{"id":27145,"date":"2016-06-01T05:41:18","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T13:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=27145"},"modified":"2016-06-01T05:41:18","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T13:41:18","slug":"dont-trip-on-those-milestones-strewn-across-americas-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/01\/dont-trip-on-those-milestones-strewn-across-americas-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Trip on Those Milestones Strewn Across America\u2019s Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama called the drone assassination on May 21 of Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, \u201can important milestone<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might turn out to be. But I doubt it. My advice is every time you hear an American official use the term \u201cmilestone,\u201d run the other way.<\/p>\n

For example, back in September 2014 Secretary of State John Kerry claimed the formation of a new Iraqi government then was \u201ca major milestone<\/a>\u201d for the country. But on the same day that Obama was proclaiming his own milestone, protesters stormed the Green Zone in Baghdad seeking the end of that previous milestone government.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But in case you\u2019re not convinced, let\u2019s take a look back at milestones and their companion, turning points, from the last Iraq War.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis month will be a political turning point for Iraq,\u201d Douglas Feith, July 2003<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve reached another great turning point,\u201d Bush, November 2003<\/p>\n

\u201cThat toppling of Saddam Hussein\u2026 was a turning point for the Middle East,\u201d Bush, March 2004<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning Point in Iraq,\u201d The Nation, April 2004<\/p>\n

\u201cA turning point will come two weeks from today,\u201d Bush, June 2004<\/p>\n

\u201cMarines Did a Good Job in Fallujah, a Battle That Might Prove a Turning Point,\u201d Columnist Max Boot, July 2004<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow the world will witness a turning point in the history of Iraq,\u201d Bush, January 2005<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iraqi election of January 30, 2005\u2026 will turn out to have been a genuine turning point,\u201d William Kristol, February 2005<\/p>\n

\u201cOn January 30th in Iraq, the world witnessed \u2026 a major turning point,\u201d Rumsfeld, February 2005<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe may be seen as a turning point in the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism.\u201d Senator Joe Lieberman, December 2005<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elections were the turning point. \u2026 2005 was the turning point,\u201d Cheney, December 2005<\/p>\n

\u201c2005 will be recorded as a turning point in the history of Iraq\u2026 and the history of freedom,\u201d Bush, December 2005<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe this is a turning point for the Iraqi citizens, and it\u2019s a new chapter in our partnership,\u201d Bush, May 2006<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have now reached a turning point in the struggle between freedom and terror,\u201d Bush, May 2006<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a turning point for the Iraqi citizens.\u201d Bush, August 2006<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a key Republican senator comes home from Iraq and says the US has to re-think its strategy, is this a new turning point?\u201d NBC Nightly News, October 2006<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq: A Turning Point: Panel II: Reports from Iraq.\u201d American Enterprise Institute, January 2007<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Bush visit could well mark a key turning point in the war in Iraq and the war on terror,\u201d Frederick W. Kagan, September 2007<\/p>\n

\u201cBush Defends Iraq War in Speech\u2026 he touted the surge as a turning point in a war he acknowledged was faltering a year ago,\u201d New York Times, March 2008<\/p>\n

\u201cThe success of the surge in Iraq will go down in history as a turning point in the war against al-Qaeda,\u201d The Telegraph, December 2008<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq\u2019s \u2018Milestone\u2019 Day Marred by Fatal Blast,\u201d Washington Post, July 2009<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq vote \u201can important milestone,\u201d Obama, March 2010<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq Withdrawal Signals New Phase, But War is Not Over,\u201d ABC News, August 2010<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy the Iraq milestone matters,\u201d Foreign Policy, August 2010<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq Milestone No Thanks to Obama,\u201d McCain, September 2010<\/p>\n

\u201cHails Iraq \u2018milestone\u2019 after power-sharing deal, \u201d Obama, November 2010<\/p>\n

\u201cWeek\u2019s event marks a major milestone for Iraq,\u201d Council on Foreign Relations, March 2012<\/p>\n

\u201cNational elections \u2018important milestone\u2019 for Iraq,\u201d Ban Ki Moon, April 2014<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq PM nomination \u2018key milestone,’\u201d Joe Biden, August 2014<\/p>\n

Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during Iraqi reconstruction in his first book, <\/i>We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People<\/a>. His latest book is <\/i>Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent<\/a>. Reprinted from the his blog<\/a> with permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama called the drone assassination on May 21 of Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, \u201can important milestone.\u201d It might turn out to be. But I doubt it. My advice is every time you hear an American official use the term \u201cmilestone,\u201d run the other way. For example, back in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-27145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27147,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27145\/revisions\/27147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27145"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=27145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}