Reply #2: What I'd be asking now...

[whatever4]

" And there was never credible intelligence about a working relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda."

That reminds me of my real question now: When, with whom, and WHY exactly was the idea of going to war with Iraq invented in the first place?? Who started talking about it? Precisely why did he/they bring it up??

I think we need to get at the root of this and find out where it started, before we'll understand all the real reasons for the war and the confusion over it. That's where I see the lies to the American public and the illegal actions beginning to occur, and I think it would show how trumped up this war always was.

They were "fooled", but, what were they looking for in the first place? Why were they looking, what drew their eye, sketch it out for us.

Surely any loss in intelligence we might suffer in the telling of the whole story would be EASILY AND COMPLETELY OVERCOME by the relief and support of the American people knowing their trust was being kept and their lives being guarded. Right??

Say they tell us something classified involving Iraq. It hurts our military/ national security effort, lets assume, it was why we weren't told originally. Sensitive information. Or, instead lets say this information is kept secret, and they don't tell us anything, and, they lose support for the efforts of the military as well as the actions of the government which causes erosion of all the efforts and, again, it hurts our military/national security effort. The first issue can be repaired with continued efforts along the same path, keeping real secrets secret with appropriate safeguards, but giving us enough information to understand the reasons for what was done. It might be a sacrifice, but it would be a limited and controlled one. The second solution will continue to have the same problems and cannot be repaired without changing direction and abandoning efforts in order to regain trust, because we cannot continue on the present path if all support is lost. The lies will not continue to work. Very high ranking officials are facing charges and people are dying. The momentum has already shifted, and it won't shift back while the situation continues, but it will continue to slide.

If this government "came clean", it might hurt, but it would be a constructive kind of pain. If it continues as it is, it will continue to bleed us and cannot become constructive.

They really ought to tell us exactly why we're there, if we're there for a "good" reason, because there is no good reason we can see now. If there were NO good reasons, and we're dealing with criminals...they still need to come clean. It's not going to get any better. Cut bait, cut losses, and tell the American people what the hell is going on.

What happened, who did it, and WHY about Iraq?

My early two cents with coffee :)