This is one of the primary reasons why Trump is no longer president: he took on the military-industrial complex that finds these wars profitable. They proved too powerful and too well-connected to be defeated. And so now Americans will once again expend their blood and treasure in conflicts that cannot conceivably be solved by American intervention and in which we have no national security or any other interest.
“The Biden Administration Is Taking Steps to Stay in Iraq Forever,” by Bonnie Kristian, Defense One, February 22, 2021 (thanks to Henry):
The new administration’s goals for the war in Iraq, at least as briefly outlined last Tuesday to the United Nations Security Council, are likely to prolong U.S. involvement indefinitely.
“Among its top priorities, the United States will seek to help Iraq assert its sovereignty in the face of enemies, at home and abroad, by preventing an ISIS resurgence and working toward Iraq’s stability,” Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Mills told his fellow diplomats. That means facilitating free and fair elections, Mills continued, plus fighting Iran-linked militias and terrorist groups like the Islamic State, as well as funneling money toward economic development, humanitarian improvements, and the elimination of corruption. “The United States will remain a steady, reliable partner for Iraq, and for the Iraqi people,” he concluded, “today and in the future.”
That’s an understatement. With goals as expansive and flexible as these, the United States will have a military presence and roster of associated nation-building projects in Iraq not only through the end of the Biden administration but for decades to come.
Biden campaigned on a promise to “end the forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East, which have cost us untold blood and treasure.” “Staying entrenched in unwinnable conflicts,” he rightly reasoned, “only drains our capacity to lead on other issues that require our attention, and it prevents us from rebuilding the other instruments of American power.” And Biden had a record as a voice of comparative restraint in the Obama administration to give that pledge some credence, as campaign pledges go. In those years as vice president, he opposed the surge in Afghanistan. He was also against U.S. regime change in Libya, and he was willing to accept a federalized Iraq to reduce violent internal rivalries with less U.S. involvement.
With just a few weeks in office, it’s not yet clear what Biden’s Iraq policy will be. But Mills’ brief remarks suggest we should not expect a dramatic shift the U.S. role in Iraq—certainly nothing like the complete withdrawal the average voter might anticipate on hearing a vow to end forever wars….
Rbla says
“facilitating free and fair elections”
Biden and his supporters are going to make sure Iraq has fair elections. You literally cannot make this stuff up.
gravenimage says
Grimly hilarious.
mortimer says
They will teach the Iraqis how to steal the election by sending Dorsey, Zuckerberg, Soros and Bezos to teach them how election rigging is done. They are seasoned experts now.
Wellington says
I was for taking out Saddam Hussein in 2003 because he was a total psychopath out of control and he had not lived up to the 1991 truce terms ending the Gulf War AND because every major intelligence agency in the world, including Russian intelligence, thought he was still “playing footsie” about WMDs.
But having taken him and his psycho sons out within short order, America should have thereafter left Iraq, put some Mubarak type from the Iraqi military in charge who was either pro-American or at least neutral, and then gotten the hell out of Iraq minus perhaps a few Special Forces here and there to terminate the extra bad guys among a veritable plethora of Islamic terrorists.
Bush 43 failed America and failed the American military, Western Civilization too, by stupidly thinking that nation-building in Iraq was possible—most erroneously by asserting that democracy in Iraq was possible.
Democracy, true democracy, is not possible in any Islamic land because true democracy requires liberty and Islam is a mortal enemy of liberty. Bush 43 should have known this. He didn’t. He still doesn’t. This is unforgiveable and since then the fools, Obama and Biden, are repeating Bush 43’s mistakes. Only Trump knew what to do but Trump is now gone, courtesy of a completely crooked election and stating such will, guaranteed, insure you are gaslighted by the very forces that with no evidence pursued for years a phony Russian collusion hoax by the 2016 Trump campaign but now with mountains of evidence (e.g., over 1,000 affidavits signed upon penalty of perjury that election fraud took place) assert there is nothing to see here.
Absurdity and mendacity reign. Accompanied by heaps of stupidity and willful ignorance. The world is an idiot.
Infidel says
Didn’t Obama and the Dems, such as Cindy Sheahan, Michael Moore et al lecture us that Iraq was the bad war and that we should leave the place, and indeed, Obama followed through on that (one of the few things he did right)? Then why are Biden’s handlers plotting to leave us there forever? Ain’t that something we do only for the ‘good wars’ like Afghanistan?
On the GOP side, we need dozens more congresspeople like Rand Paul and Matt Gaetz, and few Lindsay Grahams and Liz Cheneys. The last 4 years showed us that not only do we not need to be dependent on oil from muslim countries, but that we have enough oil that we can export and economically weaken all our rivals, be it Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, et al. Given all that, as well as the increased threats from China in the Indo-Pacific region, we need to pull all our troops out of the Middle East, be it Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. If the Pentagon is in need of foreign projects, find them in the Indo-Pacific, where the Chicoms are all over the place
Infidel says
Meant ‘fewer Lindsay Grahams and Liz Cheneys…’
gravenimage says
Good points, Infidel.
gregbeetham says
Yes it is a waste of time and money trying to establish a democratic system in such a place; you are going to be the enemy of all sides in reality (despite what some might say) simply because of being seen as an infidel invasion and occupation force.
mortimer says
Bush junior failed because he did not complete his military training as he should have done. He was absent from training for most of his courses. That was the time another Ronald Reagan was needed. Now Pres. Trump is gone. He wisely negotiated agreements with some of the most intractable countries and then starting withdrawing troops as stability returned. Now his deals will fall apart with his constant wise management and tending.
