Dunkirk101
03-17-2005, 05:43 AM
Two years in, how do you score the war?
March 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The list of winners and losers in the Iraq war is long -- and far from certain -- two years after the U.S. invasion this week in 2003.
The final tally may not be clear for years, as democracy takes precarious hold and an insurgency shows little sign of disappearing. Here's a look at where we stand:
Winner: Bush, re-elected despite rising troop deaths, a mounting insurgency and no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Heavy doses of post-Sept. 11 fear overrode voter concerns about his administration's missteps in Iraq.
Loser: Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate whose stances on Iraq led Republicans to brand him a flip-flopper. He found it no easy task to oppose Bush's military campaign while supporting the troops.
Winner: Kurds and Shiites, two groups long oppressed under Saddam, will hold the strings in the new Iraqi government.
Loser: Sunni Arabs, the minority that was dominant under Saddam, will struggle to have a political voice.
Winner: Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the supply clerk-turned-hero whose dramatic capture and rescue made her the subject of a book and television movie.
Loser: Army Reserve Pfc. Lynndie England, whose poses in Abu Ghraib photographs made her the most recognizable face in the U.S. military's prisoner abuse scandal.
Winner: Satellite dishes, banned by Saddam, adorn rooftops and beam worldwide news into Iraqi homes.
Loser: Saddam statues, toppled across the country.
Winner: Kuwait, no longer threatened by its larger neighbor that invaded it in 1990.
Loser: Turkey, which faces a resurgent Iraqi Kurdish population that could ignite nationalism among its own Kurds.
Winner: Former chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix, whose insistence that Iraq lacked weapons of mass destruction turned out to be correct.
Loser: U.S. intelligence agencies, their credibility shattered by the failure to find those banned weapons. Former CIA Director George Tenet's ''slam dunk'' didn't even hit the rim.
Winner: ''We got him,'' U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer's triumphant remark after Saddam's capture.
Loser: ''Bring 'em on,'' Bush's much criticized taunt to those attacking U.S. troops.
Winner: Iraq's Olympic committee, dismantled after Saddam's fall but reinstated in time for the Athens games and the soccer team's surprising medal run.
Loser: Odai Hussein, who under his father ran the Olympic committee and tortured underperforming athletes. He was killed with his brother, Qusai.
Winner: Iraqi media, once an organ of Saddam's Baath party. A plethora of freewheeling newspapers, radio and television stations emerged in his absence.
Loser: U.S. media, for failing to fully investigate Bush administration claims about Iraqi WMD. <end>
How you YOU feel about this? Is there anything you'd like to add? :@@:
Heres the Link: http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-itwo17.html
March 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The list of winners and losers in the Iraq war is long -- and far from certain -- two years after the U.S. invasion this week in 2003.
The final tally may not be clear for years, as democracy takes precarious hold and an insurgency shows little sign of disappearing. Here's a look at where we stand:
Winner: Bush, re-elected despite rising troop deaths, a mounting insurgency and no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Heavy doses of post-Sept. 11 fear overrode voter concerns about his administration's missteps in Iraq.
Loser: Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate whose stances on Iraq led Republicans to brand him a flip-flopper. He found it no easy task to oppose Bush's military campaign while supporting the troops.
Winner: Kurds and Shiites, two groups long oppressed under Saddam, will hold the strings in the new Iraqi government.
Loser: Sunni Arabs, the minority that was dominant under Saddam, will struggle to have a political voice.
Winner: Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the supply clerk-turned-hero whose dramatic capture and rescue made her the subject of a book and television movie.
Loser: Army Reserve Pfc. Lynndie England, whose poses in Abu Ghraib photographs made her the most recognizable face in the U.S. military's prisoner abuse scandal.
Winner: Satellite dishes, banned by Saddam, adorn rooftops and beam worldwide news into Iraqi homes.
Loser: Saddam statues, toppled across the country.
Winner: Kuwait, no longer threatened by its larger neighbor that invaded it in 1990.
Loser: Turkey, which faces a resurgent Iraqi Kurdish population that could ignite nationalism among its own Kurds.
Winner: Former chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix, whose insistence that Iraq lacked weapons of mass destruction turned out to be correct.
Loser: U.S. intelligence agencies, their credibility shattered by the failure to find those banned weapons. Former CIA Director George Tenet's ''slam dunk'' didn't even hit the rim.
Winner: ''We got him,'' U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer's triumphant remark after Saddam's capture.
Loser: ''Bring 'em on,'' Bush's much criticized taunt to those attacking U.S. troops.
Winner: Iraq's Olympic committee, dismantled after Saddam's fall but reinstated in time for the Athens games and the soccer team's surprising medal run.
Loser: Odai Hussein, who under his father ran the Olympic committee and tortured underperforming athletes. He was killed with his brother, Qusai.
Winner: Iraqi media, once an organ of Saddam's Baath party. A plethora of freewheeling newspapers, radio and television stations emerged in his absence.
Loser: U.S. media, for failing to fully investigate Bush administration claims about Iraqi WMD. <end>
How you YOU feel about this? Is there anything you'd like to add? :@@:
Heres the Link: http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-itwo17.html