Donald Trump is wrong about so many things it’s impossible to list all of them. However, I claim to tell the truth, and reveal omissions and half-truths by the major media, so when he offers a statement which is true or mostly true, I must report it.

“If Middle East strongmen Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in this world, it would have been a better place, because what came instead is much worse,” US presidential candidate Donald Trump said.

There is never a perfect outcome to a war. In any discussion regarding the Iraqi invasion, the outcome was disastrous; to put it honestly and simply, America lost. We not only lost the battle, we lost thousands of good men and women, billions of dollars, and our nation’s respect in the world community.

Sadly our government is responsible for tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis losing their lives, and the destabilization of not only one nation but the entire region. The world is a more dangerous place thanks to an illegal and immoral invasion.

No one would argue that Gaddafi and Hussein were horrible despots, and the world does not miss them. But with them in power there was a balance in the Mideast. Without them a civil war exists in Iraq between Shiites and Sunnis. Libya is virtually without effective leadership and terrorists are in control.

ISIS is the direct result of the invasion of Iraq. A weak Shiite government, placed in power by the United States, presented an opportunity for the extremist Sunni terrorist group which named itself the ‘Islamic State.’

Syria has been moved from a nation experiencing civil war to a country inhabited by several warring factions, and none of them have the welfare of the people as a priority. Assad is equally to blame, bombing and gassing his own people to retain his position of power. The result is tens of thousands of refugees willing to risk their lives in an attempt to seek refuge in Europe.

Trump is the only politician who has been willing to speak the truth. I place little value in his rants, but every once in a while I must support him. The rest of the GOP is in complete denial, and fails to admit that the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq were huge mistakes. The Bush Administration made little effort to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. Iraq was invaded with the aid of lies and deception to Congress and the American people. Nothing good was accomplished unless you were heavily invested in the military industrial as were Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz.

The ‘Donald’ gets points for this one. I can’t wait to hear Jeb Bush attempt to defend his brother this time.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

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Photo Courtesy of Gage Skidmore