stole something.

[JayFredMuggs]

20. A very good summary of my feelings, well stated!

I realized just about anything George W Bush would decide to do since his campaign fought not to count all the votes in Florida, and fought NOT to have the Supreme Court NOT consider the craziness of the Florida ballot, from that point on, I knew our democracy was in trouble as it had never been in trouble before.

As to 9/11 and Bush's cavalier attitude toward the warnings he had gotten several times beforehand, and his non-chalance over the threats which were sent up to his office several times before 9/11, and the Afghanistan war, well THAT war was a hard one to "win" so Bush decided to go into a second war......another foolish decision. We will suffer for the next 10 years, I am afraid, for the decisions made by GWB in 2001, 2002, 2003 and on and on and on. I knew as early as December 2000, when Bush was declared by our Supreme Court to be the winner, with Gore winning 500,000 MORE popular votes, the court, in the end, is responsible for denying Americans democracy, and letting the letter of the law win over real people's votes.

IMO

[Johnny__Motown]

17. When they disbanded the Iraqi army. It seemed clear then that we were not leaving

[Yavapai]

18. When my wife told me it was...

Actually my wife (at the time she was a registered Republican) made the statement that she thought the truth was that there wasn't any WMD and that when that came out there would be protest in the streets like during Viet Nam. She thought "that invading Iraq for 911 was like invading Canada for illegal immigration." She thought we should go into Pakistan after Osama, if we truly was after terrorists.

So, it took a Republican to convert me back to the Democrats.

Maybe, that is why she calls me "Forest Grump" and it's not just the mood I wake in some mornings.

[Tribetime]

19. I never paid close attention to politics until this war (I'm 47)

and kept thinking they sure as hell better find WMD's. That was it for me, I've been strongly against this war and the republicans ever since. I haven't displayed the flag or wore anything with the american colors on it ever since. I refuse to until the republicans are out of office. I'm not proud of my country right now. I'm ashamed of it's policy and arrogance to the rest of the world.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

21. Do you have a difficult time saying the Pledge of Allegiance?

I haven't been able to. In public meetings sometimes I just move my lips but nothing comes out. I hang my head in shame of what our country has done.

[Tribetime]

22. I do stand during anthem though(minus hand over heart)

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

27. I only hang my flags and buntings on the July 4th week now.

Prior to the War, my flags flew on all the appropriate holidays. Not anymore.

[apocalypsehow]

23. It was funny, I was assistant that year on a course in the disastrous Roman invasion of Parthia,

which was initiated because of the arrogance and greed of the Roman general Crassus (among other reasons somewhat more complex).

I remember many of the students at the time drawing parallels that stretched two-thousand years back into history with the current day, and another foolish, arrogant, greedy leader. They were right.

[EFerrari]

24. I was always against it but knew they were lying when

they tried to swiftboat Scott Ritter. Remember? They tried to make him look crazy.

[stillcool]

25. as soon as they started 'selling' it.

looking back it seemed like a long slow process with lie after lie that was exposed every step of the way.

[TexasProgresive]

28. I knew as soon as GW starting beating the war drum

Iraq never had anything to do with anything and every bad prediction made has come true. Iraq was somewhat stable and is has been on the edge of chaos ever since the invasion, it has become a breeding ground for terrorists, Iraqi oil paid for nothing and infact the war is probably responsible for driving up the price of oil and on and on and on.

[goodgd_yall]

29. Jan or Feb. 2003

the "Iraq War Vote" was something I wasn't paying that close attention to. But in January and February, as I listened to BBC radio, I heard many reports on Iraq by Iraq experts and followed along on the inspections news. That's when I knew an invasion/war would be a BIG mistake.

[Irishonly]

30. Nothing Bush said rang right

It made no sense and I thought the military would be stretched too far. I have thought Cheney was evil for years so I really was suspicious. I wrote a letter of thanks to Barbara Boxer and a what possessed you to DiFi. I knew she was a dino but didn't realize how much she wanted her hubby to make money.

