There is a phrase that I hear used that sets me off. Those that use this phrase are the people who were too afraid to be against the war when so many were for it. It's used by those same people who now see that the war was wrong and are now too afraid to say that the whole Iraq invasion was a mistake. The phrase is, "We can't afford to get it wrong in Iraq".

I've heard Al Franken say this many times on his radio show. This is a classic line used by Senator Joe Biden along with his other classic line that he has been saying for two years now that "the President needs to level with the American people". I also believe that Senator Kerry has used the phrase as well as have many other politicians, pundits and personalities in on this debate.

But there are a few things that they fail to mention and that the masses of Americans either do not know or tend to black out. This war was lost many years ago, before we even went into Iraq. We've been meddling in Iraq for decades. The CIA overthrew Iraq's government in 1963 and installed the Baath Party which eventually brought Saddam Hussein to power. Then after the fall of the Shah and the Iran hostages situation we decided to back Saddam militarily against Iran. This backing included biological and chemical weapons. The same weapons he supposedly used on his own people. Then we goaded Saddam into attacking Kuwait (scroll down until you see the red text). We then liberated Kuwait for its monarchy and encouraged the Shia to revolt against Saddam. We then abandoned them to be slaughtered. Imposed 12 years of brutal sanctions on the country that did nothing to hurt Saddam, just the people of Iraq. And last but not least we invaded and occupied the country in the spring of 2003 on false pretenses. So as you can see we've been getting it wrong in Iraq for decades now.

So the next time you hear someone talk about how we can't afford to get it wrong in Iraq see if the know about all of our previous attempts to get it "right".

Some background stories:
Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot
Our Man in Baghdad
Eight Facts About Iraq
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 6:57 AM