On Sunday's Meet the Press Senator Charles Schumer suggested that the war in Iraq might have been a good idea but our President botched it. I'd like to present a purely contrarian argument: I believe that this war has accomplished almost exactly what the neocons wanted to happen.
Goal #1: To destabilize the Middle East: Here's Bush September 19 of last year:
Some have argued that the democratic changes we're seeing in the Middle East are destabilizing the region. This argument rests on a false assumption, that the Middle East was stable to begin with. The reality is that the stability we thought we saw in the Middle East was a mirage.
Remember, in the original war authorization resolution, Bush & Co. wanted languae to authorize invasion of any country in the Middle East. If there had been a goal of stability, what sane team would have left Baghdad to looting and chaos, left huge caches of arms unguarded, left the borders unpatrolled? Do you assume Rumsfeld is not just crazy but stupid?
Goal #2: Control the oil, keep it from the Chinese:
Here's Paul Wolfowitz June 4, 2003:
"Let's look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil."
And here's Bush November 3 in Colorado:
Bush said extremists controlling Iraq "would use energy as economic blackmail" and try to pressure the United States to abandon its alliance with Israel. At a stop in Missouri on Friday, he suggested that such radicals would be "able to pull millions of barrels of oil off the market, driving the price up to $300 or $400 a barrel."
And from the UK last week:
The 'IoS' today reveals a draft for a new law that would give Western oil companies a massive share in the third largest reserves in the world. To the victors, the oil? That is how some experts view this unprecedented arrangement with a major Middle East oil producer that guarantees investors huge profits for the next 30 years
There is no possible way that the war would have ended until these contracts were complete--nor until the puppet masters are sure that the government that signs them will remain.
Goal #3: Create obscene profits for the "military-industrial complex."
There's so much evidence here, it's not worth hunting for support.
But here's just one progress report on this goal from a year ago:
WASHINGTON, July 25 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- Halliburton announced on Friday that its KBR division, responsible for carrying out Pentagon contracts, experienced a 284 percent increase in operating profits during the second quarter of this year...The increase in profits was primarily due to the Pentagon's payment of "award fees" for what military officials call "good" or "very good" work done by KBR in the Middle East for America's taxpayers and the troops.
Remember, everything that's been trashed or abandoned in Iraq will have to be replaced, so it will ensure profits for decades to come.
Goal #4: Bankrupt the government so that massive cuts in social programs can't be avoided:
The underlying strategy here is all too familiar: Instead of challenging popular liberal programs directly, the Republicans are creating fiscal conditions that make those programs unsustainable. In 1981 the Reagan administration slashed taxes, deliberately intending -- as Ronald Reagan's budget director, David Stockman, later disclosed -- to starve the federal government of funds, force reductions in domestic spending and keep new liberal initiatives off the agenda. Republicans dominated national policy for a decade as a result.
I'll buy the argument that George W. Bush isn't very intelligent. I won't buy the argument that all of the people who manipulate him botched the war because they were stupid.
It's time that Democrats abandon the excuse that supporting the war was justifiable because they didn't realize that the Bushies would botch it. It was always a bad idea, and it still is.