The tragic and costly mistake that is the last Iraq War

I just saw the list below at Mish's Global Economic Trends and had to pass it along.

I don't always agree with Mish Sedlock, the author of the blog, on economics and economic policies but he's dead-on with these points about the Iraq War:

US policy of "Nation Building" has been a total and complete failure.

US had no business invading Iraq.

It is up to the people of these nations, not outsiders to force change at gunpoint.

US "intelligence" operations are useless.

US "intelligence" failed to predict any of these uprisings. One likely cause is so much useless "intelligence data" is gathered both in the US and abroad that no one has time to look at it all. 

With democracy breaking out in the Middle East, it seems important to point out that these people are--as any student of history would tell you--bringing it to themselves.  The idea from George W. Bush and Company that they could go blow up Iraq and "give them" democracy was a huge, monumental and classic mistake and it was a mistake a lot of us around the country warned them of.  Lots of us protested the beginning of the Iraq War and the attack of Iraq but they would hear nothing of it.  

Mish closes his entry here with the following and I don't think it could be said any better:

Thankfully, and at long last, the citizens of many nations have taken matters into their own hands. Not all of these revolts will be viewed as a success to US interests. Some may not be viewed as a success by anyone.

However, the results in aggregate, no matter what they are, will be far better than results of successive, misguided US policy missions in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Link to original post:  http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/02/reflections-on-revolutions-shoe.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+(Mish's+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis)