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It’s awful to see the horrific resurgence of Sunni-Shia sectarian war in Iraq, re-splintering that delicate nation. There is, however, one good thing coming from it, namely the chance for you and me to pay proper tribute to those Americans who contributed so much to our involvement there.
I don’t mean the million-and-a-half honorable men and women who were sent into that hellacious and futile war (many for multiple deployments), but the dishonorable deceivers and disastrous dogmatists who did the sending. From their soft nests high atop Washington’s power structures, this flock of craven, neo-con chicken hawks cavalierly sent 4,500 Americans to die in an unnecessary war that has left untold thousands more physically and psychologically battered. The total financial cost is calculated to be some $4 trillion, plus an incalculable cost to America’s global reputation.
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We must remember the disservice of these dogmatic armchair warmongers, because – believe it or not – the flock is back! Dick Cheney, Bill Kristol, J. Paul Bremer III, and Paul Wolfowitz are among the names of shame from Iraq I who’re now screeching and squawking for President Obama to send American soldiers back for Iraq II.
These are dangerous and disgusting ideologues without a clue or concern about the horrendous human price of war, perhaps because they never got close to being in one. Cheney, you might recall, assiduously avoided serving in Vietnam by getting not one or two draft deferments, but five of them! He later explained that he “had other things to do.” Yet, without a twinge of conscience, he’s now lambasting Obama for not dispatching other people’s loved ones into the fiery vortex of Iraq’s Sunni-Shia civil war.
The proper show of respect for them is to give ’em the old raspberry: Ttttbbbbbttt!
“On Iraq, Echoes Of 2003,” The New York Times, June 19, 2014.
“Obama Praises U.S. Troops’ Efforts as Iraq Winds Down,” www.defense.gov, December 14, 2011.
“Cheney’s Five Draft Deferments During the Vietnam Era Emerge as a Campaign Issue,” www.nytimes.com, May 1, 2004.