Pollack: 30 years from now, Iraq war will be ‘worth it.’
Pollack: 30 years from now, Iraq war will be ‘worth it.’
In a Washington Post interview today, long-time Iraq war advocate Kenneth Pollack admits that the “first four years” of the Iraq war “were about as disastrous as I could possibly imagine.” He adds, “I am hard-pressed to find a single major decision where the U.S. didn’t make the worst possible choice.” Yet he goes on to say the war was “worth it”:
Thirty years from now, when historians look back, where are they going to come out? If at the end of the day the U.S. screwed things up for four years and then in the end left Iraq a better place than they found it under Saddam, it may have still been worth it.
Pollack, who was one of the most outspoken supporters of last year’s troop escalation, fervently argued for the original U.S. invasion. In his 2002 book, “The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq,” Pollack pushed the United States to “launch a full-scale invasion, eradicate Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, and rebuild Iraq as a prosperous and stable society — for the good of the United States.”
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Don’t be so impatient people, this war will turn out great. Just 60 more Friedmans to go and we’ll all be happy and safe. Yup.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:48 amIs that when we’ll finish paying off our Bank of China credit card bills?
March 19th, 2008 at 9:48 amFunny thing…
March 19th, 2008 at 9:49 amIt’s more than 30 years after Viet Nam and I still don’t feel like that was worth it.
Yeah, in 30 more years, Osama bin Laden will probably have died of old age….
Mission Accomplished!!
March 19th, 2008 at 9:51 amNothing is worth the deaths if 1.3 millions Iraqis
nothing is worth 1.5 million Iraqis having either no arms or no legs
NO IT WAS NOT WORTH IT
The only good thing to come from this was the downfall of America
March 19th, 2008 at 9:53 amIt was first success in Iraq will come after 2 years..then after 5 years…now after 30 years…then it will be soon after 100 years…None of us will be alive in 100 years
March 19th, 2008 at 9:53 amNice try,Pollack.
Just like Vietnam, right?
March 19th, 2008 at 9:54 amraynman Says:
Yeah, in 30 more years, Osama bin Laden will probably have died of old age….
- – -
Thanks to Bush, Osama bin Elvis will never die.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:54 amPollack: 30 years from now, Iraq war will be ‘worth it.’
Yeah , because that will be the time that the American Embassy in Baghdad will finally be completed and operating ………..
March 19th, 2008 at 9:54 amGee…30 more years at $12 billion per month…do you think we can afford that???
March 19th, 2008 at 9:55 amthe only thing worth it was
Cost to America, Loss of US Power and Influence
and Europes rise as the biggest GDP in the world
ITS ALL DOWNWARD FOR THE US FROM NOW
March 19th, 2008 at 9:55 amAll America got from Iraq was $2.5 billion Technical Support Agreements over the next two years paid in OIL and not money
March 19th, 2008 at 9:59 amwatch Iran fall over backwards to keep the republicans in Power
the salt in the wounds for America
March 19th, 2008 at 10:01 amTobie Tall Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 9:59 am
All America got from Iraq was $2.5 billion Technical Support Agreements over the next two years paid in OIL and not money
And I’m still paying $3.40/gallon. What’s up with that?
March 19th, 2008 at 10:01 am“…and rebuild Iraq as a prosperous and stable society — for the good of the United States.”
How, pray tell is it for the good of the United States?
Oh, wait, it’s the oil stupid.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:01 amPollack is another Neocon selling success.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:02 am..”Success is coming” Pollack says..”in 30 years”.
At this level of killing in Iraq there will be no Iraqi left alive in 30 years.
At this level of killing in Iraq there will be no Iraqi left alive in 30 years -Tarazan
I believe that was the Neoturd intent all along…we ‘need’ an oil producing country, but not it’s people.
Especially if they’re Muslim…
March 19th, 2008 at 10:07 amthe headline that I want to see:
“9/11 revealed as the Cover-up of the Century. Major whistleblowers come forward with explosive testimony. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld indicted for Crimes against Humanity. Other Bush Administration officials soon to come forward with possible plea deals”
March 19th, 2008 at 10:10 amgood_golly Says:
March 17th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
There have undoubtedly been phenomelal improvements, but there is obviously still work to be done.
(so versatile!)
March 19th, 2008 at 10:11 amOne week after the Pentagon admitted Saddam had absolutely no ties to AQ, Cheney reiterated the same lie.
Power broker, my ass.
