When President Bush and his team began “marketing” (their word) the war in Iraq four years ago, former Sen. Gary Hart spoke out, predicting that Bush’s foolhardy enterrprise in Iraq would lead to a wider war. He was right:
Sometime in the fall of 2002, I likened a U.S. invasion of Iraq to “kicking open a hornets’ nest.” I predicted that, if the Iraqis decided to fight in the cities, our casualties would be between five and ten thousand U.S. troops at least. Now, U.S. casualties exceed 20,000.
But the “hornets’ nest” I predicted was not just an interminable and intractable U.S. occupation of Iraq. It was wider war in the Middle East. The larger hornets’ nest is now swarming.
By our justified overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, though unsuccessful decapitation of al Qaeda, we removed a thorn in Iran’s side. By removing Saddam Hussein, we removed a thorn in Iran’s other side.
But, inadvertantly and ignorantly, we empowered Iran to undertake a major intervention on behalf of the Shiite majority in Iraq. In response to our insistence that Iran not develop any nuclear capability, Iran and Syria have emboldened Hezbullah in Lebanon to energize Israel’s formidable military and Hamas to do the same.
While I’m in told-ya-so mode, I have to say that I predicted it back then too, although I used the “Pandora’s Box” analogy. My prediction that our invasion of Iraq would unleash a plague of nasties was not based on psychic powers or extreme brilliance (not hardly) but on a basic grasp of the history of confict in the region.
If this fool on a hill in West Hollywood could predict this outcome in 2002, it begs the question: Why couldn’t President Bush see where this perilous path would lead us?
