Last night at a Iowa fundraiser, Bernie Sanders proclaimed about the entire Republican Party: “They suffer from amnesia.”
Mental incoherence is required — under the watch of the last GOP president: Worse attack ever on US soil, created a never-ending war in the Middle East, worse-ever response to a natural disaster, and, was oblivious to a near-total meltdown of the entire world’s financial system.
And sort of in that order, and that’s just the real-big stuff, overall, eight years of inexcusable shit.
(Illustration found here).
Even covering-your-ass — just case, on May 6, 2002: ‘Bush voids the U.S. signature on the treaty to establish an International Criminal Court.’
Yet the ICC has convicted George W, The Dick and a shitload of henchman of Iraqi war crimes, in absentia, of course but nevertheless.
Tony Blair is really George W’s idiot brother, unable to even talk straight — the UK has at least tried to get to the bottom of their country’s part in the Iraqi debacle with its Chilcot Inquiry, but that’s even developed into “a scandal” in releasing a report. Blair sniffled during an interview today, explaining clearly the entire Iraqi premise (via Time):
“I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong,” said Blair. “The program in the form that we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought.”
Idiot! Exclamation point, same as Jeb!
Blair did, however, let loose the thread on the current seemingly unmanageable chaos still in Iraq, fired by the now well-known ISIS, and source of its beginnings — the invasion.
A round-about concession, however:
“I also apologize for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime” Blair said, acknowledging that there were “elements of truth” in the words of those who say that the rise of IS can be traced back to the 2003 invasion.
“Of course, you can’t say that those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015,” he said.
“But it’s important also to realize, one, that the Arab Spring which began in 2011 would also have had its impact on Iraq today, and two, ISIS actually came to prominence from a base in Syria and not in Iraq”
A not-round-about reality of the ISIS origins from the Guardian on Sunday:
Throughout all its incarnations, the group’s grievances have been largely consistent.
Central to them is the belief that the invasion destroyed a regional order, ousting a stalwart of Sunni rule, and inviting the rival Shia sect to take over.
The sense of loss was profound, with many Sunnis passionately believing that the US and Britain must have known exactly what they were doing.
These views, formed along contemporary faultlines of power and patronage, drove a widespread Sunni resistance, a mix of non-ideologues enraged by losing jobs, status and dignity, and others, like the jihadis, who believed the war had been preordained in Islamic prophecies.
As Iraq unravelled, the latter began to hold sway – just as later happened in Syria.
Rightly or wrongly, the Sunnis of the region have come to believe that Blair’s decision to join George Bush’s war was the start of a historical pivot towards Iran and the restoration of Persian hegemony.
They hold up a litany of developments to support their claim, including de-Ba’athification, which was aimed at eliminating Saddam’s influence, but also became a tool of repression against Sunnis, as well as the installation of Iraqi leaders who hailed from Shia supremacist backgrounds.
Perhaps even more directly relevant to Sunni grievances and the rise of Isis, was the US-run prison system, which started with rampant abuses at Abu Ghraib and evolved into mass detention, albeit of both major sects.
Sunni jihadis said the prison system was their most effective organising tool.
And the actual point (also from the Guardian):
In Baghdad on Sunday, Jihad Mohanned, a Sunni resident from the west of the city, said Blair’s acknowledgment was “so obvious it’s surprising he bothered to speak”.
He added: “It really isn’t possible to come to any other conclusion. Without the invasion, we would not have Isis. It’s crystal clear.”
Unless you suffer-to-practice amnesia as a habit…