Daily Kos

Henry Waxman Should Investigate how we Lost the War!

Tue Nov 14, 2006 at 01:08:25 PM PDT

One of the Republicans major talking points prior to the election was how the Democrats were going to waste the countries time by having dozens of meaningless investigations. This is coming from the same crowd who had investigations about the Clinton's Christmas Card list and the White House Cat's Fan Club.

Newsweek released a poll on Saturday that says that 89% of the American people want investigations into the contracts awarded in support of the Iraq war. I believe that is where we should start investigations since, for political purposes, a vast majority of the American Public Agree.

Henry, we need to investigate why we lost Iraq!

During any occupation the first few months are the most important. That is when you actually have a chance to win the hearts and minds of the people of the occupied country. You have to prove that your countries goal is to protect the populace, and rebuild the infrastructure destroys during active hostilities..

During that time our forces were busy building our bases and securing our own and that proved that the lives of the Iraqi populace was near the bottom of the Americans priority list. We were putting ideologues in charge of Iraqi Ministries whose goal was to prove Republican policies, and not to rebuild the country, and that showed the Iraqi's that Americans were not to be trusted in allowing the Iraqi's to develop their own Governmental policies. Mercenaries who were above the law were running amok and that helped lead to an atmosphere where Americans were feared instead of welcomed.

We lost the War because the money that was supposed to be used to rebuild Iraq was wasted in that critical period. Contractors with cost plus contracts were too busy inflating their costs to beef up their profits. The idea of actually completing any project or doing anything efficiently was rejected since there wasn't any profit in finishing a job or controlling costs, the profit came from spending more money without completing the job.

That is how the no bid process worked, companies were guaranteed a percentage of the cost in profit as long as they were working on a job, therefore the more it cost, the more they made, brilliant!

Our CEO in Chief and the Resident forgot who the contracts were supposed to benefit, and through that decision they lost the Iraqi People, 3000 troops, 100's of thousands of Iraqi's civilians, and the War in Iraq.

This war was lost in 2003 and 2004 when we were desperately trying to come up with good news for the American Press instead of improving the lives of the Iraqi people.

Henry Waxman should start investigating into the how, why, and who is responsible for wasting billions of dollars in Iraq and losing the occupation, then he can get to the juicy stuff like an Administration who blatantly makes up legal cover for themselves so that they can Ignore the laws of this country.

Get the credit for doing the wildly popular thing, then go for the jugular that can lead to impeachment or resignations.

Tags: Henry Waxman, Iraq, Investigation, Oversight, war profiteering, no-bid contracts, House Government Reform Committee (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

Permalink | 6 comments

  •  On a side note (4+ / 0-)

    the Contracts investigation should be aimed at Cheney, who needs to be the first target, before we cut down the Shrub.

  •  I just got an e-mail from the folks ... (1+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    Tomtech

    ... at the Brave New Foundation that provides this link concerning upcoming investigations of the war. (I haven't been glued to the site as I was before Nov. 7, so apologies if this NYT article has been posted.)

    "It does not require many words to speak the truth." -- Chief Joseph, native American leader (1840-1904)

    by highfive on Tue Nov 14, 2006 at 01:19:44 PM PDT

  •  "Lost Iraq" is not a good frame. (1+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    kaye

    Iraq was never 'ours' to 'win.' We committed an act of 'aggressive war' in violation of International law. There is much wrong with our invasion and occupation of Iraq. 'Losing' is not one of them. Manipulated intelligence to cover the ass of the PNAC cabal is beyond dispute. No-bid contracts to war profiteers need to be examined, and Halliburton, et. al. forced to reimburse the US Treasury. War crimes need to be prosecuted. 'Losing' is a loser.

  •  Torture investigation should be first. (0+ / 0-)

    Recommended by:
    Tomtech

    When the american people learn the details of who did what and when that allowed the torture at Abu Ghraib and in Bagram, I suspect 'Abu' Gonzales, John Yoo, Rumsfeld, and others will be seriously considering moving to Bush's new ranch in Paraguay.

    -6.38/-3.79::'A man is incapable of comprehending any argument that interferes with his revenues.' Descartes

    by skrymir on Tue Nov 14, 2006 at 01:27:39 PM PDT

  •  defeat is an orphan, don't you know ??? (0+ / 0-)

    nobody is responsible for losing in Iraq, because nobody planned to lose

    get ready for more twisted logic like this

    the freepi can barely rub two brain cells together, so don't expect anything but the most simplistic explanations about how nobody could predict this outcome

    failing to plan is planning to fail

    failure was not an option.

    failure is what we have when we run out of options

    so you see ???

    we didn't lose, we just ran out of options

Permalink | 6 comments