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The madness of king george


ninjadude

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The Madness of King George

It’s easy to forget just how normal the madness looked back then. By 2009, when I arrived in Iraq, we were already at the last-gasp moment when it came to salvaging something from what may yet be seen as the single worst foreign policy decision in American history. It was then that, as a State Department officer assigned to lead two provincial reconstruction teams in eastern Iraq, I first walked into the chicken processing plant in the middle of nowhere.

By then, the U.S. “reconstruction” plan for that country was drowning in rivers of money foolishly spent. As the centerpiece for those American efforts -- at least after Plan A, that our invading troops would be greeted with flowers and sweets as liberators, crashed and burned -- we had managed to reconstruct nothing of significance. First conceived as a Marshall Plan for the New American Century, six long years later it had devolved into farce.

In my act of the play, the U.S. spent some $2.2 million dollars to build a huge facility in the boondocks. Ignoring the stark reality that Iraqis had raised and sold chickens locally for some 2,000 years, the U.S. decided to finance the construction of a central processing facility, have the Iraqis running the plant purchase local chickens, pluck them and slice them up with complex machinery brought in from Chicago, package the breasts and wings in plastic wrap, and then truck it all to local grocery stores. Perhaps it was the desert heat, but this made sense at the time, and the plan was supported by the Army, the State Department, and the White House.

Elegant in conception, at least to us, it failed to account for a few simple things, like a lack of regular electricity, or logistics systems to bring the chickens to and from the plant, or working capital, or... um... grocery stores. As a result, the gleaming $2.2 million plant processed no chickens. To use a few of the catchwords of that moment, it transformed nothing, empowered no one, stabilized and economically uplifted not a single Iraqi. It just sat there empty, dark, and unused in the middle of the desert. Like the chickens, we were plucked.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/worst-mistake-us-history-america-will-never-recover-bushs-great-foreign-policy

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George will be a scapegoat for the left for all eternity.... what a waste of time and effort... :w00t:

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He was a ****wit fall guy so he deserves everything he gets.

In fact he deserves hanging for the murders he perpetrated so I am still waiting for the final act :D

Br Cornelius

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I'm not really wanting a bash bush thread. We've had fun with that for years and will continue. It's the article that boils my blood. Why are not people held accountable. Whoever dreamed up this "madness" should be on the hook/JAIL for millions of a really stupid plan. It says the Army, State Dept and White House (not directly at Bush but others surely). And sure as a result of an election a bunch of those folks are no longer employed. But I'd be willing to bet there are some still around. Why can't we have the media give an accounting of whose dumb idea this was so that can be publicly pilloried.

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I'm not really wanting a bash bush thread. We've had fun with that for years and will continue. It's the article that boils my blood. Why are not people held accountable. Whoever dreamed up this "madness" should be on the hook/JAIL for millions of a really stupid plan. It says the Army, State Dept and White House (not directly at Bush but others surely). And sure as a result of an election a bunch of those folks are no longer employed. But I'd be willing to bet there are some still around. Why can't we have the media give an accounting of whose dumb idea this was so that can be publicly pilloried.

In a way i think we can finally agree on something ninja.How come these idiots from former and current administrations can get away with anything!They constantly break any and every law we have on the books in our country,yet being in public office somehow excludes them from ever being held responsible!We the people have sat back and let these people who are supposed to work for us become our rulers instead of our leaders.The media is backed by and owned by the very people who really have a say so in which candidates will run for office.They will never be allowed to turn in these former or current officials because it would cause to much of the public to scrutinize the type of people we keep putting in positions of power to run this country.PURE IDIOTS!!!

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George will be a scapegoat for the left for all eternity.... what a waste of time and effort... :w00t:

Nah, he'll just be the scapegoat until the next bloke from the Republicans gets the job.

Then it'll always be their fault.

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Saddam Hussein no longer terrorizes Iraq; the country has a chance at a normal history.

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All the billions and trillions of dollars wasted we are always crowing about and ninja tells us it's a pittance, pocket change, no sweat.

He discovers Bush may have had a hand in a two million dollar chicken plant and it's the madness of king George. What is going on?

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All the billions and trillions of dollars wasted we are always crowing about and ninja tells us it's a pittance, pocket change, no sweat.

He discovers Bush may have had a hand in a two million dollar chicken plant and it's the madness of king George. What is going on?

:lol:

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When did he refer himself as king? I would like to know.

and then: The left is always going to blame Bush for everything.

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Saddam Hussein no longer terrorizes Iraq; the country has a chance at a normal history.

and yet life there is a lot worst that it was during saddam, just ask those that live there now.

