Gone Bad
Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief, Rod Nordland has departed Iraq after observing two years of war and American occupation. He entitles an article: " Good Intentions Gone Bad". Nordland admits to being "an unabashed believer in toppling Saddam Hussein", but now seems to have succumbed to despair. He questions: "How bad a mess can we afford to leave behind?"
We are told that things have gone terribly wrong and that the turning point was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, because the abuse of prisoners alienated much of the Iraqi public. His evidence reveals that the mistreatment and humiliation didn't save a single American life or lead to the capture of any major terrorist, despite claims by the military that the prison produced "actionable intelligence".
Nordland writes that our government has pumped at least $ 7 billion into reconstruction projects, with little to show for it but hostility from ordinary Iraqis, who still have an 18% unemployment rate. Most of the money has gone to U.S. contractors who spend much of it on personal security.
"Good Intentions" were never the reason this administration invaded Iraq. Their goal was to gain control of the Iraqi oil reserves and 9/11 provided a convenient excuse to gain support from frightened Americans. Many Americans became cowards after 9/11 and cling to Bush, their authoritarian strong man. Bush continues to refer to the Iraqi war as the "War on Terror", but it has been a war to produce death, destruction, hatred and more terrorist. Bush's propaganda machine has intimidated mainstream media into silence.
Michael Scheuer a former senior member of the U.S. intelligence community has written: "We must recognize that our invasion of Iraq was not preemptive; it was an avarice, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantages."
We are told that things have gone terribly wrong and that the turning point was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, because the abuse of prisoners alienated much of the Iraqi public. His evidence reveals that the mistreatment and humiliation didn't save a single American life or lead to the capture of any major terrorist, despite claims by the military that the prison produced "actionable intelligence".
Nordland writes that our government has pumped at least $ 7 billion into reconstruction projects, with little to show for it but hostility from ordinary Iraqis, who still have an 18% unemployment rate. Most of the money has gone to U.S. contractors who spend much of it on personal security.
"Good Intentions" were never the reason this administration invaded Iraq. Their goal was to gain control of the Iraqi oil reserves and 9/11 provided a convenient excuse to gain support from frightened Americans. Many Americans became cowards after 9/11 and cling to Bush, their authoritarian strong man. Bush continues to refer to the Iraqi war as the "War on Terror", but it has been a war to produce death, destruction, hatred and more terrorist. Bush's propaganda machine has intimidated mainstream media into silence.
Michael Scheuer a former senior member of the U.S. intelligence community has written: "We must recognize that our invasion of Iraq was not preemptive; it was an avarice, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantages."
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