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So this is the Republican line now? The Democrats were wrong, too. Big surprise there.
President Bush is flatly lying on the video in saying that Congress has found no evidence of political pressure in the handling of information leading up to the Iraqi war. It's not true that Congress had the same information that the President had, and it's not true that Congress has exonerated the administration of charges that they hyped bad information to force us into war. Congress has specifically NOT addressed this issue. That's what that closed session of the Senate was about: trying to get that part of the investigation to move past the Republican stonewalling.
Republicans and Democrats: Two cheeks of the same ass.
If your political spectrum runs from Bill Clinton on the left to George W. Bush on the right, there's no room for a lot of us on it. Arguing whether Clinton or Bush is the bigger fool may be amusing, but comparisons of these two waterbearers for corporations are unproductive.
The Democrats were as wrong as the Republicans; is this the best defense of the Republican criminal, illegal war activities that can be mustered? Or should I say blustered?
Howard Dean saw right through Bush's lies. So did a number of other Dems who voted against giving BushCo free rein to stop the inspections and hurry into war.
To me, one of Bush's worst deeds was to rush the war vote so it came right before the Congressional midterm elections -- thus tangling election politics, 9-11 "patriotism" challenges and a war declaration into a threatening political mess. Note that Bush II's father specifically postponed the war vote on the Gulf War until after elections, specifically to avoid political implications. BushCo had no such ethical considerations.
Wake up Barb!
If all those Democrats weren't running just to get re-elected and were following "righteousenss" then this country would not be at war. The timeliness of Bush's call for war has nothing to do with the Congressioanl Democrats and their lack of a functioning vertebrae!
Well I certainly believe every Dem should have voted against giving Bush war power. However, it's also true that Bush et al. lied and twisted intelligence. The two positions aren't mutually exclusive.
If you need to be refreshed about the rush for war and how it tracked the runup to midterm elections, go ahead and google.
Pretty rich that Bush and his cronies are whining about politics entering the war debate when they are STILL attempting to use 9-11 for political gain and have since the day the tragedy occurred. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
PS I really believe that if Kerry had voted against the war resolution, he'd be president today.
Okay, lets say that Kerry voted against the war and is now president. What next? Pull the troops out of Iraq? Then what? Watch the entire region melt down more than it is.
The troops need to stay.
The point is he would have been working from a different point of view for a year now, rather than stubbornly sticking with a losing strategy. But you're right. We're between a rock and hard place because regardless of what we do now the die is cast and we're in a horrible situation because of such bad planning and strategy.
Personally, I think the horrible situation will stay the same or worsen regardless of whether we stay or go. All I know is I'm tired of losing American lives in the process.
The underlying problem is that Iraq isn't really a nation and never was. I guess ultimately we could blame the Brits for their creation of a country on paper. The only thing that kept it together this long was a brutal dictator like Saddam. Which is why the US and Brits and others supported him for so long.
Okay, how do we solve the problem of Iraq without revisiting the start of the conflict? The sooner, the better and the more lives are saved.
Wrong question, John. We can't solve the problem. We need to do damage control to find the least-harmful way to walk back out of this quagmire.
There will be a bloodbath whenever we leave. There will be a bloodbath if we stay. We are involved in civil war now, and we're siding with the Kurds (which can't be going over really well with our ally Turkey). We're definitely against the Sunni, and we're keeping an eye on the Arabic Shia, hoping that their problems culturally with the Persian Shia will prove stronger than the ties that bind them together.
There will be civil war no matter what happens. The only issue is if American troops are going to be in the middle of it or not.
We aren't talking about the air bases that we probably have no intention of giving up (which would make us go back to the bases in Saudi Arabia).
Removing our troops from offensive patrols and bringing them all into safe bases would be a useful first step to getting them out of the country altogether (if anyone seriously decides to do that).
We should begin plans to evacuate our collaborators from the country. They are toast if we leave them there, and we shouldn't treat them as shamefully as we did our collaborators in Vietnam.
We should recall the First Rule of Holes: When you find yourself in one, stop digging! Back off! Stop all the dick-swinging! Get rid of the attitude!
I never thought I would miss John Foster Dulles . . .
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