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Comparing the invasion of Iraq with the current situation in Ukraine is like comparing apples with hand grenades.
In the years since, lots of people came out and said "they were always against the war" likely creating false memories. Here is one example, it's very common: https://www.factcheck.org/2019/09/bidens-record-on-iraq-war/
The war went on for decades, during that time both Democrats and Republicans had control of the presidency and congress at various points, nobody saw fit to even bring a vote to end the war. They would go years without mentioning it, and now that they want to start another they "were always against it" all of the sudden.
Of course, it went from a high of 2/3 for to now 2/3 against so the 1/3 flip-flopers will also be a lot of people.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_in_the_United_S...
That administration increased expenses by trillions and then cut tax revenue by trillions ( "starve the beast", "scorched earth") and now we're at shutdown showdown again without money for healthcare, infrastructure, or education.
We need to fund Q12 and K12CS education and update curricula to win the actual competition. Without funding due to defense offense spending without ROI, we cannot fund education and will thus also lose the real war: the War on Healthcare.
Repeal of the 2002 AUMF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeal_of_the_2002_AUMF
Senate Report on Iraqi WMD Intelligence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Report_on_Iraqi_WMD_Int...
Had they floated "we're going to start multi-trillion-dollar war and cut then cut taxes" in the election, I doubt they would've won Florida by a hanging chad in 1999. .
(The full cost of war calculations should include lifetime medical for now-disabled veterans, whose families also need healthcare.)
I think you should pay the bills for your war now.
Real costs of war included fuel surcharges on groceries, which increased CPI (Consumer Price Inflation) and stressed families' budgets leading into to The Great Recession; then the worst recession since the great depression (1929-1939) prior to WWII (1939-1945).
The actual impact on the (OPEC-specified) production rate (not price) of oil due to tbh relatively minimal Iraqi production capabilities having been offline due to US invasion in order to world police save the day does not at all explain the action in the oil commodity market through those years; costs of war calculations - after deaths and orphans and missed school person/years - do not include what we paid for gas at the pump.
The Great Recession: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recession
World oil market chronology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_oil_market_chronology_fr... ; from $30/barrel in 2000 to $140/barrel in 2008 (and DoD is the largest institutional consumer of oil in the world, especially when at war)
How do you think Ukraine is a scam?, I can show you hundred of videos of Ukrainians using western weapons to kill the imperialistic invaders that are trying to end their existence.
For one thing, I question the europeans and their lackluster response to what is occurring on their continent. Why is the US taxpayer so much more invested in this contrasted to a French or German taxpayer?
Personally looking at things at home we have higher priorities than this. Other nations seem to be making a similar choice given their lack of financial commitment.
You need to look at Eastern Europe to see the opposite of a lacklustre response. Poland especially has been donating a lot of gear by themselves they are one of Ukraines biggest supplies of MTB's and aircraft.
Western Europes lacklustre response can be seen as a combination of thinking that Ukraine would fall quickly and not wanting to 'escalate' the conflict, likely borne at least partially from Russian intelligence efforts to stop western flows to Ukraine.
> Personally looking at things at home we have higher priorities than this. Other nations seem to be making a similar choice given their lack of financial commitment.
Tonnes of nations are contributing aide to Ukraine in differing amounts, a lot of other countries has militaries and supplies that are a lot smaller then American and cannot give as much.
I mean the US has made a choice in that rather then doing healthcare for all and other social programs to run a jobs program through the military industrial complex. Investing into Ukraine is investing into the US as expensive missiles and etc mean that American companies (and their workers) receive a lot of tax money which goes to benefit their local (American) communities.
Now you could argue that we should invest backwards into the US by building bridges to nowhere and other types of projects but my point is not that military investment is the best use way to support the economy just that is does support the economy.
It's not about the taxpayer, but about what the powerful elites feel and want. France and Germany are closer to Russia, benefited from trade with Russia, and are strongly influenced by decades of Russian influence (Schroeder on the take, anti-war, anti-nuclear groups etc.) So they have to be brow-beaten and dragged into doing the right thing and help Ukraine. US benefits from Ukraine weakening Russia, it's a no-brainer.
https://www.statista.com/chart/27278/military-aid-to-ukraine...
Germany has also been able to benefit from the overall NATO and European security umbrella and, unlike the US, UK, or France, has no alliances or foreign territories that require it to provide security or uphold security guarantees far from home. That meant a different force design and spending profile. For instance, Germany has no strategic need for carriers, which France, the UK, and US have, purely because it doesn’t need that level of global force projection.
So you're saying that you based your stance on the Iraq War from what the mainstream media told you? That's the problem right there!
I was against the Iraq War from the start. Concretely, I was at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_February_2003_anti-war_prot... , so my recollection isn't just post-rationalization. It was an uphill battle against the US mainstream media for sure. The anti-war stance only turned out to be more and more vindicated as time went on.
Meanwhile when I saw what happened to Ukraine in 2022, I couldn't see anything besides a justified war of self defense and self determination. I had been relativizing what had been happening in Ukraine previously, along with other global US involvements, as the US military industrial complex doing its thing. But the 2022 invasion was a clear cut attempt to conquer and subjugate the country - with Russia as the aggressor just as the US had been in Iraq.
I've always been abstractly pro-self-defense, but it's been a weird feeling supporting a specific war, especially in agreement with the mainstream. I reflect on it often, but my conclusions are stable.
I also lament the US political capital that was wasted on Iraq, that allows Russia to successfully propagandize western support for Ukraine as being from the same vein, despite Russia being the clear aggressor.
If funds were unlimited, sure but right now we have other problems and can't afford it.
I would say the answer to that is also yes. The US is essentially the leader of a nominally consentual economic federation [0], which is what allows USD to remain the world reserve currency while creating more of it. If the US does not support a country that is trying to economically integrate with us, it's a strong data point that perhaps developing a relationship with the US isn't so valuable. This would facilitate the diminishing of US dominance that China is salivating over.
Furthermore, it's not like the big dollar amounts for Ukraine are being sent over there, or even being spent today. Rather it is the value of supplies that have already been manufactured and were sitting around. But rather than sitting on a huge military stockpile and considering the problem solved, we're better off rotating through stock and making sure that manufacturing supply chains still work. (I hate this reason because it was also a justification for Iraq, Afghanistan, and other assorted military actions. But it's true)
And lastly, solving domestic problems at home is not due to a lack of funds/resources, but rather a lack of political will because entrenched interests benefit from the status quo, and shamelessly buy politicians to maintain it.
[0] of course many times those giving consent are elites of a society, at the expense of the rest of the citizens. But that is still progress from "surprise, there's a foreign army marching through your streets!"