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29 2 Bush's Wars

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in his presidential campaign w bush had

denounced foreign

nation building which is defined as

activity taken by external actors or

foreign countries

attempting to build or rebuild the

institutions of weaker

post-conflict or failing states

basically when a powerful nation tries

to rebuild the government of another

poorer nation or weaker nation but bush

populated his administration with

neo-conservatives who supported the

expansion of american democracy and

american interest

abroad even through using nation building

building

bush argued that the u.s had the right

to unilaterally and preemptively

make war upon any regime or organization

that posed a threat to the united states

or its citizens

preemptive strikes were called the bush

doctrine and it was clearly a violation

of international law

journalist dexter filkins called the

resulting conflicts in the war on terror

a forever war a perpetual conflict waged

against an amorphous or ever-changing

and undefeatable

enemy after bush's inauguration in january

january

cia director tenant and terrorism czar

clark asked for an urgent meeting with

the administration and all government

experts in terrorism

that meeting didn't take place until

early september and bush himself was not present

present

there were 44 intelligence reports that

al qaeda was going to attack the united

states sent to the administration

between january and september 2001.

the august 6th intelligence report was

titled quote bin laden determined to

strike in u.s

the fbi had information that indicated

suspicious activity that suggested

hijackings would be involved amongst

other types of attacks

and the bipartisan 911 commission report concluded

concluded

quote the system was blinking red

however we cannot unilaterally blame

bush's team for failing to stop the attack

attack

in all of this intelligence there was no

indication of how the hijacked planes

would be used and without that

information it is highly unlikely

that any extra security measures would

have done much good before 9 11

all the training manuals everything that

the airlines went by was based on

hijackers taking a plane and holding

people hostage not

using it basically as a missile

the first time bush met with clark the

terrorism czar was on september 12th

when he asked clark to go over the

evidence again to see if saddam hussein

was somehow connected to 9 11.

clark told the president that al qaeda

had attacked the united states on 9 11

and bush said he knew but to look at it again

again

after 9 11 with a broad authorization of

military force bush administration

officials made plans for military action

against al qaeda the group that had

attacked the united states

and the taliban the group housing them

in afghanistan

when the taliban refused to turn over

al-qaeda and bin laden to the u.s the

longest war in american history began

with the launching of operation enduring

freedom in october 2001.