[TheCowsCameHome]

31. Looooooooooooooooong before March 2003.

Anyone could see that, except those in power.

[graycem]

32. As soon as they started talking about it..

It would take any of us a matter of minutes to find an outline on when we've interfered in the middle east, and then the motives are always as plain as the nose on my face. Oil and big contractor free money parties. My question is, if I realized that it was all a charade, why didn't so many of our Senators and Congressmen? I have never been overly involved in politics, but if I could see,and most of the people in my family could see this for what it was, it is just beyond belief that those people in a position to change the outcome didn't. That's the primary reason I am voting for Obama. Even though he didn't have a vote at the time, he was speaking out against it, using plain ole common sense, and I fail to buy into the fact that these people didn't know so either. They just used this vote for various things.. political expediency, lack of a backbone, fear (gasp, what if they were wrong!), probably many of them didn't trust their own judgment because of the whole freakin' pack mentality. Just a sad shame that I hope is never repeated. Our country will never survive if we don't dismiss the idea of pre-emptive war. We can't afford it in dollars or lives lost. Unfortunately, the people who started this mess don't really care. They got what they wanted. The money, the favors, and they'll be out of office leaving the mess for someone else to deal with.

[angie_love]

35. same here

[NoBushSpokenHere]

33. Glad to see the majority of those voting here

were able to see through the smoke screens of the "sell the citizens on the war". I remember when it all went down. I was working with a Republican who brought it up to me. She had a weepy look in her eye at the time. I said, "Damn Bush" adding "Damn the ones who support this!" Her weepy look was replaced with a defensive look and a "Patriotic" tone came to her voice, "You don't think we need to go after the ones who did this (9.11) to us?" I explained while choking back tears, "Ms. Republican, THIS isn't about 9.11 at all, Iraq didn't attack us!" adding "IT IS ALL ABOUT OIL and it is about time you ADMITTED IT!" Tears welled in her eyes and she changed the subject. I believe that even she knew the war was a mistake. Even though her words denied it, the tears in her eyes spoke volumes.

The reason I asked the question here in the forum: I just find it so difficult to understand WHY ANY Democratic Senator, well, hell, any Senator at all, could have voted for it? I knew at the time it was wrong. I can and do understand why the general public didn't realize it at the time, our press was more than willing to brainwash us about the war. I just do not understand how any Senator could have possibly fell for the bait.

This issue alone is extremely troubling and one I will not forget.


Edit: typo

[marions ghost]

34. When I saw

they were going to hit Afghanistan and then use 9-11 as an excuse to 'finish the job' in Iraq also, I knew we would witness a tragedy of monstrous proportions "over there." Well that tragedy is not only "over there"--it's "over here" now. The chickens have come home to roost.

When they kicked the weapons inspectors out and Colin Powell sold his soul to the devil in the UN I knew we'd be going to a war based on lies. And therefore we would lose. But it's worse than "losing" a war, it is a crime. What we as a nation have done in Iraq is a crime to equal or surpass Saddam's crimes. And what our leaders have done to us here at home is a crime.

I don't blame people, like some admitting it here, who were sucked into the fervor about the "war." They were vulnerable and they were expertly manipulated by a complicit corporate media. I don't blame the military personnel who truly believed they were defending our country and the country's interests--instead of lining the pockets of corporate predators. It's NO shame to have been hoodwinked. This will go down in history as one of the biggest mass media manipulations of all time. I save my anger about "the war" for the big fish--our leaders, who led us over a cliff.

The problem for the Rethugs is...they never imagined losing. It was not on their radar screen. That was their first BIG mistake. If everything had gone swimmingly like Ann Coulter told us, many Americans WOULD have continued to support this criminal action. But at this point I don't think this country will be fooled and railroaded into a misbegotten war again for a long time. But it is a VERY expensive lesson we have learned.

