I have always promised to tell the truth. What I have to say is often debunked initially, and days, weeks, or months later someone with direct and personal knowledge will tell the same tale. I still believe that reading and researching is the best way to write articles which actually inform the American people.

For years I have been making the claim that our nation began a road to destruction immediately after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The demise of a once great nation was intentional; it was not a byproduct of history. If the Supreme Court had not handed George W. Bush the White House in 2000, our nation would be entirely different today. The world would be a safer place. The Middle East would be in a stable condition, and ISIS would not exist.

Cause and effect is the reality of rash decision. The invasion of Iraq was the biggest mistake a United States president has ever made. The chain of events post ‘Shock and Awe’ have positioned the world and our nation on a downward spiral. Now that we know both 9/11 and the war in Iraq could have been prevented if integrity, good judgement, and the truth had been given to Congress and the American people, the Bush Administration must be tried for ‘crimes against humanity.’

Just this month, retired Defense Intelligence Agency director Lt. General Michael Flynn spoke to German magazine Der Spiegel and told his truth about the situation in the Middle East today. He spoke candidly as he blamed the rash decision to invade Iraq in 2003 for the creation of ISIS.

In 2004, the Bush Administration released Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS today. General Flynn admitted the mistake.

“We were too dumb. We didn’t understand who we had there at that moment. When 9/11 occurred, all the emotions took over, and our response was, ‘Where did those bastards come from? Let’s go kill them. Let’s go get them.’ Instead of asking why they attacked us, we asked where they came from. Then we strategically marched in the wrong direction.”

This all happened in spite of the fact that the CIA had informed Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice that an attack was imminent, and it would be orchestrated by Osama bin Laden.

General Flynn blamed the destabilization of the Middle East directly upon the decision to invade Iraq.

“As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him,” he told the magazine. ” … The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq. History will not be and should not be kind with that decision.”

Have I been unfair to label George W. Bush as the worst president in our nation’s history; I don’t believe so. And if Bush was the worst president, Dick Cheney was the architect of the demise of our nation.

Take a look at what has happened post 9/11. In the Middle East, Iraq is engaged in a civil war. Syria is too complicated for even the greatest strategists to understand. ISIS is in control of sections of Syria and Iraq.

At home our nation is divided in a manner unheard of since the Civil War. Hatred and distrust have replaced compassion and tolerance. Politicians continue to use fear tactics and offer no proposals which would solve our nation’s problems.

Politicians control our daily lives, and are the reason for our nation’s downward slide.

The Supreme Court was the final villain in our dismal situation today, but it was the result of uninformed voters who cast their ballots for a party instead of the best candidate. In the end it will be recorded that the American people destroyed their own nation. Freedom is only free if the electorate is informed.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo Courtesy of HBO

Author’s Page http://www.amazon.com/By-James-turnage/e/B00LOCJ2Z2