Do you care about our military and national security?

[Dill]

(06-13-2020, 04:06 PM)hollodero Wrote: Trump of course can not be trusted on anything he says. I know that. I know it is a tough sell to say I trust anyone less than him on anything. But when it comes to the Dabblejuh admin, I really have a tough time. This lie about Iraq was the big one, bigger than even the many big Trump ones and the many small ones, or keep your doctor or not having sexual relations or whatever lies there were. None of these folks that were around when this monstrous lie and the following war happened have my trust. I admit Powell isn't Wolfowitz or Rumsfeld, but still, no forgetting on my part here, Dabblejuh and anyone. Doesn't matter how many innocent pictures Bush paints or how sweet he's cuddling with Michelle.
Compared to Trump, they might have my bigger trust on national security in general, Trump lies constantly and lied about Russian interference after all, which is imho borderline treasonous and no general would stand for that probably. It's just when it comes to war, I kinda Trust Trump's impulses not to start one, not to become another Dabblejuh. That's all there is to it.

And sure it's stupid to let fighters start and then call them back last minute, or it was a deliberate threat and Trump lied about that too, but I would not guarantee that every one of these Bush people would have done the same. Calling them back, i mean.

The consequences of the Iraq war lie are certainly far greater than any of Trump's so far. Both sides had to treat that as an "understandable mistake" or admit the US was guilty of Bosnia-level war crime.  That said, I still don't see anything in Powell which suggests he would pursue and unnecessary war--less so now, after he has participated in two of them. 

There is one thing you remembered in an earlier post which I will remind you of here--9/11.  Bush would never and could never have invaded Iraq except on condition of that devastating attack on civilians, to which he and our NATO partners had to respond. What steered the US away from Afghanistan was, as you know, the PNAC folks, whom Bush collected and appointed within his administration, and who eventually constituted an "extra" intel service, a stovepipe mixing unvetted with vetted intel for Congress. 

So you are comparing W's actions in the context of a necessary war with the erratic Trump, who undid a treaty creating stability and brought us to the brink of unnecessary war twice.  Is there any reason to suppose Bush would have gotten us into ANY war had not Al Qaeda attacked the US? I don't think there is.