Borgo beat me to it.
It's the fifth anniversary of the War in Iraq.
As is to be expected, Bush is defending his insane, and costly, folly. According to the New York Times:
In remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday at the Department of Defense, Mr. Bush said, “Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision—and this is a fight America can and must win.”
Reiterating his theme that fighting in Iraq help protect Americans domestically, Mr. Bush said, “Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home.”
He's been repeating that twisted logic for five years now.
The reality is the world is a far less safe place now than on March 18, 2003, thanks to Bush and his people. Yeah, they got Hussein, the boogey man under the bed - what about bin Laden? And where oh where were those weapons of mass destruction that Bush and Company claimed were in Iraq? And, what about the other two Axis of Evil nations Bush was so worried about in 2002? Did they just disappear? Did the United States just scare them into playing nice with the rest of the world?
Oh, look! Shiny thing!
In his prepared remarks, Mr. Bush acknowledged that there have been difficult times: “A little over a year ago, the fight in Iraq was faltering. Extremist elements were succeeding in their efforts to plunge Iraq into chaos.”
But he said the recent strategy of sending additional troops to the country, known as the surge, “has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around — it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror.”
Mr. Bush said the reduction in violence in Iraq and the alliance of some local groups with American forces is “the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network.”
Noting that some political candidates are calling for an early withdrawal of troops, Mr. Bush said, “If we were to allow our enemies to prevail in Iraq, the violence that is now declining would accelerate — and Iraq would descend into chaos.”
The result, he said, would be that “the terrorist movement wold emerge emboldened, with new recruits, new resources, and an even greater determination to dominate the region and harm America.”
He said the United States is helping establish democracy in Iraq and in the heart of the Arab world. “By spreading the hope of liberty in the Middle East, we will help free societies to take root — and when they do, freedom will yield the peace we all desire.”
This is nothing but out-right lies. The same set of lies he and his cohorts have been telling since 2002.
The Emperor has no clothes people.
See some of the cost of these lies on riverrun's homepage. As of last week there are 3,990 dead Americans. Just Foreign Policy states that 1,189,173 people have died since March 19, 2003 because of Bush's invasion.
And then there is a monetary cost - over 500 billion US and rising moment by moment - plus gas at over US$3.26 a gallon as of this morning fill-up in Stratford, Connecticut. The obsession with the War On Terra has meant no on is minding the store in the United States and it is, in my opinion, directly related to the meltdown we're seeing in the US economy. Trickle down effect, if you will.
After five years, what has Bush's crusade accomplished?
Approximately 4,000 Dead Americans (and rising). As of the end of January 2008, 4,228 total dead coalition forces.
Final cost of the war to be estimated at roughly 2 trillion US dollars (GDP in 2006 was 13 trillion - roughly - or 16% of the entire gross domestic product of the nation). In a /msg to me StrawberryFrog made an excellent point that the US$2 trillion has been spent over a period of five years where as the GDP in 2006 was amassed in one years time.
Significant endangerment of religious and secular minorities all over the Middle East and an increase in "ethnic cleansing" in the region.
Displacement of nearly 4,000,000 Iraqi people. It is estimated that in Syria alone 50,000 Iraqi women and girls have turned to prostitution just to survive, making Syria a popular destination for sexual tourists.
5,000,000 Iraqi orphans. That is, roughly, twenty percent of the entire population.
And I could go on and on.
But what's the point? It's not like anyone really listens anymore.
Happy Anniversary Mr. Bush. I'm sure you think it was worth it. I'm sure you believe the lies you spew. Too bad Pelosi took impeachment off the table. You deserve to be impeached and then goose-stepped to the Hague to stand trial for War Crimes and for Crimes Against Humanity.
But it will never happen.
Because no one really cares anymore.
And when you finally leave office next January, you leave behind you an unprecedented level of chaos and destruction in both the foreign and domestic arenas. Congratulations.
Sources:
icasualties
AlterNet: Five Years After Invasion of Iraq: Why Did We Do It?
Leading to War
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Wiki
Thanks be to riverrun for reminding me of journalist Dahr Jamail's website covering the War in Iraq, from the inside. His blog of March 18, 2008, gives even more information on the real human and financial cost of Bush's Folly.