air and missile strikes hit targets

across afghanistan and u.s special

forces joined with fighters in the

anti-taliban northern alliance so this

is a group of

of different local leaders who don't

like the taliban they've

not wanted them to be in charge all this

time and so the us is trying to

use this opposition to the taliban to

take them out

the taliban was not equipped to fight a

modern war and major afghan cities fell

in quick secession including the capital

of kabul on november 13th

bin laden and al-qaeda operatives

retreated into the rugged mountains

along the border in eastern afghanistan

towards pakistan

as u.s troops struggled to contain the

taliban in afghanistan the bush

administration set its sights on iraq

now britain had put the nation of iraq

together based on oil claims after world

war one without much regard for ethnic

religious or tribal differences and you

can see some of these differences on the map

map

as we've mentioned before sunni and shia

are two different types of islam

on top of that you have ethnic

differences between arabs and kurds in

the nation as well

a brutal dictator saddam hussein took

over iraq and established a secular

state so this was not a religious state

like the ayatollahs in iran

or like the taliban in afghanistan under

saddam's government

alcohol is allowed you can go to

nightclubs and wear western attire

in 1972 he declared a rocky oil for

iraqis and he nationalized iraq's oil

fields which

really irritated american and british

companies with claims on those oil fields

fields

remember iran doing the same thing is

why the cia along with

british officials helped overthrow the

iranian government

so during the 1970s iraq grew relatively

wealthy off of this oil money which they

used to build roads

airports secular schools to start

importing home air conditioning units

and they subsidized prices on consumer

goods they even had their own version of

social security

then in 1980 saddam invaded iran which

led to that bloody eight-year

iran-iraq war which we've discussed

several times the reagan administration

helped both sides during that war which

ensured that it would drag out and be

very long and very costly

saddam wasted his country's wealth on

the war and by 1988 was heavily indebted

and when kuwait and saudi wouldn't

forgive that debt saddam invaded kuwait

leading to the first gulf war which

we've also discussed

in 1991 after the gulf war ended the

united nations placed

sanctions on iraq and saddam he could

have no missiles with over a 90 mile

range he could have no

weapons of mass destruction or wmd

and no nuclear program and he had to

allow u.n

inspectors into iraq to ensure that he

obeyed these sanctions

from 1991 to 1998 american and british

warplanes routinely patrolled iraqi skies

skies

and they came under periodic fire from

iraqi missile batteries basically

they're patrolling a no-fly zone over iraq

iraq

the overall cost of the united states of

maintaining the two no-fly zones over

iraq was roughly one billion dollars a year

year

related military activities there added

almost another half billion to the

annual bill

now because of the first gulf war saddam

hussein absolutely hated president george

george

h.w bush which of course is the father

of george w bush

in 1993 the emir of kuwait the leader

invited h.w bush to visit his country

h.w bush participated in a parade on the

main street of kuwaiti city the capital

kuwaiti police discovered a huge truck

loaded with explosives

and this was a plot by saddam's secret

service to try to kill both the kuwaiti emir

emir

and h.w bush a furious president clinton

responded with tomahawk missiles which

destroyed a number of government

buildings in baghdad

in 1998 iraqi authorities clashed with

un's weapons inspectors and kicked them out

out

now in fact iraq had suspended its wmd program

program

but saddam was fearful that other middle

eastern leaders

would attack his country knowing that he

didn't have those weapons that he had

had in the 80s

so he kicks out the inspectors trying to

make it seem that he may or may not have

these things

so that he won't be attacked by his

neighbors in response

clinton launched punitive strikes aimed

at debilitating what was thought to be a

fairly developed chemical weapons program

program

beginning on december 16th 1998 more

than 200 cruise missiles were fired from

u.s navy warships and air force b-52 bombers

bombers

flown into iraq they targeted suspected

chemical weapons storage facilities

missile batteries and command centers

airstrikes continued for three more days

unleashing in total 415 cruise missiles

and 600 bombs against 97 targets

the amount of bombs dropped was nearly

double the amount used during the 1991

gulf war conflict

and appeared to be quite successful so

there's more bombs dropped during this

one mission that is not part of a war

that is in retaliation for

taking the u.n inspectors out of iraq

then had

actually been dropped during the war the

u.s congress also passed the iraq

liberation act saying that it was in

america's interest to get rid of saddam

and the cia began working with iraqis no

longer living in iraq to form a

the u.s and iraq remained at odds

throughout the 1990s and early 2000s

when bush administration officials began

championing regime change the bush

administration publicly began pushing for

for

war in the fall of 2002. they allege

that saddam was trying to acquire

uranium for a nuclear weapon

and that he had aluminum tubes used for

nuclear centrifuges

public opinion was divided george w bush

said in october quote facing clear evidence

evidence

of peril we cannot wait for the final

proof the smoking gun

that could come in the form of a

