Ex-Bush Sr. Defense Official: Iraq Was a Mistake, GOP Must Take Blame

The bottom line on the United States invading Iraq 12 years ago is that it wasn't worth it, says Jed Babbin, former deputy undersecretary of defense for President George H.W. Bush.

"It really wasn't. It's harsh saying it because I was very vocal in supporting the war — [but] it clearly isn't and it wasn't," Babbin, a Washington Times columnist, said Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

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"We should have known at the very beginning and I will take some pride in the fact that even from 2003, I was saying nation building doesn't work, let's not do it.

"We went off on this neocon tirade and tried to nation build in Iraq. Right now, it was a foreseeable event that we'd have what we've got now."

Babbin, author of "The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement," written with Herbert London and published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform — said there was no way the United States could "meld Iraq together" as one nation.

"You've got three separate groups there, they're not really a nation, they're not going to be a nation," he told Steve Malzberg.

"And at this point I really regret shedding any American blood over this and we sure as hell shouldn't do anymore."

The 2003 invasion of Iraq known as Operation Iraqi Freedom and lasted 21 days, concluding with the capture of Baghdad by American troops. The initiative, according to Bush, was to find Iraq's alleged "weapons of mass destruction," end Saddam Hussein's terror drives and give freedom to the Iraqi people.

Babbin also said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who is running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has a point in blaming the right wing of the GOP for the growth of the Islamic State (ISIS).

"In a way he’s right. God knows I'm the last person to ever agree with Rand Paul and what he says because he's lost in space in terms of national security. The guy's, 'Danger, Will Robinson,'" he said.

But, he added, "We have some responsibility. George [W.] Bush became a neocon. He said that there was not going to be nation building when he was campaigning. He turned into a nation builder. That was wrong. The Republican Party has to take responsibility."