The Burden of Guilt

http://watchingamerica.com/News/241211/the-burden-of-guilt/

As the Pandora’s box in Iraq is opened, those guilty of causing the humanitarian disaster there are amassing.

The Burden of Guilt
El Tiempo, Colombia
By Sergio Muñoz Bata
Translated By Patricia OConnor
16 June 2014
Edited by Brent Landon

Who lost in Iraq? That's the question the U.S. media are busily repeating this week. In the 1950s, the question was: Who lost in China? Then they asked: Who lost in Cuba? And a little later: Who lost in Vietnam?

~snip~

What they are really asking is, who is to blame for the current mess in Iraq after such an enormous investment was made there—in terms of lives lost and money spent. It is this questioning that opens a Pandora’s box, given the long list of villains.

Leading the list is President George W. Bush, who declared war on Iraq with no legitimate reasons. He ignored warnings from 54 nations who said that his venture could destabilize the entire region. That prophecy has now come true. Bush went to war under the pretext of the famous, but non-existent, weapons of mass destruction. He also talked about Saddam Hussein’s support for al-Qaida, which was also nonexistent. Later, the political spin-doctors arrived at the Bush White House and reframed the message. They simply suddenly recast the message and made it about democratizing Iraq. What is happening today in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon should be a lesson for the big shots who want to make us believe that democracy is an export product like movies and Coca Cola.

As one would expect in a climate of embittered political exasperation, Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are endeavoring to blame President Barack Obama for having honored the wishes of the American people in the complete withdrawal of troops. According to these Republicans, if enough U.S. soldiers had remained in the distressed nation, there would now be peace in Iraq. Of course, these two untiring contrarians don’t say a word as to how long they would leave young American soldiers involved in the religious war between two Arab sects—a war that started in the seventh century and for which there is no end in sight.