mushroom cloud protests broke out across

the country and indeed

all over the world but a majority of

americans supported military action they

believed the president

and it is really important to remember

how angry

the nation was after 9 11. so this idea

that we can't wait for the the smoking

gun which is going to be another attack

really resonated so i was in eighth

grade when 911 happened and we had a

world war ii veteran who came to speak

to us

uh that december uh and he was not used

to speaking in front of crowds and he

was very elderly at this point he passed

away not long after this

so he was talking about his experiences

as a paratrooper in world war ii and he

was pacing back and forth across the

stage and he wasn't making eye contact

because he was nervous

and we got to the q a and one of my

fellow 8th graders

asked what did you think on 9 11 which

was only three months before and

this world war ii veteran probably

octogenarian at this point

stopped dead in his tracks looked that kid

kid

right in the eye clinched fists and said

how dare they do that

to my country this 80 year old was ready

for a

fist fight and that is how most

americans felt after 9 11. so

while the war in iraq doesn't seem to

make a lot of sense looking back and

there were a lot of people who argued it

didn't make sense then

it is also important to put that into

context of how angry and hurt the nation was

was

after 9 11 even though saddam hussein's

iraq had nothing to do with the taliban

or afghanistan on october 16th the u.s

congress passed the authorization for

use of military force against iraq

resolution and this is really important

it gave w bush the power to go to war

with iraq

number one to defend the national

security of the us against the

continuing threat posed by iraq

or two to enforce all relevant

u.n security council resolutions

regarding iraq

many of the con congressional

representatives who voted for this

later said they did not know that the

administration planned to proceed with

preemptive strikes

which are not mentioned in the

authorization it talks about defense but

the administration argues that

preemptive strikes are defensive even though

though

it preempts another attack so the idea

is that you attack first which is

normally considered

offensive wanting to avoid a war

iraq actually began cooperating with u.n

weapons inspectors they readmitted them

into iraqi facilities for no knock

inspections in late 2002 which means

those inspectors can go anywhere they

want they don't even have to knock on

the door right somebody's going to open

it they can go in

but the bush administration pressed on

the u.n inspectors found a few missiles

with ranges of slightly more than 90

miles and they destroyed those

they found some gas warheads for

artillery rockets and they found

aluminum tubes but they were way too

weak to be used in a nuclear centrifuge

as the bush administration was alleging

secretary of defense donald rumsfeld

argued that if the united nations

inspectors didn't find weapons of mass destruction

destruction

it was only further proof that the

iraqis had defeated the inspections

process and that war needed to

proceed on february 6 2003 secretary of

state colin powell former chairman of

the joint chiefs of staff during the

first gulf war in 1991

presented allegations of a robust iraqi

weapons program to the united nations

now interestingly when colin powell

first looked at the

evidence and at the report the cia gave

him he didn't think there was enough

evidence to make these claims

so he asked for more evidence instead of

giving more evidence the administration

actually had the cia rewrite the report

to sound more convincing based on the

exact same evidence

that is what convinced golden powell to

go before the u.n and make those claims

that turned out to be

false protests continued both in the

united states and around the world

united nations secretary general kofi

annan called the u.s plan for war

illegal because preemptive attacks

without the consent of the united

nations security council

violate the u.n charter which of course

the united united states has ratified we

are members of the united nation

but despite questionable legality the

first american bombs hit baghdad on

march 20th

2003 in a campaign known as shock and awe

awe

several hundred thousand troops moved

into iraq and saddam's regime collapsed

baghdad fell on april 9th and on may 1st 2003

2003

aboard the uss abraham lincoln beneath a

banner reading mission accomplished

george w bush announced that quote major

combat operations in iraq have ended

no evidence of wmd had been found or

ever would be found

and combat operations had not ended not really

really

the iraqi insurgency had only begun and

the united states would spend the next

10 plus years struggling to contain it

making matters

worse coalition provisional authority

orders one and two

contributed to all of this disorder so

cpa order number one was the

debathification of iraqi society so the

bath party was saddam hussein's party

and the cpa decides that anyone

associated with the bath party has to be

taken out of government they compare it

to denatification

after world war ii the problem was

if you wanted any type of government job

a teacher a police officer

anything in city government or the

national government under

saddam hussein's iraq you had to be a

card-carrying member of the bath party

there really was no

alternative it's a dictatorship so

basically they fired the entire middle class

class

of the civil service so all teachers

police officers

anyone who worked for government anyone

who knew anything about how

the country was supposed to be operating