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All the billions and trillions of dollars wasted we are always crowing about and ninja tells us it's a pittance, pocket change, no sweat.

He discovers Bush may have had a hand in a two million dollar chicken plant and it's the madness of king George. What is going on?

yep something like 6 billion in Iraq went straight into graft. And that's not even part of what the article talks about. You guys whine about a few thousand in salaries and a few millions that go to real foreign aid.

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Hes upset because we refer to our new King Obama and we dont appropriately bow down in the Tiger Woods fashion.

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yep something like 6 billion in Iraq went straight into graft. And that's not even part of what the article talks about. You guys whine about a few thousand in salaries and a few millions that go to real foreign aid.

What's a graft? Who whines about salaries? Thought that was your ilk. And yes, most foreign aid is absurd. This chicken plant thing, I don't get it or what you're really talking about. Ok, the Iraq war and the madness of king George I might get. A two Illinois dollar chicken plant and the madness of king George, I don't. What the hell are you talking about? What's your point?

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Saddam Hussein no longer terrorizes Iraq; the country has a chance at a normal history.

Maybe we can have seance for the 0.5million dead and ask their opinion whether they thank the Americans for their "Liberation".

Maybe ask the children still dying from mutations induced by munitions fall out.

Br Cornelius

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What's a graft? Who whines about salaries? Thought that was your ilk. And yes, most foreign aid is absurd. This chicken plant thing, I don't get it or what you're really talking about. Ok, the Iraq war and the madness of king George I might get. A two Illinois dollar chicken plant and the madness of king George, I don't. What the hell are you talking about? What's your point?

Most of the post liberation "rebuilding" work was pork barral contracts to favoured defence contractors at grossly inflated prices to the American state and the Iraq state. No fair tendering processes were allowed and perfectly capable Iraq engineering companies who could have done the same work at a tiny fraction of the cost were specifically bared from tendering.

The coincidence is that most of those favoured contractors had board members who were tied directly to the Bush cabinet.

The War was extremely profitable for Bushes cronies - extremely destructive of Iraq industry and expertise - and almost all of the rebuilding work was half finished or substandard.

The whole war smacks of corruption from start to finish. Let us not forget for a minuet the people who died to enrich Bushes inner circle of corporate contacts.

Sickening to the core.

Br Cornelius

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Hey I'm all about condemning wasteful spending. It's just astonishing that some people will justify spending on so many things on such a higher scale than $2M yet years and years old news about an unnecessary chicken plant is all of the sudden shocking. I'm sure there are bigger and worse things to justify the legend of the Madness of King George. The title is very dramatic.

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When did he refer himself as king? I would like to know.

and then: The left is always going to blame Bush for everything.

I don't blame Bush.. Bush never had an idea in his life. I blame Cheney, Rumsfeld, and many others , but not King George. If the purpose was to remove Saddam and install a new government.. that could have been done without destroying the infrastructure , including water supplies, and fomenting a civil war on purpose to make the "war" look legit. Everything possible was done to make people RETURN fire! Remember the green glowing images of US bombing the dog snot out of Baghdad??? WHY??? to " get " Saddam?? NO.

"they" didn't even know where he was for sure! I doubt he was hiding in the water treatment plant .. or the electrical plant,, or under a bridge? WHY was so much destruction caused? I know why... to create an air of legitimacy. "they needed to have an "enemy" fight back. Destroying one's neighborhood , and killing one's relatives and extended 'family' usually accomplishes that!. Both Afghanistan and Iraq "wars" were about changing the governments there.. to ones more amenable to some people's INTEREST$.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED•

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It's utter nonsense what I am reading above about Iraq. The society will never be up to modern standards -- after all, it is Arab -- but the people, especially the religious majority in the South and the Kurds, are much better off. Further, the world is safer with one fewer maniac running a country.

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It's utter nonsense what I am reading above about Iraq. The society will never be up to modern standards -- after all, it is Arab -- but the people, especially the religious majority in the South and the Kurds, are much better off. Further, the world is safer with one fewer maniac running a country.

I suppose you also thank America for bombing the **** out of Vietnam and Cambodia and leaving Agent Orange to kill the children for generations after. All so they could end up in almost the same political trajectory they were on before they were invaded.

Br Cornelius

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I don't thank the States for anything; I just am being a realist about Iraq and avoiding ideology.

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I don't thank the States for anything; I just am being a realist about Iraq and avoiding ideology.

I think you are wrong on Iraq.

Br Cornelius

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I think you are wrong on Iraq.

Br Cornelius

He may be right about the specifics that he mentions, but that doesn't negate what you say.
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