|
Candidate B*sh spoke strongly against using our military for nation building. During the debate on 10/11/2000, B*sh said that the mission in Somalia had changed into a nation-building mission, and that's where the mission went wrong." He said also I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation building." Even a broken clock is right twice a day and he parroted the truth in those instances.
But Iraq has been a nation building mission pretty much from the start. Remember when the design was bomb them to the stone age, oust Saddam and then rebuilding the country, aka "nation", using their oil revenue to do so? Basically, the GOP loaded this experiment in nation building into a giant Trojan Horse named "the war on terror" and in that guise, few dared to oppose it.
But their experiment has failed and continues to fail horribly. Iraq is now the poster child for why nation building should not even be attempted with the military. It isn't a "war" now so much as it is an occupation / nation building mission. It is un-winnable because it is NOT a war anymore. You don't win an occupation, you endure it. Many people are against war but far, far more are against nation building. B*sh knew this when he hammered away at Gore with this phrase. In hindsight, it was totally hypocritical, even disingenuous of B*sh, but so be it. He brought that card to the table and he played it. Now it is our turn. Calling Iraq a war makes it harder to properly separate it in the minds of many Americans from the War on Terror. Calling it nation building makes it unpalatable to far more people, including the people who agreed with B*sh back in 2000. To that end I propose some new sound-bites:
"Iraq is a failed experiment in nation building." "Our military should not be used for nation building in Iraq." "We need to end this failed experiment in nation building in Iraq."
|