No country deserved or will ever deserve a political leader as disastrous as George W Bush-Brian Cloughley, Strategic Culture…(And no country deserved or will ever deserve a political leader as phony as Trump. Certainly his voters didn't, but at the time the only alternative was not voting)

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In Iraq, US soldiers were taught “to regard it as normal to bleed without prospect of victory."…Codevilla

ISIS gassed Iraq troops and civilians in 2017: “A member of the Iraqi forces wears a gas mask in the old city of Mosul on April 16, 2017, during an offensive to recapture the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters. / AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)” 

4/16/2017, AP, Baghdad: ISIS in Iraq staged chemical attacks on government troops there two days in a row...”The spokesman for the Joint Operation Command in Iraq says the Islamic State group has attacked government troops with some type of gas in western Mosul–the second such attack in as many days.”…(Keep it quiet, ISIS using chemicals wrecks US lies blaming “animal” Assad) 

ISIS also used chemical weapons against civilians in Iraq in 2017: 

“ISIS Launches Chlorine Gas Attack in Western Mosul”: “The ISIS militants have also used chemical weapons several times against the Iraqi civilians in the city of Mosul, since the army troops started the special operation to recapture terrorist group’s de facto capital….Security sources disclosed that missiles loaded with chlorine were fired at al-Abar neighborhood, injuring at least seven troops.”…4/16/2017, “Mosul’s strategic old city under full siege,” abna24.com, Iran, Shia news. 

“The only way forward is political change in Iraq, fostered internationally. Washington should stay right out of it, as it has already done enough damage for this century.”

[Map: US redraws the Mid East: “The remodeling of the Levant according to the Pentagon headquarters in the Levant. This map was described by Colonel Ralph Peters in an article on September 13, 2001, but he did not publish it until 2006.”… “The Insoluble Contradictions of Daesh and the PKK/YPG,” Voltaire, Meyssan, 11/12/2019]
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12/31/19, “Washington’s Iraq Catastrophe,” Brian Cloughley, Strategic Culture 

“No country deserved or will ever deserve a political leader as disastrous as George W Bush. 

It was Bush who led (to use the word loosely) his country to war on Iraq and thus created the current terrorist-dominated crisis in the Middle East. The Afghanistan Papers recently disclosed by the Washington Post “reveal that senior US officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable”—and there has been a parallel run of this in the Iraq debacle.

On November 13, 2019, the US State Department announced that

“Following the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq, the United States increased efforts to stabilize liberated areas as Iraq continues to develop as a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant country. Iraq is now a key partner for the United States…as well as a voice of moderation and democracy in the Middle East.” 

This garbage was published concurrently with an Amnesty International report that “at least six protesters were killed in central Baghdad today [Nov. 9] amid a police operation to clear demonstrations from several bridges and streets near Tahrir Square…Dozens more protesters were injured in the capital, while media reported that up to 12 protesters were also killed in Basra in recent days.” This is the country that Washington tells us is a “voice of moderation and democracy” while the thugs of its US-trained military forces have slaughtered over 460 of its own downtrodden, desperate people. 

Washington blames Iran for the shambles. On December 6 CNN reported that Assistant Secretary of State David Schenker directly censured Iran for its alleged intervention, “decrying what he also described as Tehran’s increasing aggression” for which, he said, “Iraqis have played a step and bloody price.” 

The New York Times, which strongly supported Bush’s 2003 war on Iraq (and, to give it its due, later acknowledged its shameful misreporting), is much concerned about the state of affairs and in late December [2019] went so far as to note that “for 12 weeks, the Iraqi government has foundered in its response, alternating vague promises of reform with brutal treatment of protesters by its security forces.” But then the Times went overboard and wrote that “The political crisis that now confronts Iraq is as serious as any since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein 16 years ago, and its leaders appear ill-equipped to reckon with it.” 

The reason there was a political crisis 16 years ago is that the United States invaded Iraq, following years of “no fly zone” provocation which had no basis in international law, and a vicious sanctions regime that amongst other things caused the deaths of half a million children. We must never forget the statement of then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who was told by an interviewer that these children died as a direct result of the US-inspired sanctions and asked “Is the price worth it?” Albright emerged briefly from her gutter and replied “This is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it.” 

Certainly, the barbarians of Islamic State took advantage of the US-induced collapse of governance in Iraq by spreading their evil tentacles throughout the region, and the situation in Iraq went from bad to catastrophic, but it is plainly the fault of the Washington Establishment that Iraq’s present leaders are “ill-equipped” to cope. 

