America Set the Stage for Russian Dismemberment of Ukraine

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In 2003, the United States decided to dismember Iraq.  Why?  Our former ally, Saddam Hussein, had gone rogue and now posed an existential threat to our friend, Israel.  President George W. Bush issued what came to be known as the Bush Doctrine.

Ukraine Fearful of Russian Invasion

 It held that the United States could depose foreign regimes perceived as potential threats to American security, even if those threats were not immediate.  We ignored international law, United Nations resolutions as well as global protestations and invaded Iraq.  Sadly, Congress went along with this shameful abuse of power.  Congressional leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, with only a handful of exceptions (like U.S. Representatives Dennis Kuchinich and Barack Obama)  assisted the White House in manipulating public opinion.  Saddam Hussein was presented as Osama bin Laden's co-conspirator and the Iraqi leader was said to be hiding Weapons of Mass Destruction, based on a poorly forged letter from Niger. 

America may not have done too well in Vietnam and Afghanistan, but it achieved its goal in Iraq.  This oil-rich country is now a basket case of competing horrors, from daily car bombings, 100,000 dead civilians and 4 million permanently displaced people. However, we are now beginning to see  two unintended consequences of this folly.

The dismemberment of Iraq has allowed Iran to become the regional power it has long hankered to be. With a growing nuclear capability, it is a far greater threat to Israel than Iraq could ever have been. And the U.S. invasion of Iraq has given Russian President Vladimir Putin the internationally recognized (albeit despised) "Bush Doctrine."  In short,  Russia has as much right to rip Ukraine to pieces as America had to do the same with Iraq.

Now where does that leave us?   The U.S. remains a superpower, with superior military capability to wage a conventional war.  But it is no longer what it once prided itself in being, "the moral leader of the free world."    President Obama is a skillful diplomat.  But not even he can undo history.