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JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
Tue Jan 5, 2016, 08:25 PM Jan 2016

Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency says Iraq War a big mistake. [View all]

That the Iraq War was the biggest foreign policy blunder the US has made since maybe the Treaty of Versailles if not much earlier is not news to anyone on DU.

What is news is the fact that someone who may have been part of the decisions behind the invasion and its aftermath is now admitting it. I don't know what Flynn's role was in proposing or deciding strategy to do with Iraq, but this article on the origins of the Islamic State and on how we can best fight it is interesting.

Here is just a snippet from the article:

. . . .

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Islamic State wouldn't be where it is now without the fall of Baghdad. Do you regret ...

Flynn: ... yes, absolutely ...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: ... the Iraq war?

Flynn: It was huge error. As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him. The same is true for Moammar Gadhafi and for Libya, which is now a failed state. The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq. History will not be and should not be kind with that decision.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/former-us-intelligence-chief-discusses-development-of-is-a-1065131.html

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