Unsavoury Legacy of the Iraq Conflict

General Sir Lord Dannatt: 'Going to Iraq was an error of near biblical proportions'

Lord Dannatt, former Chief of the General Staff CREDIT: DAVID ROSE

1 OCTOBER 2016 - General the Lord Dannatt is sitting at the head of a spacious boardroom table in Millbank House, searching for words. Beyond him, out of the window is a vista of Parliament Square where on March 20, 2003, thousands gathered to march against the invasion of Iraq.

Today he admires the view, but the war in Iraq is something that until recently Lord Dannatt has not been able to take in from a particularly removed perspective. As Chief of the General Staff between 2006 and 2009, and prior to that Commander in Chief Land Command, he was embroiled in the key decisions around the six-year military mission in which 179 British troops lost their lives.

It has been a year in which the unsavoury legacy of the Iraq conflict has been a mainstay of the news. In July, the conclusion of the Chilcot Inquiry delivered a damning verdict on the decision to take Britain to war. Earlier this month, too, the Ministry of Defence was forced to pay thousands of pounds in compensation to former Army officer Rachel Webster, who was left traumatised when she was arrested by officers working for the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT), a controversial government unit set up in 2010 to investigate alleged abuses by service personnel during the war. The case followed that of three Army veterans who face prosecution for manslaughter over the death of an Iraqi teenager in 2003.

“The Webster case was appalling and I’m delighted she has been compensated, but that these historic abuse inquiries have been put together at all.” Lord Dannatt says, resolutely echoing the view of numerous veterans, MPs and campaigner groups. “To have these wide-ranging inquiries in to what are repeatedly turning out to be wholesale, fallacious accusations is undermining for morale and the Army’s effectiveness. In the future soldiers will feel inhibited in doing what they think is right for fear of retrospective investigation, and that is incredibly dangerous.”

He admits there are times when errors are made in conflict, but believes any wrongdoing should be dealt with internally. read more>>>

"It's a shame Brian Williams will be the only person ever punished for lying about Iraq"

The Country ran from any and all Accountability, Domestically and Internationally, throughout but especially as the Bush regime was leaving, even allowing it's rubber stamping conservative congresses to maintain control and then take over, states included, as Extremely quickly as they did the Missions and those sent to Accomplish after 9/11!! Leaving everything they did and twisted leagalities, making lawful that which the US had led the World in making unlawfull, to do on the table!!

And now Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after the Whole Country Abandoned the Missions and those sent to Accomplish, and still haven't paid for either nor the long term results from and that includes the VA their responsibility, so extremely quickly after 9/11!!
Command Sergeant Major: No Troops Died Searching for Bergdahl

Australians Understand What American Led Iraq War Policies Created

* * * CIA Torture: Read the Senate Intelligence Committee report * * *

In a Democracy: 'Citizens must know what is done in their name'

Pres. Bush: “Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated”

Blackwater Security Guards Handed Lengthy Sentences For Iraqi Killings

Human rights groups call for special prosecutor to investigate CIA torture

22 December 2014 - The ACLU and Human Rights Watch say the offences amount to ‘a vast criminal conspiracy’ and are ‘shocking and corrosive’ to US democracy and credibility read more>>>

* * * Seeds of ISIL Planted By Bush/Cheney and Conservative Congresses * * *

"Without the Iraq War There Would be No Islamic State"

Aug 8, 2015 - IS Top Command Dominated by Ex-Officers in Saddam's Army

* * * The British Iraq War Inquiry * * * Released will carry private communications between GWBush and TBlair, like this already released: TB said there was a danger the Tories would see this as their chance to get rid of him … Bush said they would make it clear to the Tories that if they moved to get rid of TB "we will get rid of them".

Brit Report into Iraq War will Be Published in June or July 2016

* * * Iraq War Promoted Terrorism Rather Than Reducing It * * * 24 April 2014 - Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War promoted terrorism rather than reducing it and was a “strategic failure”, according to a major new report which estimated the cost of all UK conflicts since the end of the Cold War.
The Royal United Services Institute said the UK could face a bill of nearly £65bn, once the cost of long-term care for injured veterans was factored in, with most of the money was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The study, called Wars in Peace, said both conflicts were largely “strategic failures” for the UK, The Guardian reported."

Facts: Matthew Hoh {former Marine and foreign service officer in Afghanistan}: "We spend a trillion dollars a year on national security in this country."
"And when you add up to the Department of Defense, Department of State, CIA, Veterans Affairs, interest on debt, the number that strikes me the most about how much we're committed financially to these wars and to our current policies is we have spent $250 billion already just on interest payments on the debt we've incurred for the Iraq and Afghan wars." 26 September 2014

Bob Herbert "Losing Our Way" : "And then the staggering costs of these wars, which are borne by the taxpayers. I mean, one of the things that was insane was that, as we're at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration cut taxes. This has never been done in American history. The idea of cutting taxes while you're going to war is just crazy. I mean, it's madness." Bill 'Moyers and Company': Restoring an America That Has Lost its Way 10 Oct. 2014

$14 Million An Hour: War Costs Top $1.6 Trillion Since 9/11, Say Congressional Researchers

December 22 2014 - American taxpayers have shelled out roughly $1.6 trillion on war spending since 9/11, according to a new report from Congress’ nonpartisan research arm. That’s roughly $337 million a day -- or nearly a quarter million dollars a minute -- every single day for 13 years. read more>>>

DeJa-Vu: “With no shared sacrifices being asked of civilians after Sept. 11", Decades and War From, All Over Again!!

Chris Hayes MSNBC: "If you can run a deficit to go to war, you can run a deficit to take care of the people who fought it" In response to Republican opposition to expanding Veterans' benefits on fiscal grounds

Neither of these recent wars have yet been paid for, let alone the results from, including the long ignored or outright denied existence of, till this Administrations Cabinet and Gen Shinseki, only Government branch consistent for the past six years, issues! As well as under deficits most of the, grossly under funded, VA budget is still borrowed thus added, problem creating, costs that shouldn't exist!