Washington tried to wash its hands of Iraq on 21 October 2011 when President Obama announced a complete pull-out, meaning that “after nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.” His Deputy National Security Adviser said that thorough assessments of the effectiveness of Iraq’s military forces showed “these guys are ready; these guys are capable; these guys are proven; importantly, they’re proven because they’ve been tested in a lot of the kinds of threats that they’re going to see going forward. So we feel very good about that.” And off America went, leaving the region open for Islamic State to move in and expand.”… 

[Ed. note: But this is the goal of US “regime changes,” to destroy state structures of the victim, leaving it too weak to function. The US already considers Iraq merely a pit stop as pathetically exemplified by Trump on 2/3/19 saying he’d use Iraq as a place to keep an eye on Iran: “I want to be looking a little bit at Iran.” Then, on 2/4/19, “Iraqi President Barham Salih says U.S. has no right to ‘watch Iran’ from his country.”…Naturally, flooding the area with US backed headslicers armed with billions in weapons trafficked by the US helps ensure that a country and its society remain incapacitated. As to ISIS, US pays for weapons for ISIS to use in Yemen, 9/1/19 report. The US itself easily qualifies as a terrorist organization since it ran the largest weapons smuggling ring in history to terrorists in Syria from 2010-2017, known as Timber Sycamore. The US operation continues today through KKR. Congress has diverted billions of US tax dollars to terrorists in Syria, effectively US “boots on the ground” in effort to remove Assad. Per John Kerry, US considered ISIS an ally against Syria, hoped ISIS would take down Assad, watched as they threatened Damascus. But then Russia came to Syria’s aid, so ISIS didn’t force Assad out. Recorded Sept/Oct 2016, John Kerry at :26: “The reason Russia came in is because ISIL was getting stronger, Daesh was threatening the possibility of going to Damascus and so forth. And that’s why Russia went in. Because they didn’t want a Daesh [ISIS] government and they supported Assad. And we know that this was growing. We were watching. We saw that Daesh was growing in strength, and we thought Assad was threatened. We thought, however, we could probably manage, that Assad would then negotiate. Instead of negotiating, he got Putin to support him.”…As of Oct. 2015 US on its own was officially arming over 40 known Islamic terrorist groups in Syria including Nour al-Din al-Zenki, which beheaded a child. US Congress refuses to pass the Stop Arming Terrorists Act, considers headslicers US partners in various venues. "The Stop Arming Terrorists Act would bar federal agencies from using taxpayer funds to provide weapons, training, intelligence, or any other type of support to terrorist groups.” “The biggest lie in the US foreign policy–officially fighting terrorism while secretly supporting it.”…Trump knows it’s common knowledge that “Idlib province is the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9-11," here stated by Brett McGurk, July 2017. It’s also common knowledge that Trump protects Al Qaeda and its various affiliates in Syria, just as Obama did. Despite ample evidence, 3 examples follow, Trump still publicly denies it.  In Sept. 2018, instead of offering to help Syria remove headslicers, Trump threatened a “massive attack” on Syria if its government merely tried to rescue its own citizens and land in Idlib....In June 2019, Trump was again a massive human shield for terrorists, ordered Syria and its neighbor Russia to “stop” trying to remove terrorists from Idlib. In a new low, Trump accused Syria and its humanitarian neighbor Russia of “indiscriminately killing many innocent civilians."  Full text, Trump, 6/2/19: “Hearing word that Russia, Syria and, to a lesser extent, Iran, are bombing the hell out of Idlib Province in Syria, and indiscriminately killing many innocent civilians. The World is watching this butchery. What is the purpose, what will it get you? STOP!” Trump wrote in a Twitter post.”…Third example, Dec, 2019, Trump again “warned” the Syrian government and Russia to halt its attempt to remove terrorists from Syria’s Idlib province.] 

(continuing): “Obama was worried [about Iraq], and in June 2014 told the media “I just met with my national security team to discuss the situation in Iraq. We’ve been meeting regularly to review the situation since ISIL [Islamic State], a terrorist organization that operates in Iraq and Syria, made advances inside of Iraq.” He emphasised that “American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq” but “we’ve positioned additional US military assets in the region” so there could be “targeted and precise military action, if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it.” So they weren’t going to return to combat, but they were prepared to take (and have taken) “military action” which is Newspeak for engaging in combat.

And so it has staggered on [exactly as US elites planned] from year to year, with confusion being intensified by the weird attitude of President Trump who declared many times that he had been against the war on Iraq (“I’m the only person up here that fought against going into Iraq”), but has been shown to have been mendacious about all such claims. 

