At the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in 2013, a very rational-sounding Bobby Jindal scolded his Party’s faithful by stating they needed to stop being the party of “stupid.” He went on to demand that the GOP “stop insulting the intelligence of voters” — and display more intelligence itself. Unfortunately, that was said over one and one half years ago. Republicans have been known to have short memories.
In an ABC News interview last week in Des Moines, Iowa, the potential 2016 presidential candidate was asked whether the United States should have invaded Iraq, knowing now that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. “President Bush made absolutely the right decision. Let’s remember, the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein,” stated a confident Jindal.
I doubt anyone would disagree that Saddam Hussein was a murderous dictator who brutalized his own people and was guilty of war crimes. But is the world really a better place with what the overthrow of Saddam Hussein has brought us … an unstable Middle East; the Sunni-Shiite bloodletting that followed the invasion; the divisive politics of the Maliki government; the attacks on a Christian population that had once been a protected minority; the emergence of ISIS?
Many of the factions that are now fighting in the Middle East didn’t exist before the overthrow of Hussein. This is not to say the Saddam Hussein should have remained in power. But the security vacuum created by his removal lead to the presence of foreign fighters that led to Iraq becoming a breeding ground for jihadists and religious extremists.
Only someone stupid would say that the invasion of Iraq, with the benefit of hindsight, was a smart idea. The man is either pandering to the ignorant base of the GOP or he is not much of a brainiac Rhodes Scholar! I tend to go with the later.
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