Had We Not Invaded Iraq

Imagine, just for the heck of it, that we had never gone into Iraq, chasing and searching for fictional Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)! Things would certainly be different now. For starters, there would have been no war in Iraq, but… by Charlie Leck

Try this on for starters…
We probably would have had a string of Republican Presidents. That’s right! Had George W. Bush not made that very unfortunate mistake of invading Iraq, on what appear to be false premises, he probably would have ended his two term presidency with great honor and enormous popularity. However, we spent trillions of dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, under George W. Bush’s administration and watch, and that sent the nation’s economy into a tailspin. Now, the whole collapse of the banking industry may also have happened, but perhaps not. George W. might have had more time to keep watch over the naughty home-lending habits of the vulgar and greedy bankers and we may have caught the smell of their lending habits before it led to disaster.

And, George W. Bush would have handed over the reins to other popular Republicans and any one of them may have been elected. Perhaps it would have been John McCain. That might not have been so good. Under McCain, I’m sure we’d extend the military’s reach in Afghanistan (even if we hadn’t gone to Iraq).

John would have also sized up Iran as a nasty enemy and he would likely have ordered the military to take them on as well. McCain would also have sent some troops (boots on the ground) into Libya also and now we’d have troops (at least as monitors) in Syria as well.

So, the money we would have saved on the war in Iraq we would likely have spent in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

And now?
And right now, a President McCain would be lobbying Congress to send troops into the Black Sea and onto to Ukrainian soil to help out an independent country whose democracy was threatened – unless, of course, we had spent too much money in Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan and the banking industry had taken its terrible tumble under President McCain rather than the second term of President Bush. History is like that you know!

No Groundhog Day principle!
And, thank goodness the world doesn’t let you take a second, third or fourth take on these matters all the time. So, by this time the Tea Party would have completely given up on the McCain presidency and they would have been in absolute revolt and they’d be promising that McCain wouldn’t have a second term.

You have to think about these things! I mean, you have to think about these things. I’ve spent the last several weeks listening to Senator McCain blithering and blathering about Syria, Afghanistan and the Russian-Ukraine affair.

America’s military can not solve every political quirk that happens in the world! Really! Mr. McCain knows that in his heart of hearts. His constant nagging of the President of the United States is baseless and merely empty fodder.

Russia with the upper hand on this one! I’m afraid Russia caught us by surprise this time. We thought they’d become more civilized, less greedy and kinder of spirit. On this one, Mr. McCain would have been correct. We should have been more prepared. We should have smelled the stink of this one coming. This was simply too grand an opportunity for a greedy nation like Russian. International law does not now and never did mean very much to them. They have developed a fine, sharpened sense of Democracy yet. They don’t know just how a Democracy works. Crimea just looked too tempting, out there in such an unhinged and unattached fashion. Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin knows everything there is to know about election corruption. It would not be difficult for this wolf to steal the sheep while the Shepherd was slumbering and in confusion.

President Obama will not win any street cred for this one. Yet, what can he do? America’s military is not prepared to enter into conflicts right now. Neither is America’s economy. Neither is its mood and temperament. Two weeks ago I warned you in a blog that we would probably get a chance to see the face of the REAL Vladimir Putin as the Ukrainian violence unfolded. And, we have; and it ain’t pretty!

Crime in Crimea! It doesn’t work very frequently, but we must depend on the United Nations and the European Union on this one. America must just continue to push for a negotiated solution. It must allow the voices of the other nations of the world to be heard. Vladimir Putin is a bad person and he must be exposed as he is to the entire world. Only then might he be backed down and new and fair elections allow in the Crimea.

Nations just cannot go around stealing other nations because they have bullied everyone else into fear of them! In a peaceful way, we must make the world see this.

If you want to see what the Ukraine was like before they won independence from the Soviet Union, you could start here and see how bad it was.

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