Rob Porter says
Wellington – Well said, but there is another element overlooked. The U.S. is clueless at winning wars and most of its generals are useless. David Petraeus was very smart when conceiving of the ‘surge’ and Stanley McChrystal brilliant at implementing it. But then the U.S. had the total dud in Afghanistan, General Allen and it had a disgraceful traitor in president, Barack Obama who imposed absurd ‘rules of engagement’ that saved enemy lives and lost hundreds of U.S. soldiers their lives. What kind of generals would accept such ‘rules of engagement? Gutless generals. Do you think that George Patton would have accepted these ‘rules of engagement?” And then there is lost spirit within U.S. forces. Those U.S. sailors shown above were in bigger boats with bigger guns than the Iranians, yet they meekly surrendered without a fight. Pathetic! But even more pathetic was some of those U.S. sailors crying like babies.
Consider this difference. In 1987, in Angola a Russian-led army of somewhere between 27,000 and 30,000 Angolans and Cubans with hundreds of Russian and East European advisors advanced into south-east Angola to crush the pro-Western UNITA group. South Africa sent in less than 5,000 soldiers to assist UNITA and it was mostly they who utterly smashed the communists, killing between 4,800, and 6,000, destroying 94 Russian tanks, wiping out an entire armoured car brigade and capturing millions of dollars of Russian equipment, tanks, armoured cars, artillery, etc. Now, this is what I expect of Americans, but the spirit is no longer there, so many will die in Iraq.
America is also useless at winning wars because it allows ignorant and stupid politicians to determine how it fights wars. A classic example of this was Vietnam.
gravenimage says
We *used* to be good at winning wars.
Art says
It is interesting that people think we as a people don’t know how to win wars. We go in cycles and surprisingly the war hawk Presidents have been those most likely to gut the military. We have an all volunteer force these days and while the enlisted ranks aren’t hopeless, the officer ranks are filled with goobers who are more adept at playing political games than soldiering. The officers are so used to getting told what to do that they are slow to make decisions; the flag officers are afraid to allow the juniors to make decisions and also to make decisions.
Today there are damned few officers I’d follow into a hot LZ or into a battle. During my career I often served notice on officers I worked for that I either would or would not follow them into battle, even in the 1980s I had to explain that to the junior officers. Yes, I was in the US Navy for 23 years, retired as WTC (E7) in 1988. By then what Carter had done to the armed forces was criminal. We need to go back to a larger force and mandatory service.
Women warriors, don’t even go there. During my career there were quite a few I knew that I’d follow into battle and many enlisted types I’d trust my 6 to, more in many cases then the males I worked with.
Now, as for your touting Russia, they got their asses handed to them in Afghanistan by a totally smaller and poorer armed force.
Jean says
Yep, and the empty suit in the White House is a MORON…..
Michael Copeland says
“….funneling money toward ….. the elimination of corruption.”
That does not sound completely convincing.
gravenimage says
Good point.
roberta says
There is just too much money to be made from war. The disgusting profiteer types (parasitic politicians and the like) just cant keep their hands off of it. They gut the
actual warriors/services and take the profit for themselves.
People talk about term limits for politicians, maybe term limits for upper echelon military would be a good idea also. Not only to avoid the corruption of power, but to also to train new ”leaders”. With the same people holding the same positions for so long, how can one expect experience to be gained by others?
gravenimage says
Biden’s handlers taking steps to stay in Iraq forever
…………….
More blood and treasure to be lost for nothing. We cannot civilize Dar-al-Islam.
Walter Sieruk says
There are two terrible plagues inflected upon America , Israel and Iraq and the world
The first is the coronavirus . The second is Joe Biden.
gravenimage says
Islam is terrible plague–worse than these two.
tgusa says
President Eisenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex has morphed in to the military industrial political complex. There is just to much money involved in their operations and like a drug addict they always need more and more and more.
tgusa says
President Eisenhower’s prophetic warning about the military industrial complex has morphed in to the military industrial political complex. There is just to much money involved in their operations and like a drug addict they always need more and more and more.
Jim says
The establishment cannot provide free and fair elections in America or do any of the good things here in the USA, but they can accomplish all these things in backward 3rd world countries? How do they manage that hat trick?
tgusa says
The American people are run by the the decisions of a tiny little distrust named DC in which the electing of representatives appears to be rigged. It is about time we began to change that. No matter where I have lived in the USA even though I try I cannot find an American that supports what’s going on in the country.
VickyK says
As the elected Commander in Chief, Trump was head honcho of the military. He should fired all the commie loyalists that Obama put in place, but he didn’t. He was also the head honcho of the FBI and other unconstitutional federal alphabet agencies, and should have done the same with those Nazi Obama loyalists also. He reneged on his campaign promises. THAT’S why we’re in the throes of death by domestic enemies.
roberta says
+1000 Dead on point. Really like Pres. Trump, but this was a major screw up.
gravenimage says
Trump was not in a position to change everything at once. He got far more done that anyone else. Just wish he had had a second term to do more.
Art says
A long time ago I met a wise man who told me burning a candle at both ends provided the person holding that candle with burned fingers.
So, why would the Biden organization want to stay in Iraq while promising it to Iran?
He had to promise Iran something for the rocket attacks by the “Trump International Sleeper Cell” it has been blamed on…