How the Iraq War changed American foreign policy

>>> welcome back. i'm joy reid in for melissa harris-perry. you may have seen the documentary "hubris" here on msnbc which rachel maddow hosted. it reairs this weekend and you will see matt lauer ask former president george w. bush this question.

>> was there any consideration of apologizing to the american people ?

>> i mean apologizing mean that the decision was a wrong decision. i don't believe it was a wrong decision.

>> there are no signs on the horizon that an apology from the iraq war from those who got us into this week. whether it would help our understanding abroad is the subject of our round table. with us at the table is rula rula jebreal and marc ginsberg and patrick murphy as well as david harris and andy shallal . i was asking you before we went to break, rula, how the iraq war and the bush administration going into it and the obvious lies that were exposed not long afterwards, how did that view the country?

>> it was considered an illegal war because suddenly they wanted to bypass the yunited nations.

>> punishing people.

>> even journalists around the world were criticizing. they say don't go into the world because you will break the equallibrum in that area. not only an apology, but hand over to the haig. today, the americans were invade invading iraq , another invasion was starting. iran . iranians were winning in that same moment. if you look at the region, who is controlling today? iraq . the iranians. they are bypassing the sanctions through iraq and they are helping the syrian regime slaughter their own people.

>> you had a majority shi'ite government in iran . in iraq , you had a sunni government controlling and containing them. by going in there, we broke the relationship between iraq and iran .

>> when you look at the perspective for the future, we installed a government and we said this is the democratic-elected government. the government that supports and gives weapons to abbas and hezbollah, we altered the whole equation. after abu ghraib , you could not travel. when that journalist took his shoe and threw it at george w. bush , it was the way the arab world saw america and its president.

>> as a soldier, patrick, did you feel at the time when you were in iraq , there was absolutely no greeting us? how quickly did you realize we are not here to liberate these people. we're occupying these people.

>> it was the first memorial service . we had the combat boots and rifle with the helmet on top. it happened too many times. what infuriates me, so much, joy, the same folks responsible for this are the same ones cheerleading for us to go into syria . for us to say let's bomb iran . it is many because the history of our country is we have a strong military, which we always should have. we are the reluctant warriors. we should think about this because the counterbalance to iran is iraq . now iraq is in bed with iran . iran is come policomplicit in that support with syria . we are not learning the lessons.

>> i think the iraqi people need more than an apology. they need a lot of reparations. the country has been devastated. there has been so much money poured into the country, you think the place should be flourishing.

>> we were told iraq should pay for its own liberation. it's own rebuilding.

>> there are tons of projects that are half finished. it is money that is being em embezzeled. unemployment is ridiculous. it is over 25% anecdotally speaking. the government doesn't want to talk about it. food is there, but no one can afford it. the middle class has been decimated. you mentioned at the top of the hour there were 2.8 million refugees. those are internally displaced. that doesn't consider outside country. a lot of the people in syria are having to move back and staying in refugee camps . they don't have shelter and security or food or homes over their heads.

>> one thing to understand in the context is what this has done for the foreign policy and american's people perception of our role abroad. the fact of the matter is the dangers the american people now face are more considerably harmful to american's attitudes toward military involvement because of iraq . what iraq did was it expended our treasury and put men and women in harm's way where they, themselves and parents and families and communities are reluctant to believe our government faces the types of threats we may face in the future. when i stop and think about when i went to visit twice and saw the young men and women who volunteered as patrick said after 9/11, thinking they were doing the right thing and now our standing in the middle east is far. it has enhanced iran 's statue. americans weren't respect in the region. both shi'ite and sunni in the middle east are not ruling as they were. israelis are concerned that because of what happened to us in iraq , we would not be prepared to get involved in a war of choice , but war of necessity.

>> and let's remember also the programs of torturing. the united states was stood out for the right values and whole world would fall in love with the values. suddenly the united states is torturing and taking pictures of dead bodies and urinating on them and taking pictures. they are saying this is who we are today.

>> the people that exposed that torture are the ones that are facing the consequences. private bradley is in jail today while dick cheney and george bush are outside.

>> i have to ask the former congress member, what is broken and wrong in congress given all we talked about and all of the bla blackening of the name in congress, you look at the hysteria over benghazi. you look at the zeal to do it again in iran . why no consequences?

>> most of americans , including congress, don't have skin in the game. it is less than 1% of our men and women serving over there. the ones serving over there and congress, you look at congress right now, it is 20% which military experience. 40 years ago, over 75% had military experience. it is usually the military. usually david petraeus was speaking out. if we're going to do this, we need several hundred thousand troops. the general is off the mark. that guy was the highest ranking army officer and the bush administration disregarded his professional opinion.

>> the person who was most zealous about going into iraq was dick cheney . i want to thank rula and marc ginsberg. a quick programming note. you must tune in to watch "hubris" hosted by rachel rachel maddow. coming up, we will switch and talk about other bad guys. the coke brothers. it's the billionaire takeover and the preview of the documentary "american winter." [ female