Below are excerpts from two opinion pieces by Paul Craig Roberts about the damage to America that flows from Bush’s ill-conceived and poorly executed Iraq War policy.

Who is Paul Craig Roberts? Here’s his short bio from Lewrockwell.com: “Dr. Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.”

Roberts is credible. Consider what he says.

Bush’s War Against Iraq Ruining America by Paul Craig Roberts

Gentle reader, are you proud that American troops are torturing Iraqis? Are you proud that tens of thousands of Iraqi women and children have been killed and maimed with their deaths and terrible wounds dismissed as “collateral damage”? Are you proud that you elected and reelected a president who lied you into an illegal war that has killed 1,755 American troops, maimed thousands more, and destroyed your country’s reputation?

If you are proud of this, what kind of person are you?

While Bush schmoozed trusting Americans over the air waves on June 25, Brian Brady of The Scotsman (June 26) reported that Bush warned UK PM Tony Blair earlier this month “that war-torn Iraq remains on the brink of disaster.”

Moreover, the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. The British, who are even shorter on troops than the US, cannot maintain their troop strength in Iraq and also contribute forces to stem the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The US and Britain, it seems, are trapped in two quagmires.

And also see more by Paul Craig Roberts

A Defeat Bred in Deceit
When Bush decided, prior to September 11, to attack Iraq, he committed himself to lies and deceit. As his British co-conspirators realized, only victory could save them from the consequences.

On June 27, General George Casey, US commander of the “multinational coalition” in Iraq, told morning TV audiences that the conflict in Iraq “will not be settled on the battlefield.” On June 26, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told TV audiences that “coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency.” The insurgency, Rumsfeld said, might “go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years.”

These admissions give the lie to Vice President Cheney’s claim that the insurgency is in “its last throes.”

Would Congress have let Bush invade Iraq if Congress had known that it would not be a 3-week war but a 12-year war?