So we invade Iraq because they have WMD & Bush now admits there were none

[LynneSin]

WHAT THE HELL ARE WE STILL DOING IN IRAQ AND WHY THE HELL DO WE HAVE TO STAY THERE UNTIL HE IS OUT OF OFFICE

Bush just validated everything we've been saying since this war loomed in the horizon - Iraq had no WMDs and not involved with 9/11. And yet that was the justification as to why we had to invade Iraq.

And don't, you rightwing scumbag stalkers, give me that bullshit that "Saddam was gassing his people". Because there are dozens of countries out there with similiar or WORSE conditions for their citizens and you don't see us doing shit about them. I mean, when will we help out with Darfur?

[kenny blankenship]

1. That's going to come as a real blow to Sean Hannity

Not to mention the thousands of wives, children and parents of dead soldiers.

[AndyA]

2. It doesn't matter, because there is no accountability.

Oops, we made a boo boo. Sorry. No WMDs, no connection to 9/11. We just did it for the hell of it, just for fun. Those dead soldiers, they're just a number.

Where did America go?

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. They'll claim that bush either didn't say it or was misquoted.

[bryant69]

4. This is a nonsensical arguement

I mean if we had a time machine we could go back and not invade - but the fact of the matter is that we did invade and we are in Iraq now. Our rationale for staying at this point has little to do with why we invaded (except in so far as we argued that we haven't completeed what ever reason we hd for invading).

I'm not in favor of staying in Iraq (although I do understand the urge to, having wrecked Iraq, stay until it's fixed. If I believed it was possible for our continued occupation to help the Iraqi people, I would support it. but I believed our continued occupation just makes things worse), but this argument doesn't make a lot of sense.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[BOSSHOG]

7. If bush lied intentionally

about WMD, which I wholeheartedly believe he did, then the argument is not nonsensical. "Conservatives" get their panties in a wad when a president lies. If they had any integrity they would be leading the call for impeachment; but they have no integrity. bush and his kind do not believe we have wrecked Iraq; our continued involvement will result in much more damage to us, our military and our standing in the world then if we slipped over the horizon like Colonel Murtha suggests.

[bryant69]

9. Proving he lied intentionally is a hard needle to thread

He should have known, and he should pay for his mistake in any case with a loss of trust.

At any rate, you aer right that the fact that he misled us into war on Iraq is a big issue with weather or not we should continue to trust the Bush Administration - and I'd agree with your assessment - we sholdn't. That said, that's not what the proof was offered in favor of.

Rather the Bush Administrations deception on Iraq was offered as evedence that we should immediately withdraw from Iraq. I don't think that one leads to the other.

[BOSSHOG]

11. I agree

that his lying about WMD 3 years ago does not mean we should withdraw now. I think we should withdraw now because it is the sane thing to do. Cut our losses, mend fences, make nice with other countries in the middle east (I know that will take a rational, well educated, articulate, liberal in the white house to do that). The reason we do not have an exit strategy or any plan to leave is because bush and his appointees (civilians) don't know how. And they are way too proud to admit they were wrong. I predict another bush press conference in 12 months which will be a mirror image of today's (only the casualty count will be much higher and the destruction of our military will be 12 months closer to reality) and we will have had another 12 months of "conservative" incompetence.

[LynneSin]

15. What we should do is turn this mess over to the UN

Obviously there is alot of bad blood in Iraq towards the US PLUS we've removed Saddam and created a civil war where several groups are vying for power. Perhaps the UN could come in there and help negotiate the peace and perhaps provide Iraq help with rebuilding their Oil Industry in which profits could be used towards the furture rebuilding of Iraq.

Those oil fields are the solution to all of Iraqs problems. You start generating jobs and income, people will fight harder for the peace.

[KansDem]

10. Why don't we just get out as quickly as we got in?

We didn't seem to mind the death and destruction of a hasty invasion; the truth be damned. So why should we not make a hasty retreat? Too many Americans have a "We're in it, let's win it" mentality: doesn't matter how or why we "got in," we just have to stay "until we win."

Personally I'm all for exiting now. And arresting Bush and his mob to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In fact, I'm all for handing them over to whatever Iraqi faction happens to be in power at the moment. I believe that's the only way we'll regain credibility in the world and stop this from happening again...

