President Obama is on the receiving end of scorn for remarks made during a high-profile speech in Brussels on Wednesday in which he defended the U.S. invasion of Iraq in an attempt to chastise Russia for recent developments in Crimea and Ukraine.
Speaking to the international community about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and fending off repeated accusations that the U.S. has lost its moral authority given the invasion of Iraq and other breaches of international law in recent years, Obama said:
Russia has pointed to America's decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. Now, it is true that the Iraq war was a subject of vigorous debate, not just around the world but in the United States, as well. I participated in that debate, and I opposed our military intervention there.But instead of tamping down accusations of hypocrisy, Obama inflamed it.
But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq's territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people in a fully sovereign Iraqi state that can make decisions about its own future.
Responding to the speech on FireDogLake, DSWright shot back: "Worked within the international system? So if Russia had gone to the UN to get a resolution, failed, then annexed Crimea it would have been OK?"
Reaction on Twitter was swift - and among those with a seemingly better memory of the devastation caused by the U.S. invasion of Iraq than the president - fierce:
#Obama says "invasion" of #Crimea worse than invasion of #Iraq. 1 million people died in Iraq due to US. How many died in Crimea? #Ukraine
- tony_hartin (@tony_hartin) March 26, 2014
"#Obama: #Iraq invasion wasn't as bad as #Russia of #Ukraine as US didn't take territory" just destroyed it & killed & displaced millions.
- Magpie V (@i_magpie) March 26, 2014
In order to not appear hypocritical, Obama rewrites history around Iraq War while denouncing Russia http://t.co/lurEEUNSwNRoss Caputi and Matt Howard, members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, spoke with Common Dreams by phone and said that President Obama's argument was both weak factually and morally. As it happens, both IVAW members were together in Washington, DC on Wednesday, organizing an evening event focused on the devastating impacts of the Iraq War - both for veterans like themselves and the Iraqi civilian population - when they heard news about what the president had said.
- Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) March 26, 2014
"What President Obama said is false," said Caputi. "The U.S. did not attempt to work within the international system. We acted unilaterally, without the approval of the UN Security Council."
Howard said the president's narrative on the events that led up to the Iraq invasion, inside or outside the context of Ukraine, was simply "not grounded in reality."
"We went from one lie, which was weapons of mass destruction, to another lie which was liberation and freedom," said Howard. Citing the devastation cited by Iraqi civil society allies, especially women in the country, he continued, "This idea that Iraq is somehow better off or that the U.S. waged a so-called 'Good War' is ridiculous."
In addition, argued Caputi, the U.S. did make very real and successful attempts to gain access to Iraqi resources, namely through the writing of the new Iraqi Constitution and aspects of the so-called "Bremer Orders," referring to Paul Bremer who was the U.S.-appointed Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq during the aftermath of the 2003 invasion. Those efforts "privatived Iraq's formally nationalized energy resources," paving the way for foreign oil companies, including those from U.S., to gain coveted access to Iraq oil and gas fields.
The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim also made note of this false assertion by Obama regarding Iraqi "resources," writing:
In fact, the U.S. forced Iraq to privatize its oil industry, which had previously been under the control of the state, and further required that it accept foreign ownership of the industry. The effort to transfer the resources to the control of multinational, largely U.S.-based oil companies has been hampered in part by the decade of violence unleashed by the invasion.Watch the president's full speech:
Obama's assertion also hinges on how broadly one construes the word "our." Taxpayers on the one hand are worse off, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have added $2 trillion to the national debt, according to one study. But contractors reaped tremendous gains, and Halliburton -- a company often associated with the invasion, of which former Vice President Dick Cheney served as CEO -- saw its stock price surge from under $10 a share to over $50, before falling along with the rest of the market in 2008. (It has since recovered.)
But Maurice Chevalier is no longer around to make all these hypocritical nonsense seem comically cool as was his way, so what we have now is but dim reflections of past glory, nay not even that, just endless self-reflections from some long lost bit of farce that seemed funny way back in the frat house full of rich boys with dreams of grandeur and their own self-worth. Too bad those boys never grew up, but then that's what makes them so useful now, right? And just look at poor Mr O... or as Maurice put it in Gigi:
Poor boy! Poor boy!
Down-hearted and depressed and in a spin
Poor boy! Poor boy!
Oh, youth can really do a fellow in!
But if Mr O and the rest of the frat house funmakers need repeat this droll, guess they will just have to keep a stiff upper lip as they smile like gits and repeat the same song lyrics full of hypocrisy until they drop dead from fatigue, like their audience.
H: We met at nine
M: We met at eight
H: I was on time
M: No, you were late
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well
We dined with friends
M: We dined alone
H: A tenor sang
M: A baritone
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well
That dazzling April moon!
M: There was none that night
And the month was June
H: That's right. That's right.
M: It warms my heart to know that you
remember still the way you do
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well
H: How often I've thought of that Friday
M: Monday
H: night when we had our last rendezvous
And somehow I foolishly wondered if you might
By some chance be thinking of it too?
That carriage ride
M: You walked me home
H: You lost a glove
M: I lost a comb
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well
That brilliant sky
M: We had some rain
H: Those Russian songs
M: From sunny Spain
H: You wore a gown of gold
M: I was all in blue
H: Am I getting old?
M: Oh, no, not you
How strong you were
How young and gay
A prince of love
In every way
H: Ah, yes, I remember it well
Maurice and the cast in Gigi did it so much better [ aolanswers.com/questions/words_song_remember_gigi_5183100219173/honore_maurice_chevalier_mamita_735754117632605 ]