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The Iraq War Was A Mistake. So Why Can't Gen. Petraeus Finally Admit It?
That is one opinion, certainly. Another might be that the Obama pull out was the mistake. Or allowing the State Department to take over administering post-invasion Iraq instead of leaving it in the hands of the Army. As for me, I’d rather the bad guys were fighting and dying in their homeland than in mine.
[Task & Purpose] Just days after the 15th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, I wonder why it’s still difficult for one of our nation’s most-respected commanders of the war, Gen. David Petraeus, to admit what many already know: Going into Iraq was a mistake.

Petraeus was asked recently by Task & Purpose whether the Iraq War was worth it. Here’s how he responded:
"I think everybody who was in Iraq, who served there, who knows the sacrifice it entails, who knows the cost in blood and in treasure... has been frustrated to see how the country slid back after we left in late 2011," Petraeus said in an exclusive interview with T&P’s Jeff Schogol. "But at the end of the day, I think we also have a degree of quiet pride that when our country needed us, we answered the call."

My colleague Jeff Schogol didn’t ask Petraeus whether the troops who fought there served honorably, or whether they were frustrated by Iraq’s slide into chaos after withdrawal. But the retired general offered a classic example of deflection. It’s a politician’s answer ‐ instead of addressing the actual question, you just answer the question you prefer to be asked.

Petraeus was offered a simple question: Was it all worth it? Given all that we know now, should we have invaded in 2003? And yet, he dodged it. Why?

Admitting it was a mistake isn’t controversial among most in the national security field, or even the public writ large.

Americans were told of a possible "mushroom cloud" brought on by Saddam Hussein’s (non-existent) nukes and other weapons of mass destruction ‐ claims all based on faulty intelligence that former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz later admitted was just a convenient excuse for war.
Posted by: Besoeker 2018-03-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=510756