The Violence That Followed Iraq’s Post-Invasion Spiral

ISIS was a tragic, and perhaps unsurprising, secondary infection to a very dangerous procedure of removing the tumor of the Hussein dictatorship. But the patient is doing better. Iraq is relatively stable, it's people are freer, and there is hope there now for all good-willed Iraqis. The Bush administration took enormous risks at extremely high costs to all, but I think it was worth it. History will decide. I do think Bush did not lead the world well in this effort though. The WMD debacle is a stain on American credibility.

This destruction of Iraq by U.S. or (rather our neo- cons and our military- industrial conglomerate) even today is not recognized by vast majority of Americans or our government. There has been no atoning - let’s say as Germany has done . We are on verge it seems of starting another war on deceits. I am no fan of Iran , however ,It’s scientists are continually assassinated. It signs a treaty with us and we renege with a new administration under pressure from Israel. We strangle it with sanctions. Someone wants war. I take care as a physician of these young Americans who enlist for all kinds of reasons and come back with a lifetime of PTSD. The group think is reinforced daily by mainstream media -opEds and interviews with new Neo- cons of Gatestone Institute- backed by billionaire Mercers or Foundation for Def of Democracies back by Adelson . Only if the print and video media delved into these characters and exposed who they are and their worldview would these endless , needless wars die

Thank you Mr. Chivers, and thank you Mr. Verini. Funny thing about killing a brother, husband, wife, son, or daughter, you now have an enemy for life. If any invading force killed any of my family, I’d feel exactly the same way. Added to the fact that all Muslims are fighting for Allah (God), against an invader who they deem as secular, godless, and unilaterally violent. The US has made a great many enemies amongst Muslims. Most times American aggression is caused by business interests, oil, and greed. And to obtain this, America has killed thousands upon thousands of innocent Muslims. I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ as Earths savior and God. I believe the Father of Jesus is the Universal Father, who is Father to every living being. And I also believe that Gabriel, who spoke to Mohammed as told by the Quran, sits at the right hand of Jesus. I believe that Mohammed is the last Prophet, in chronological order to date. Muslims are right to believe in Mohammed, but they need to understand that Allah is Jesus. Jesus created our World. I encourage the US to embrace Jesus. I encourage Muslims to accept Jesus. The bond we share as children of the Universal Father and his Son Jesus, is greater than the animosity that separates us. The will of the Universal Father is greater than everything. Embrace it. Cherish it. Believe it. Have faith in it. Lay down your weapons and put aside your greed. For, to not believe in the Father, is to ultimately perish.

You wrote: I realized, many months into the battle, was a certain guilt. Shame, even. Though I never said it aloud to an editor or anyone else..... This is the MOST honest assessment. When often Americans admit it was a mistake to invade Iraq, they don't show an sense of responsibility or shame. On the other hand, you did sir. I will be buying the book soon. thx

Hopefully this book will cause key players in the media to ask some of the same questions that Verini has. Americans are seldom told the truth about our footprint in the world until after that foot has stepped on and crushed the innocent. Nowhere is that more evident than our Middle East disasters. We never should have supported Saddam in his war against Iran. After the "liberation" of Kuwait we should have withdrawn our forces. Instead we expanded our presence throughout the region. The film Black Hawk Down depicts the bravery of American soldiers, but fails to point out that what was originally a peace keeping mission to protect UN aid efforts evolved into a campaign for regime change. There are some in Washington that see the military as the answer to everything. Bin Laden said his 9/11 attack was precisely because of our presence on "holy Muslim" land. Bush's invasion, like Clinton's Somali adventure used false pretexts to push bigger even more foolish agenda's. The Iraqi's were supposed to not only welcome us as we invaded their country, but pay for it from their oil revenues. Yet nothing has changed. We destroyed Libya and have turned it into another jihadist stronghold and even used ISIS forces as pawns run through Saudi intermediaries to try and destroy Syria. And for what? Certainly not the spread of democracy. Definitely not to remove dictators. And not to insure access to oil. There's a glut of oil worldwide. These aren't the reasons, so what are?