that kind of knowledge

of how the power plants work how you

know the city grids work all of that

was fired and gone cpa order number two

was the disbanding of armed forces

so when the united states invaded iraq

they dropped leaflets to the iraqi military

military

basically saying you don't like saddam

either stand down and we'll take care of

you so they promised to take care of

them in the future

and then the cpa came in and fired all

of them so now you've got all of these

armed angry people who don't like the

americans who have invaded their country

so both of these orders cpa order number

one and two are going to lead to

a lot of mayhem and are largely seen as

one of the or two of the reasons why

there was such a problem with an insurgency

insurgency

after the iraqi invasion with the help

of various intelligence agencies u.s

troops captured saddam hussein on

december 13

2003 hiding in an underground apartment

near his hometown

the new iraqi government found him

guilty of crimes against humanity and he

was hanged on december 30

2006. the war on terror was a

centerpiece in the 2004 presidential election

election

massachusetts senator john f kerry the

dem was the democratic nominee

and he was a vietnam war veteran who you

saw in the clip testifying before congress

congress

as part of vietnam veterans against the

war kerry attacked bush

for the ongoing inability to contain the

iraqi insurgency or to find wmd the

alleged cause of the war

he also criticized bush after the

revelation with photographic

evidence that u.s soldiers had abused

and tortured prisoners at abu ghraib

prison near baghdad so abu ghraib is

name of the prison

and these photos are released of

american troops torturing

prisoners at abu ghraib america's

standing in the world

suffered as a result moreover many enemy

combats who had been captured in iraq

and afghanistan

were detained indefinitely at a military

base in guantanamo bay cuba

gitmo became infamous for its harsh

treatment and definite detentions and

the torture

of prisoners still bush defended the war

on terror

and his allies attacked critics for

failing to support the troops

bush supporters also attacked kerry for

his activism with vietnam veterans

against the war

and they tried to link his position on

the vietnam war with his war

his position on the war in iraq moreover

kerry had voted for the authorization of

military force resolution

and despite its misleading wording

critics claimed that he was attacking

the very thing

he had authorized bush won a close but

clear victory in the 2004

election so he's elected for a second

term but bush's popularity continued to fall

fall

due to his failure to effectively

respond to hurricane katrina

katrina had been a category 5 hurricane

the largest in the system

it was the new orleans times picayune

said the storm we always feared

new orleans suffered a direct hit though

the dirty side of the storm the side

with more of the the rain

and a lot of the wind did more damage to

mississippi than it actually did to louisiana

louisiana

that was until the levees broke and the

bulk of new orleans

flooded thousands of refugees flocked to

the superdome

where supplies and medical treatment and

evacuation were slow to come

americans and the world saw mostly poor

black americans abandoned

and katrina became a symbol of a broken

administrative system

and social structures that allowed

escape and recovery for some

but not others critics charged that bush

had staffed his administration with

incompetent supporters

and had further ignored the displaced

poor and black residents

of new orleans afghanistan and iraq

meanwhile continued to deteriorate in

2006 the taliban re-emerged as the new

afghan government proved both highly corrupt

corrupt

and incapable of providing social

services or security for its citizens

iraq only descended further into chaos

too insurgents battled against u.s troops

troops

groups formed like the islamic state and

al-zarqawi's al-qaeda in iraq a group

that had not existed before the american invasion

invasion

and they bombed civilians and released

recordings of beheadings

in 2007 27 000 additional united states

forces deployed to iraq under the

command of general david petraeus

this surge employed more sophisticated

anti-insurgency strategies

and combined with sunni moves against

the disorder pacified many of iraq's cities

cities

so the surge puts a lot more troops in

iraq and it spreads them out to try to

provide more security for

the citizenry and it is safer for

citizens in the midst of an insurgency

to have these types of strategies

but it is much more dangerous for the

troops who are doing it

even so the surge provided cover for the

withdrawal of american forces on

december 4th

2008 the iraqi government approved the

u.s iraq status of forces agreement

u.s combat forces withdrew from iraqi

cities before june 30 2009

after spending 800 billion dollars in

losing nearly 4 500 american service men

and women in iraq the last u.s combat

forces left on december 18

2011. the cost of the war would grow to

six trillion dollars in the next four

decades counting interest as

all of it was paid for through deficit

spending only adding to the debt

the bush tax cuts added to the deficit

as well like the reagan tax cuts

and they primarily benefited the wealthy

and upper middle class

violence and instability continued

across iraq as it battled with the

islamic state and in iraq

and syria also known as isis

so the next clip was a news channel's

brief history of isis when they were

making headlines in the united states

treated as both an explanation of isis's

history and

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29 2 Bush's Wars