Radio Smart Talk for Friday, July 22:
Ten years ago today the nation was at peace. The big news story of the day was what happened to Congressional intern Chandra Levy and whether her boss -- Congressman Gary Condit -- was involved in her disappearance. That summer was labeled as the "Summer of the Shark" because there had been several shark attacks in Florida. All that changed a little more than a month later on September 11th, 2001 when terrorists using hijacked airplanes, attacked New York, the Pentagon, and crashed another plane in Western Pennsylvania.
Not long afterwards, President George W. Bush ordered military action against Afghanistan, where the al Quada terrorists responsible for the attacks, had trained and were based. Almost immediately, the Bush Administration suspected Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks and began looking at invading Iraq. Ten years later and and the U.S. is still at war in Afghanistan. Combat operations have drawn down in Iraq but not before more than 4,400 service men and women lost their lives.
Friday's guest on Radio Smart Talk is historian Terry H. Anderson, whose new book, Bush's Wars, provides the most overarching information to date on the last 10 years of America at war.
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One of the biggest lessons learned from the decision to go to war in Iraq is to not consider any military action without knowing the culture and it's history.
There is an old joke about the guy holding an elephant gun in NYC and claiming he is preventing elephant attacks......and backs his claim by saying "Seen any elephants?"
The attack of 2001 was the only attack by foreigners on US soil in history with the exception of Japanese balloon bombs in WWII.
There are many reasons substantiating argument that Neocons knew about the attack of 9/11..."a Pearl Harbor-like event"....and making the 9/11 event suspicious.
But the counter argument is that we are less safe in the long run because of the wars----more enemies generated=more chance of future attacks, the more logical conclusion.
That too was an attack by a foreign power on US soil that I forgot to mention.
Your guest today caused me to write.
I believe this country has been hopelessly misgauged by our political leadership over the past decade. Arbitrary decisions have been made to go to war at untold cost to the American people, individual families, the economy, creating a huge notational debt. I am told it costs $1,000,000 per year to support a combat soldier. This is an insane expenditure, let alone the cost of loss of life and limb and the costs to take care of disabled soldiers well into the future. We need to get out of these wars NOW! They serve no purpose or our national interest. We are not wanted in Afghanistan and we will not change anything in that country that will last. Why do we think our way of life and government is best for other countries. It is not. Our government has been failing us with bad decisions relating to war and paralysis due to partisan bickering. It is time that we change this.
I recently read a book, "Why Leaders Lie" and there are numerous examples of presidents not telling the truth. LBJ's story about a North Vietnamese attack on American boats in the Gulf of Tonkin is one. Roosevelt claimed a German U-boat made an unprovoked attack on an American ship, the USS Greer, in order to get the U.S. in WWII before Pearl Harbor. The book devotes a whole chapter to President Bush though and list the lies the Administration told (and in some cases believed) before invading Iraq.
I agree completely with your assessment of Colin Powell; he should have resigned instead of giving his Feb 5, 2003 speech to the UN. I also think that George Tenet should have resigned, and admitted that the sources the CIA used to build a case for war were suspicious and weak. Tenet compromised the CIA.
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