Corporate weasel may be a better descriptor.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:12 amThe Crawford Cretin is bullshitting about the Iraq war right now ……………….
March 19th, 2008 at 10:16 amVote in McBomb = USA RIP
(you think things are bad now…)
March 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am“I’ll take ‘what’s good for the US’ for $400 Alex.”
“Ah, this wholly unjustified military offense made the Bay of Pigs seem like a Sunday ice cream social.”
“What is ‘Operation Iraqi Liberation’ Alex?”
“Correct!”
March 19th, 2008 at 10:17 amDumbya is on tv now telling us how wonderful the war is. Someone should smack that smirk off his drunken little weasel face.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:24 amThe Bush Administration is a metastizied cancer spreading through America.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:25 amMY FIRST POST ON THINKPROGRESS
I suspect we could put $1 trillion into Myanmar and make it a better place too. Iraq will be a success as long as we keep redefining success down.
Are we thinking about this the wrong way … has it actually been a success on Bush’s terms?
1. Bush got re-elected
March 19th, 2008 at 10:26 am2. conservatives vindicated that government IS incompetent
3. big deficit and debt redcuce ability for social programs
4. funneled billions to buddies in military contracting businesses
5. huge profits for integrated oil companies
6. constant war footing better for Republicans
Welcome to TP, maddarter.
You may be right, in their eyes, Iraq is a huge success.
I like your statement about ‘redefining success down’. It’s
somewhat parallel to ‘a little bit pregnant’.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:30 amMaddarter, you are absolutely right.
What is with pollack saying “if at the end of the day…?” Were he so absolutely sure of the success, he would not have to put in weasel words to be able to say that everything would have come out correctly if only…. And why is he one of the people designated as a spokesperson for the liberal or progressive people of the country?
March 19th, 2008 at 10:33 ammaddarter Says:
MY FIRST POST ON THINKPROGRESS
Welcome, maddarter. You make some good points.
Yes, in many ways the invasion has filled the bill nicely for the neocons. But for Republicans, not so much. I expect these last eight years to prove their undoing. Their reliance on te religious right has been finally fractured, the myth of “fiscal conservatism” has been exploded, and they’ve even lost their advantage on national security.
But for Bush and cronies, none of this really matters. They wanted to do what they wanted to do, and it looks like they’ll mostly get away scot-free. Do they care that they’re leaving the GOP in smoking ruins?
Not a bit. They can keep telling themselves that “in fifty years, history will vindicate us”.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:36 amIf at the end of the day the U.S. screwed things up for four years and then in the end left Iraq a better place than they found it under Saddam, it may have still been worth it.
SWEET! More “hypotheticals”. My favorite!
Here’s some more:
In 30 years, a football team from Detroit MAY appear in a SuperBowl.
I MAY attain those 6-pack abs, and buns of steel.
Microsoft MAY go bankrupt.
Michigan MAY sprout palm trees along the coast of the Great Lakes.
Bermuda MAY be the next nuclear super power.
(meanwhile, nearly 4000 American families, and countless Iraqi’s, wept!!!)
March 19th, 2008 at 10:37 amI can’t help but think that the longer we don’t look at the source of this (faux) “war on terror” : 9/11 as a false-flag op the longer it is going to take to heal this nation. Even if Barack Obama gets in, do you really think he’s going to take this issue on? We are in a country is deep, deep denial that our supposed benevolent country could never attack our own citizens. This is the Mother issue of our time. My family and friends sometimes get sick of me and really don’t know how to deal with my supposed “extreme” view. Every g_ddamn thing we are experiencing now is because of a little thing called PNAC. The Project for a New Century expoused by a bunch of neoCONS is very much in place right now. We are an Authoritarian Society teetering on the edge of Fascism. 8 years ago this great nations was hijacked by a bunch of criminals.
When are we as a nation going to wake up?
March 19th, 2008 at 10:37 amBush did not say much about WMDS in his speech today.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:40 amBwefore the war..It was all about WMDS…
Bush did not say much about WMDS in his speech today
Did he look up Cheney’s ass?
March 19th, 2008 at 10:42 amKay,
Isn’t it ironic that we’re considered having ‘extreme’ views, given the fact that many on the Right want to bomb Iran right now. Or allow warantless spying on American citizens? Or give corporations citizenship & allow them to define policy?
If we’re extreme, what the hell are they?
March 19th, 2008 at 10:42 amDid he look up Cheney’s ass? -Kay
Yes, and he found Jeff Gannon in there!