[Kaylee]

36. Before....I don't agree with pre-emptive strikes.

Every rationale given during the run up to the war struck me as wrong. I just couldn't go along with it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

37. 1991. Rescue Kuwait from Saddam?

Even GHWB thought Kuwait was a thugdom. I have no idea why we needed to save it from another thugdom.

Seventeen years later, it still looks like a bad idea.

[WinkyDink]

38. Sometime before I got on the bus to go march in NYC in 2003.

[frogcycle]

39. Unlike some, I cannot claim perfect prescience

I had SERIOUS reservations. I knew they were hyping it. The charade with the documents, when the Iraqis put all that stuff on the table to inspect, and then the inspectors said it was incomplete, did not look like sophisticated charlatans trying to pull a fast one; it looked like a bunch of bumblefutzes making a sincere effort to keep from getting the shit kicked out of them, but just not having all the info to provide.

It also looked like the US was damned quick to declare it a sham.

Many other such examples.

BUT, with all that, I wondered whether they DID have SOMETHING (they HAD had it, HAD used it) and whether, with all the angst over sanctions, they just might sell something to the highest bidder.

So I favored ratcheting up the pressure - including the resolution - because i felt we needed to cut through the smokescreen and find out what they were up to. The decision to invade, though, I felt based on what info I had available, was precipitous and premature. I had my doubts that is was necessary. But if it could have been relatively "surgical" and, when no WMDs were found, we had said "oops, excuse me, wrong country" and backed out, maybe it would have been a marginally forgivable mistake. That assumes that there WAS some sort of intelligence. Now that we know it was all faked, I know it was a mistake from way before the resolution. But at the time, I would say my trepidation turned to being sure it was a total fuckup when the looting was allowed to run unchecked.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

40. Kick for additional opinions nt

[rasputin1952]

41. At the time of the initial raids to get bin-Laden in Afgahnistan...

I was for getting him. But as soon as reports came in that we were bombing them back to the stone-age, I figured everything was hitting rock bottom at that point.

For once, I actually figured the CIA had it right, and they could catch bin_laden and his crew...they screwed it up again by paying off corrupt war-lords. who were paid to let bin-laden get away in the first place.

When Iraq came intot he picture, I saw nothing but failure, the first rule of war is "know your enemy", and this administrartion's views all came from John Wayne flicks and WWII films of Reagan winning the war by "flying" in a sound studio in Hollywood.

[Patsy Stone]

42. Inauguration Day 2001

I told my husband, "We're going back to Iraq." Of course, I didn't know how they'd do it, but I knew they were going to do it.

[ekwhite]

43. I realized it when they started threatening Hussein

I was aware that why Bush Sr. did not overthrow Hussein was that Saddam Hussein was the only thing holding the country together. I was wrong about Bush's reasons, though. I thought at the time it was some sort of weird revenge thing. I wasn't aware of PNAC until after the war had started.

[TragedyandHope]

44. The morning of 9/11

As I watched the smoke come up from the twin towers and Pentagon, I had a sinking feeling that the tragedy would be exploited to the justify the worst ends possible (and that those ends would be exponentially worse than the direct effects of the attacks). I didn't believe WMD or any of the other drum-beating on Iraq for a second.

[Phoonzang]

45. I thought going into Iraq was a mistake but..

..I can't lie. It was because I thought that they actually had WMDs and would use them against Israel, starting some kind of larger war that would engulf the Middle East. I was wrong about the WMDs, but the larger war is just starting...

[McCamy Taylor]

46. July, 2002 a day or so after Hersch revealed plans for the invasion my letter to the editor

denouncing the invasion of Iraq appeared in my local paper. There were several letters in the New York Times about it too. I think that makes me one of the first private citizens in the U.S. to publicly go on record (under my non-pen name, of course) as opposing the invasion of Iraq that would not happen for almost another year.

But that does not make me a foreign policy expert. I live in Texas and I knew what kind of horse shit Bush, Cheney and Rove were up to. I guess I was a Rove expert. Maybe we need to get some Democrat from Texas to run against them.