[BOSSHOG]

5. More of our kids must die now

so those who already died have not died in vain. No doubt the pro life christian conservative members of bush's base will chime in with that nonsense. Others have said that bush didn't lie, he just made a mistake, a teeny tiny mistake. bush's base has been gang raped by the bush administration but they are more than willing to forgive their attackers, because they are such forgiving human beings. Remember how forgiving they were in the 90's?

[KansDem]

6. Boggles the mind, don't it?

As for the "Saddam gassed his own people" argument, that incident occurred in 1988 with the help of the Reagan/Bush administration. So, if that wasn't bad enough, why did we wait 14 years to do something about it?

He Has Gassed His Own People
By HNN Staff

"Saddam Hussein is a man who is willing to gas his own people, willing to use weapons of mass destruction against Iraq citizens. "--President Bush, March 22, 2002

"As he said, any person that would gas his own people is a threat to the world."--Scott McClellan, White House spokesman, May 31, 2002

Over the past six months President Bush has repeatedly reminded the public that Saddam Hussein gassed his own people. What he has neglected to mention is that at the time Saddam did so the United States did nothing to stop him. Indeed, as Samantha Power makes clear in an account in her new book, A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, the United States refused even to condemn the killing of civilians.

The infamous gas attack took place in mid-March 1988 in the Kurdish town of Halabja, the crossroads of an ongoing battle waged between a joint Kurdish-Iranian force and the Iraqi army. Caught in the middle were innocent civilians, including women and children.

From Power's account:

"It was different from the other bombs," one witness remembered. "There was a huge sound, a huge flame and it had very destructive ability. If you touched one part of your body that had been burned, your hand burned also. It caused things to catch fire." The planes flew low enough for the petrified Kurds to take note of the markings, which were those of the Iraqi air force. Many families tumbled into primitive air-raid shelters they had built outside their homes. When the gasses seeped through the cracks, they poured out into the streets in a panic. There they found friends and family frozen in time like a modern version of Pompeii: slumped a few yards behind a baby carriage, caught permanently holding the hand of a loved one or shielding a child from the poisoned air, or calmly collapsed behind a car steering wheel.

--more--
http://hnn.us/articles/862.html

Bush is a prick; his dad is a prick; Reagan was a prick; every f*cking Repub is a prick. And Republicanism is like a foul acid that taints and eats away at anything it comes in contact with...

[Beelzebud]

8. Head Down, Go to Sleep to the Rhythm of the War Drum!

Count the bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drum!

[Solly Mack]

12. "can't leave a failed state behind" - Bush (the new blame shift tactic)

He said how if those who want a withdrawal want to live with the "legacy" of leaving a failed Iraqi state behind, then it would be on them - not him.

He is setting it up to blame others for his failure.

Bush and Company know a withdrawal is coming sooner or later - which is why he says "We will stay as long as I'm President"

His talking point is "Stay until the mission is complete" and "If we leave Iraq it will be a disaster" - so he hopes to keep the troops in Iraq until 2009, then if the next President withdraws, as will most likely happen because conditions are so very bad already and will only get worse, everything wrong in Iraq will then be the next President's fault, since that President didn't "stay the course" - Republicans will claim at some point in 2009, "if only this new President had kept to Bush's plan, Iraq wouldn't be in a mess now"

but if we can put enough pressure to withdraw before 2009, the spin won't work as well... though it will work with some people ...but forcing a withdrawal before 2009 will help.

If Bush and company could figure out a way to withdraw before 2009 and still blame the pro-withdrawal, anti-war people, and the Democratic Party - he would.


As it is,keeping the troops in Iraq until the next President allows Bush to blame others for his failure - the spin will be "you can't prove that staying the course would not have worked since we didn't stay the course - our new President withdrew from Iraq"

Never mind the reality...Bush doesn't deal in any reality he hasn't manufactured - and neither does his supporters.

Also, as an added feature - Bush keeps the argument focused on how to fight in Iraq - the strategy/method and if to remain or not - and that keeps the debate off the lies Bush told to invade Iraq to begin with

[Emit]

13. LynneSin

I missed Bush this am -- can you tell me the comment he made about WMD? I can't seem to find a transcript yet. Thanks!

[LynneSin]

16. I got it from an article on Raw Story

Really wasn't quoting the story but from what they said Bush had said

http://www.rawstory.com

[Emit]

17. Thank you much for the link! n/t

[ComerPerro]

14. Also, when Saddam did the gassing they talk about, he was

still Reagan's ally!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. I believe the word you're looking for is "whoops"...

Still, a mistake like that could happen to anyone, I guess.