March 19th, 2008 at 10:43 am#34
Zimzone,
They are neoCONs who have beefed up our military to a point so that our economy is tanking. The only people that make any money from this are the people working in the military.
I consider myself a patriot becuase I question the motives of this government. I don’t blindly sit back and accept what the mainstream media shoves down our throats. In a world of Spitzer/Spears fixation, Dick Cheney is percolating his PNACian plans for Iran. He is truly an EVIL man. Fasten your seatbelts, it is going to be a bumpy 8 months.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:47 amRe Pollock – Applying a quote from weldon at C&L because it’s just perfect:
March 19th, 2008 at 10:49 am
The “worth” of a conflict doesn’t depend on the multi-decade global perspective of academic judgement, it depends on the local and contemporary perspectiv of those involved.
Pollack’s regurgitation of Bush’s and the NeoCons’ self-serving and utterly dishonest ‘argument’ flies in the face of history and fact.
The promotion of this meme is intended to counter present judgment and defer later judgement and meanwhile subtly promotes the continuation of the occupation of Iraq purely for the present and future benefit of those who planned and supported an illegal war and all the criminality it has engendered, precisely to AVOID JUDGEMENT.
Consider:
Fighting the Japanese and the Germans was deemed “worth it” from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to VE day and VJ day.
The Russians knew defeating the Germans was “worth it” at the time, despite initial terrible losses, and of course once Germany was defeated.
The Germans and Japanese decided their agression wasn’t “worth it” when they surrendered.
The US-Korean War was judged NOT WORTH IT whilst it was on- going, hence the ceasefire stalemate.
The US-Vietnam War was judged NOT WORTH IT whilst Johnson was still president.
US involvement in Lebanon was deemed NOT WORTH IT when the Marine Corps barracks were blown-up and Reagan removed the US presence days afterwards.
Somalia was deemed NOT WORTH IT several months after ‘BlackHawk Down, when Clinton withdrew US forces.
The efforts in the Bosnia-Serbia conflict were declared NOT “worth it” by the Republicans, whilst everyone else determined it WAS “worth it” as the ethnic-cleansing was stopped without any US combat losses.
Intervention in Rwanda was NOT WORTH IT in the estimation of Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich, then majority leaders of the Senate and the House, and a judgement Clinton seemed obliged to accept.
The 1991 Desert Storm was ultimately judged NOT WORTH IT by the Neocons by G. W. Bush’s ‘failure’ to occupy Iraq and topple Hussein. (Interestingly Cheney counseled AGAINST invading Iraq back then).
I’ll repeat: The “worth” of a conflict doesn’t depend on the multi-decade global perspective of academic judgement, it depends on the local and contemporary perspectiv of those involved.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:51 amThe Bush Admin. in a nutshell :
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
Supremacy of the Military
Rampant Sexism
Controlled Mass Media
Obsession with National Security
Religion and Government are Intertwined
Corporate Power is Protected
Labor Power is Suppressed
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fraudulent Elections
March 19th, 2008 at 11:00 amFor the neocons of course it will be worth it. At this rate, everybody there would be dead and there would be unblocked access to the oil fields.
Keyword: *At this rate*
Keep dreaming about that for 10 more months, neocons. President Obama will wipe the floor with all of you.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:02 am30 years from now, Iraq will still be the wrong stinkin’ country:
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
Why won’t the Democrats make this case to the American people, and shut these neo-con nitwits up once and for all?
March 19th, 2008 at 11:03 amGood list, Kay, although one might add politically-motivated criminal prosecution.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:07 amThirty years from now, when historians look back, where are they going to come out? If at the end of the day the U.S. screwed things up for four years and then in the end left Iraq a better place than they found it under Saddam, it may have still been worth it.
********************************************************
I find myself strangely reminded of the old joke about the man who accidentally drops his car keys in a parking lot late one night and is looking under the streetlight simply because there’s light there even though he actually dropped his keys someplace else…
Then again, I’m not surprised that he thinks this way. The whole build up to the war was reportedly based on what has come to be called the One Percent Doctrine — the idea that simply the possibility of another country developing WMD and/or attacking us, even if remote, should be treated as if it were a certainty and merits response in terms of action and not merely strategy.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:09 amWatch for McWar (who is being trained by Darth Cheney as we speak) to be in the news fraudulantly tying Iran to Iraq. Boy, the senile old bastard can’t even talk. Jeesh, can’t people see him as the “ass-kissing PNAC trainee” that he is?
