2008 Woodie Awards
Iraq war turns 4
What $411 billion can buy
Kevin Bryan
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: World
Over 3,230 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Over 23,000 soldiers have been wounded. Six hundred fifty-five thousand Iraqis have died. One out of every six Iraq veterans has developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
The United States has spent over $411 billion on the Iraq war. Almost $9 billion of that has gone missing, either paid to employees that don't exist, or part of the 363 tons of cash that disappeared.
The Iraq war has recently entered its fourth year. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. The Iraq Study Group announced after the invasion that they could not find any stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The CIA announced in 2004 that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction and did not have them since 2001. Attempts to develop nuclear weapons were stopped in 1995.
Evidence of nuclear programs was shown to be fraudulent or otherwise problematic, before it was used to argue the case for war. The yellowcake Uranium that was said to be purchased from Niger would have had to be bought from two foreign-owned, internationally monitored and regulated mines. Documents detailing the sale of Uranium to Niger were forgeries.
"The Bush Administration deviated from the professional standard not only in using policy to drive intelligence, but also in aggressively using intelligence to win public support for its decision to go to war. This meant selectively adducing data, cherry-picking, rather than using the intelligence community's own analytic judgments," said Paul R. Pillar, former national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, to ForeignAffairs.org.
Instead of listening to intelligence reports, politicians used raw data to make their own conclusions. According to Pillar, the Bush administration was told that Niger uranium-sale evidence was suspect prior to its use in Bush's State of the Union address.
The war in Iraq has not helped reduce the levels of international terrorism. International terrorism was on the rise after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. After the Iraq War, the number of terrorist attacks per year rose even more.
The United States has spent over $411 billion on the Iraq war. Almost $9 billion of that has gone missing, either paid to employees that don't exist, or part of the 363 tons of cash that disappeared.
The Iraq war has recently entered its fourth year. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. The Iraq Study Group announced after the invasion that they could not find any stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The CIA announced in 2004 that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction and did not have them since 2001. Attempts to develop nuclear weapons were stopped in 1995.
Evidence of nuclear programs was shown to be fraudulent or otherwise problematic, before it was used to argue the case for war. The yellowcake Uranium that was said to be purchased from Niger would have had to be bought from two foreign-owned, internationally monitored and regulated mines. Documents detailing the sale of Uranium to Niger were forgeries.
"The Bush Administration deviated from the professional standard not only in using policy to drive intelligence, but also in aggressively using intelligence to win public support for its decision to go to war. This meant selectively adducing data, cherry-picking, rather than using the intelligence community's own analytic judgments," said Paul R. Pillar, former national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, to ForeignAffairs.org.
Instead of listening to intelligence reports, politicians used raw data to make their own conclusions. According to Pillar, the Bush administration was told that Niger uranium-sale evidence was suspect prior to its use in Bush's State of the Union address.
The war in Iraq has not helped reduce the levels of international terrorism. International terrorism was on the rise after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. After the Iraq War, the number of terrorist attacks per year rose even more.
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