Trump spoke with Iraq’s President Saleh in New York in September 2019 and rejoiced that “we’ve captured thousands of ISIS fighters and taken back 100 percent of the caliphate. [But who will “capture” one third of Syrian land still criminally occupied by Trump and return it to Syria?]. And when I first became President, it was a mess. It was a big mess. And we — we all worked together and we got it done, but it was a great achievement, so we appreciate that.” But the White House has been reluctant to make statements about the slaughter of unarmed protestors other than observing in early November that it is all the fault of Iran and of Iraq’s “ill-equipped” leaders. The line is that “Iraqis won’t stand by as the Iranian regime drains their resources and uses armed groups and political allies to stop them from peacefully expressing their views” with a mild reminder that it was “calling on the Iraqi government to halt the violence against protesters.” 

Iraq is close to collapse [exactly as US planned] and while it is undeniable that neighbouring Iran is deeply concerned about Iraqi affairs, the Iraqi people’s displays of dissatisfaction with their government are essentially domestic. Washington is obsessed with Iran, however, and will continue to blame Teheran for all that goes wrong in the Middle East. But it was Washington who destroyed the stable (albeit ruthlessly autocratic) government in Iraq and replaced it with a political system that begged for the corruption that fell upon it. 

The only way forward is political change in Iraq, fostered internationally. Washington should stay right out of it, as it has already done enough damage for this century.”

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Brian Cloughley: British and Australian armies’ veteran, former deputy head of the UN military mission in Kashmir and Australian defense attaché in Pakistan.”

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Added: Not only did Trump not end Afghanistan (which is really just an excuse to steal from the American people) but added to it:

12/17/18, “An austere base in Afghanistan rapidly expands for more US troops,”stripes.com, J.P. Lawrence, Camp Dahlke West, Afghanistan 

 “Expansion at Camp Dahlke West, 60 miles south of Kabul, has been so fast that everyone on base has had to pitch in….

The buildup is a visible result of the Trump administration’s strategy in Afghanistan, which called for a modest surge of troops into the country four years after the military spent billions closing bases there."… 

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Added: “Iraq’s Legacy:” US armed forces were taught “to regard it as normal to bleed without prospect of victory.”…10/20/2011, “The Lost Decade,” Angelo M. Codevilla, Claremont.org

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“Iraq’s Legacy”… 

“Iraq’s legacy in America is worse. The occupation habituated the U.S. armed forces to regard it as normal to bleed without prospect of victory. Officers who commanded their troops to operate in replenished minefields, and who enforced “rules of engagement” that make troops vulnerable to un-uniformed enemies until these took action.”… 

“The [US] occupation’s practical political purpose was not to leave Iraq to its Shia majority and Kurdish separatists, but rather to “stabilize” (read, to preserve) the role of its ruling Sunni minority….The 2007-08 “surge” of U.S. troops…protected Sunni enclaves....By the time our troops withdrew…the Shia ruled from north of Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, the Sunni enclaves were well armed, and all Iraqi sides were convinced that the next round of struggle would yield better results for them. Disrespect for America may be the occupation’s most harmful international legacy.”… 

subhead, “From Bad to Worse:” 

“The Iranians-not just the regime-want nukes because they are the only Shia state in the Sunni-dominated Muslim world, and because they want to further the interests of Shia populations in Sunni dominated states. They want nukes all the more because they know that the U.S. government takes sides against the Shia in all possible situations.”…(4th parag.)
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Added: 

9/16/2018, “Trump protects al Qaeda in Syria. The Resistance applauds.” fabiusmaximus.com 

“The “Russians” had to be reinstalled as the “enemy” after Obama made his alliance with Islamist jihad. Trump has now signed on as Protector of the Idlib Caliphate. 

The Trump administration, just like to Obama regime, is willing to start World War III to protect the largest al Qaeda outfit in the world from annihilation by the Syrian government and its Russian, Iranian and Lebanese allies. The New York Times and the rest of the corporate media have also chosen sides in the struggle against terror in Syria; they prefer the sons and daughters of Osama bin Laden to the internationally recognized government in Damascus…. 

On September 4, [2018] the NY Times spent more than 800 words warning that a Syrian-Russian air offensive against “densely populated,” “rebel-held” Idlib Province could result in a “bloodbath” without once informing its readers that Idlib Province is almost entirely controlled, militarily and civilly, by al Qaeda, now operating as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Donald Trump, who two years ago accused President Obama of having “founded” ISIS, along with Hillary Clinton – an essentially correct assessment – is now all-in with the al Qaeda defense team.”…