Iraq to reopen museum looted in US invasion chaos

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s restored National Museum is reopening Tuesday, nearly six years after looters carried away antiquities and treasures as U.S. troops stood by in the chaos of Saddam Hussein’s fall from power.

The museum, rededicated Monday, was among hundreds of institutions — universities, hospitals, cultural offices — ransacked during the lawless aftermath of Saddam’s ouster. It became a symbol for critics of Washington’s inability to maintain order amid the disintegration of Iraq’s police and military.

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Iraq to reopen museum looted in US invasion chaos

“Washington’s inability to maintain order” sums it up pretty well I believe. I’m not a big *museum* goer, never really have been, but I am pleased the Iraqis have been able to restore their national museum, these things are important to the people!

When asked at the time why U.S. troops did not actively seek to stop the lawlessness, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld famously said, “Stuff happens … and it’s untidy and freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.”

That statement from Donald Rumsfeld is the biggest *cop out* I have heard in quite a while. The U.S. military went into Iraq, under orders from George W. Bush, under the auspices of the DoD, Rumsfeld, and did exactly what was planned BY Bush and Rumsfeld. They deposed Saddam, they defeated his Republican Guard and dispersed his police, and we hear Mission accomplished!

As far as Bush and Rumsfeld were concerned, it really was mission accomplished, that was what they wanted to do, our troops followed orders and it was a done deal.

Others claimed the U.S. troops lacked a clear mandate to act from Washington.

The above line is, in my opinion, a lot closer to the truth than any in the Bush administration would have cared for the general public ever know. The Bush administration had no more idea of what their next move needed to be than I have regarding a solution to the financial crisis we are suffering, a crisis that I blame, at least in part, on the BILLIONS of tax dollars that have been wasted on what was, and has been fully substantiated to have been, an unnecessary mission.

Our foray into Iraq, on the whim of George W. Bush, has cost us the lives over 4,200 service men and women, and has wasted untold BILLIONS of dollars while costing us even MORE lives and dollars yet to be spent in the retaking of Afghanistan. The real War on Terror was there, in Afghanistan, but Bush took the focus off of Afghanistan with HIS claims of terror support from Baghdad, and with the threats that the American people faced from the WMDs that Saddam supposedly possessed and was in the process of directing against the USA, in what I am guessing Bush believed to be an imminent attack. That was the premise anyway.

The glib quip by Rumsfeld, “Stuff happens“, pretty much says it all regarding any planning or preparation by the Bush administration. We took Saddam and Company out, a job we didn’t need to do in my opinion, but, once we took them out, Iraq, it’s people, their safety and well being, their protection and everything that goes along with it, became our clear and immediate responsibility.

When WWII ended we stepped in and provided a benevolent, yet demanding leadership of Germany and Japan, we did NOT allow the German or Japanese people to just ‘run wild’. Our nation helped rebuild the nations that we had defeated after a long and bitter World War, but during that rebuilding, we administered those nations as their infrastructure was rebuilt as well. The lessons of history would have served Bush and his cronies well, if they had only studied those lessons history.

Which reminds me of a line from The Wizard of Oz, ‘If I only had a brain’…

Bush defends presidency in final news conference

WASHINGTON (AP) - By turns wistful, aggressive and joking in the final news conference of his presidency, President George W. Bush vigorously defended his record Monday but also offered an extraordinary listing of his mistakes - including his optimistic Iraq speech before a giant “Mission Accomplished” banner in 2003.

After starting what he called “the ultimate exit interview” with a lengthy and personalized thank-you to the reporters in the room who have covered him over the eight years of his presidency, Bush showed anger at times when presented with some of the main criticisms of his time in office.

“I think it’s a good, strong record,” he said. “You know, presidents can try to avoid hard decisions and therefore avoid controversy. That’s just not my nature.”

He particularly became indignant when asked about America’s bruised image overseas.

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Bush defends presidency in final news conference

Well, everyone IS entitled to their own opinion, even George W. Bush. How he can defend his “good, strong record” is beyond me, but I was never that much of a Bush fan to begin with.

With the Iraq war in its sixth year, he most aggressively defended his decisions on that issue, which will define his presidency like no other. There have been over 4,000 U.S. deaths since the invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

But it was in that area that he also acknowledged mistakes. He said that “not finding weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment.” The accusation that Saddam had and was pursuing weapons of mass destruction was Bush’s main initial justification for going to war.

The heart-throb of the Bush Bots has openly admitted it. The WMDs that he was SO insistent on, the WMDs that he took this nation to war with Iraq FOR, those WMDs, were never found. Those WMDs, that to this very day, 6 years later, they still haven’t been found.

Still haven’t been found?? There were no WMDs folks, none that could threaten the USA at least. And here’s another little gem for you, Saddam’s real *WMDs*, such as they were, had been expended when he attacked and killed so many Kurds in Northern Iraq. All that was left were a few .155 Howitzer rounds that had chemical warheads filled with Sarin. Sarin that was so chemically depleted that you could pour it directly on the human skin with NO ill consequences.

Nuclear research?? Yes, the Iraqis were doing nuclear research. Yellow cake uranium?? UhHuh, not a doubt in ANY minds, they had *yellow cake*, what they didn’t have was a system to fully refine that yellow cake!! Also lacking was a *delivery system* to deploy those imminent nuclear and chemical attacks that Saddam was, according to Bush, so wanting to launch against the USA!! Looks like Bush struck out on that one too.

If nuclear and chemical research were being conducted, with the express intent being to build a thermonuclear device or chemical weapon, and mount that weapon on a reasonably accurate delivery system were such a high priority for the Bush administration, why are we not attacking Iran at this very moment?

Bush took this United States to war in Iraq for his own personal reasons, and those reasons had NOTHING to do with WMDs or freeing the Iraqi people. Over 4,200 U.S. troops have died because OF that folly. Untold BILLIONS of U.S. tax dollars have been spent, and wasted because OF that folly. And to the bitter end, the Moron in Chief is still trying to define his legacy and justify his actions to the people of this nation.