Is The Iraq War The Biggest Blunder in US History?

Question

We've all heard that stated. Today I found the following quote in an article titled Beyond Quagmire in Rolling Stone Magazine:

"No matter what happens now, the Islamists will have beaten both of the superpowers -- first the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and now the United States in the heart of Islam. The impact of that in Islamic civilization is going to be enormous. We have made bin Laden a prophet: His organizing concept for Al Qaeda was 'The Russians are a lot tougher than the Americans. If we can beat the Russians, then we can eventually beat the Americans.' Even more important, Al Qaeda will have contiguous territory on the Arab peninsula to attack from."

What that statement indicates, is that not only are the U.S. wealthy elites not going to get the oil and geostrategic position they lust after, but that they have created a monster that cannot be checked.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13710030/leaving_iraq_the_grim_truth/print

Here is the panel of experts that formed the discussion:

Zbigniew Brzezinski
National security adviser to President Carter

Richard Clarke
Counterterrorism czar from 1992 to 2003

Nir Rosen
Author of In the Belly of the Green Bird, about Iraq’s spiral into civil war, speaking from Cairo, where he has been interviewing Iraqi refugees

Gen. Tony McPeak (retired)
Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War

Bob Graham
Former chair, Senate Intelligence Committee

Chas Freeman
Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War; president of the Middle East Policy Council

Paul Pillar
Former lead counterterrorism analyst for the CIA

Michael Scheuer
Former chief of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit; author of Imperial Hubris

Juan Cole
Professor of modern Middle East history at the University of Michigan

That quote came from Michael Scheuer

Answer 1

biggest blunder ever by a mile. but the amazing thing is that this administration STILL has support-people so removed from reality it is bizarre.

Answer 2

effective answer Dekardkain. it rather is the 1st time i've got heard all people from the US admit this. The war of 1812 replaced right into a touch balls-up on the portion of the states. Britain made the deadly errors of underestimating the colonials in 1776 and a large component of of their troops were mercenaries. In 1812 we've been making useful of the interest when you consider that there have been no different considerable distractions. so a procedures as i'm conscious no different united states of america has defeated the US by way of itself soil, blockaded its ports and burned its capital. Its no longer one we Brits quite talk approximately the two as we are a touch embarrased approximately it. It replaced into the equivalent of an elephant stamping on a barking chihuahua. Sorry.

Answer 3

Only time will tell but in my opinion, no it is not.

If you look at history there have been several times where American lives were killed by the thousands:

The Civil War where we lost, in some battles, as many as 30,000 in a single skirmish.

WW2 - The invasion of Normandy - D-Day - where more than 10,000 troops were killed in 12-15 hours.

If both of these situations were on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC - the libber networks, American Politicians would have been calling for their kids to come home!

Osama bin Laden was correct about one thing: Americans do not have the fortitude or the stomach for a war - part of the main reason he decided to attack on 9/11.

Is that the way were are going to be people? That we try to cut out the rest by closing our eyes, ears and we say nothing about the situation?

BTW, for all you anti-Bush people: before you call it an illegal war, you should make your way over to the UN web site and read UN Resolution 1441 (and any of the other 13) proposed, scripted and voted on by the UN Security Council.

Answer 4

i don't think so, the united states is not beaten by anybody in iraq nor any other place in the world, we pull back or take our troops out but we are not beaten, its just that we follow too much of the world opinion and the media that we always try to please everybody to the point that we always bend over backwards and let people think that we surrender, but if this country will really flex its muscle and really tried to blow any country that it wanted to phase out in this planet, we can certainly do so, but being civilized and more understanding and respectful of world opinion we do the right thing and just swallowed our pride and pull out like in vietnam and now people thinking that we are already beaten in iraq while we are still trying to rehabilitate and train their security forces and in the first place we are not at war with the iraqis we are at war with the terrorist which we kick out in afghanistan and now we are kicking out in iraq wherein they are resorting to killing civilians and their own people.

Answer 5

Your source's are all predominately far left. So it makes your argument invalid. (no balance)

The biggest Blunder is not following through in getting Bin Laden from 1993 - 1998,

Answer 6

Yes, but not necessarily from a military standpoint. From an economic and homeland security standpoint, yes

Answer 7

NO, the biggest blunder in US history, was the social security act

Answer 8

Rolling stone.... since when did they become interested in the war?

Answer 9

rolling stone? they managed to sqeeze in a political piece between the Christina Agulera photo shoots and the perfume ads? Amazing!

Answer 10

all wars are a blunder in us history. They are all diffrent we though that the vietnam war was. which in its own way it was. With the iraq war we made enimies with other counties other than iraq that we shouldn't have.