Ex Head of US Special Forces: Iraq Invasion Created ISIS

Having read the whole thing, pretty much the only thing I disagree with is that I don't think the decision to invade Iraq was a mistake by itself, it was made to be a mistake by how things ended. Now, if we knew going in that we were going to abandon Iraq too soon and create a power vacuum that lead to the expansion of ISIS, then I would agree that going was a mistake.

I think it could have been handled properly, but Bush and Obama completely screwed it up due to political pressures.

 

And you are still thinking wrong with a prior bias against Mr. Obama.

The disbanding of the Army was the avoidable blunder. After that the cause, if ever really viable, was lost. Mr. Obama followed the agreements and disengaged the combat troops after that. It was the reasonable decision after the blood and treasure lost and with political climate here and in Iraq.

 

What was the motivation for invading?
That was the mistake.
They had nothing to do with 9/11
They had no Weapons of Mass Destruction

so . . .why did we invade this country?

Rocket River

 

The 'goal' was to take back (an oil producing) nation from a despot and give democracy to it's people and, to extend security from his armies to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia when the world absolutely had to have their oil resources.

It was a grand experiment in spreading the American ethic to the Islamic World as a change from the tradition of despotism. If it had worked, it would have been a game changer for world politics. It was as naive as it was beautiful.

 

Does anyone else notice the irony of taking a quote from an interview in which the subject is calling for ground troops in Syria to support the position that sending ground troops into Syria is a mistake?

 

They did have chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, many have been found. The Saddam regime was one that needed to be removed, unfortunately they didn't follow up properly and they chose to abandon the country prematurely and now, just as I predicted, we're going back.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: Defense Secretary Ash Carter says US sending troops to Iraq to fight ISIS.</p>&mdash; MSNBC (@MSNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/671774773270200320">December 1, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

I agree 100%. If we were realistically going in there then we were going to have to break apart the country into Sunni, Shia, and Kurd. In my opinion too many problems were created by the boundaries made up after WWI. That is actually one of ISIS' main points of contention is as well.

 

Weird. Of course we gather intel. Have you not followed the intel that has prevented many attacks, and recently post-Paris?

Plus, the General mentioned in the OP Title explains this, and I posted the interview. His last job was Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Your question is largely answered in like the 4th post of this thread...although he can't give specifics, obviously.

It's a combination of infiltration, turning insiders and technology innovations.

 

Yep, it's sad that glynch got a hold of the rather informative and interesting interview of a retired Director of DIA first and completely misused it, and subsequently has ruined any opportunity to discuss it without bias.

Then again, it wasn't really glynch's fault. There are several media outlets who were first to misuse this interview. Search for Michael Flynn and see all the sound-bite headlines about this. I hate the media for stuff like this.

 

In the context of his other answers in the interview, I read that final paragraph as actually agreeing with your take. "As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him. " He means we learned that you can't "just eliminate him" and leave.

Unfortunately, that paragraph has become a sound bite to misuse for other purposes, without couching it in the context of his entire interview, which the media, politicians and political pundits so often do.... and glynch

 

Yeah I think that's accurate.

 

Thank the gods we got our invasion force out of that region. Our forces still being there would have meant one thing and one thing only: more American casualties.

I am in support of sending troops back over there (I was vehemently against the first round of troops in Iraq), only this time we can actually have a coalition and send the correct forces (in other words, not an full-scale invasion force as that wouldn't/didn't help anything).

 

They didn't just eliminate him. They eliminated him and tried to prop up a new government. It didn't work.

Why is it that everything the US has done over there are a series of mistakes?

Why should the American public ever trust the US government and military to succeed over there?

 

Answer: it's not a series of mistakes.

This is how it's supposed to be.
Repeat after me:

$1,000,000,000,000
$2,000,000,000,000
$3,000,000,000,000
$4,000,000,000,000
$5,000,000,000,000
$6,000,000,000,000
[continue by adding one trillion dollars each time]

 

[rQUOTEr]Iraqi Shi'ite militias pledge to fight U.S. forces if deployed[/rQUOTEr]

 

1. Yes! Three is my lucky number, and I've been rooting for three wars in Iraq for SO long!

2. One time I had a gf and I dumped her. Then I booty called her and we kinda got back together. Then I dumped her again. Then cha-ching! I tag-a-lagged her bingy-bong. Threefer!

3. One time my dog Willie threw up and then he went back and ate it. Then he threw up again. Then he ate it again. That's kinda how I feel.

 

Yes, and that is exactly was Brig Gen Michael Flynn said in the interview.

 

So, are you in favor of all dictators, or just some dictators?

 

If our forces stayed there then there wouldn't be the problem of ISIS spreading into Iraq. We created that problem by abandoning the country prematurely.

As to casualties, the Iraq casualties were incredibly low, there are years of "peace time" with more US casualties than some years in the Iraq war. We didn't "save" anyone by abandoning Iraq leading to the rise of ISIS in Iraq.