JD Vance Blames Europeans for Not Stopping U.S. Invasion of Iraq
When he's not dropping trophies, J.D. Vance can be found blaming other countries for very bad decisions made by the U.S. - and he, like his Boss, really seems to hate our European allies.
The Daily is journalism for the people that you can rely on. Please support our work by becoming a subscriber.
V.P. JD Vance, he of the not-so-Appalachian-upbringing and strong guy-liner game, has decided Bush was wrong to invade Iraq, but it’s not George W. Bush’s fault, because after all, nobody told him (except for everyone). It’s Europe’s fault.
“JD Vance sides with France over Bush on the Iraq War: ‘If the Europeans had been a little more independent, and a little more willing to stand up, then maybe we could have saved the entire world from the strategic disaster that was the American-led invasion of Iraq,’” Charlie Spiering reported.
It’s true that electorates of France and Germany opposed to the invasion of Iraq — in fact, there were global widespread protests — but so too did many Americans. But Vance seems to have slept on the part where these critics did speak up. There were global protests. Wikipedia summarized an article no longer available but published in Socialist Worker citing French academic Dominique Reynié saying that “between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.”
This brings us to the most hypocritical part of Vance’s attempt at reimagining of history, which is that people who were critical of Bush’s invasion back then got canceled by the Right for allegations amounting to some variation of ‘failing to support America’.
That is why support for the invasion was low before it happened, but eventually polls showed Americans did support it after it happened — albeit only for a short time.
“Since the summer of 2005, opponents of the war have tended to outnumber supporters. A majority of Americans believe the war was a mistake,” Gallup reported in 2007.
Silencing Critics
The W Bush years were a prelude to the Trump years, an era of silencing critics including singers like the Dixie Chicks; an era of branding anyone who disagreed with a policy decision as being un-American.
Ironically, the party that labeled anyone who was right about the Iraq war at the time as un-American is now pushing the most decidedly un-American policies, including doing away with the most basic foundation of freedom also known as due process, as well as working diligently to take actions that clearly undermine the United States and will possibly even eventually destroy it as a global superpower.
Bush had labeled his invasion part of America’s “War on Terrorism” and cited Iraq’s alleged development of “weapons of mass destruction” — and so, much like labeling someone a gang member and grabbing them off the streets to disappear them to an El Salvadorean prison with no due process — into war we went.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Daily to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.