March 19th, 2008 at 11:13 amIn 30 years the full extent of the disasterous Bush administration will be in the text books accross this nation. We can explain to our grandchildren how many of us were feared into believing we needed to attack a country that didn’t/couldn’t/wasn’t able to attack us. We can say to them we helped in creating a mountain of debt that they will now be passing on to their grandchildren.
In 30 years there will be similar embarassment from the republicans and silient followers of Bush that the complicit Germans had after world war 2.
In 30 years the words from those who spoke out against Bush and his fearmongering will be looked at as examples of true patriotism.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:15 am“It’s a cheap generosity that promises the future as compensation for the present.”
March 19th, 2008 at 11:23 am[Pollack]: “Thirty years from now, when historians look back, where are they going to come out? If at the end of the day the U.S. screwed things up for four years and then in the end left Iraq a better place than they found it under Saddam, it may have still been worth it.”
Lessee:
30 / 5 * $600B = $3.6T
30 / 5 * 4000 = 24,000
Yeah, “If” and “may”. And “if” pigs could fly, we’d all carry cast-iron umbrellas….
Cheers,
March 19th, 2008 at 11:32 amNot to mention, even if something is a ‘good idea’ (or “worth it”) doesn’t mean we should do it, particularly things like unilaterally invading countries. There are times when you have to let things like moral/ethical principles and international law constrain what you think — otherwise — to be a ‘great idea’….
Cheers,
March 19th, 2008 at 11:35 amHere’s what I think is going on now.
It is CRITICAL that the people who started this and encouraged it have something to point to where they can say there is progress. If violence is down because we are paying people off to not fight and Sadr is saving his powder and there can be only so many refugees, so what. There is progress to point to.
This is so important because it allows them to blame the next person for screwing it up. We are seeing this starting now with Bremer being blamed for not turning the government over to a criminal in Jordan who could not even win a seat in the Iraqi Parliament. This was Bremer’s fault, and not Bush’s?
When Iraq is left on its own and becomes another Iran or another Lebanon, there will be something that can be pointed to later as the culprit.
At least we are now seeing a little specificity in the blame game — “mistakes were made” does no good. The questions should be what mistakes were made, who made them, what accountability is there for the people, and how can we prevent the mistake again. Of course, in Bremer’s case, his “punishment” was a Presidential medal, along with Tenet.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:41 amIF Iraq ever beomes a better place, it will not be because it was disastrously invaded and occupied by the US.
Using Righties’ Krazy Logik, I could pick someone off the street today at random, punch them in the face, then make claims later on about how the good things that happened to that person were the result of my punching them in the face.
Hey trolls – I’m passing out good luck today – want some?
March 19th, 2008 at 11:52 amOmicron Ohayo Says:
Think Progress fails to note that Pollack was the top expert on Iraq in the Clinton administration and was brought into that admininistration by Sandy “Docs in Socks” Berger specifically because Pollack believe regime change was the only option for Iraq.
Your point being…?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pmPlease explain this “hypocrisy”?
It’s not clear that you actually know what the word means.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pmOO is here merely to muddy the water, thrashing about with arcane facts no one can fairly judge.
In other words, just another d*ckhead troll.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pmSaddam’s real weapon of mass destruction has been the drain on the bath tub full of dollars in Iraq.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pmI hope 30 years from now the Hague trial of US’s War Criminal will be over and done!
March 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pmI meant the Hague Trials of US’s War Criminals…
March 19th, 2008 at 2:17 pmHow convenient for him.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:16 pmWhat in God’s name is this fixation with waiting thirty years? It’s like an extension of the Friedman Unit. First of all, nothing NOTHING can be excused for the lies going into the war, and the deliberate corruption of the aftermath. Second, in the next thirty years, there will be many events that will influence many things. You cannot prognosticate a rosy future in thirty years especially after your plan has already failed in the first five years. Frankly, prosecuting an unjustified war will never be seen as “worth it”.
What about Viet Nam thirty years later? Was it “worth it“?
March 19th, 2008 at 9:41 pmBetween running out of foreign investors in our war for 30 years and thus being bankrupt and owned by China, peak oil and global warming, this guy is pretty optimistic there will be an America to look back at this period.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:54 amIt will be worth it when we look back. Just like how we look back at when the US put Saddam in power and when we helped the Shah take over Iran. Those were worth it too, right. In 30 years we will be saying thank you to Bush for having installed another corrupt Iraqi government so we can have someone to invade.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:23 pm