blood boiling

hackles up. we have many enemies. (qaddafi springs to mind as does some of the 'leaders' in saudi arabia as does china as does many other places). yet we MUST attack iraq because they posed an imminent threat? who the f**k do they think is STILL buying this - cause they're still saying it?

Key architect of Iraq war defends case for US-led invasion
An influential architect of the war in Iraq defended the case for US military action on Monday, saying the failure to find weapons of mass destruction did not mean the decision to invade was a mistake.
Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy from 2001 to 2005, said Saddam Hussein posed a serious threat to the United States due to his links to terrorist groups and his regime's potential to produce biological and chemical weapons.
"And even based on what we have learned since, even though we didn't find the WMD stockpiles that the CIA had said we would find in Iraq, what we did find ... was a serious WMD threat in Iraq because Saddam had maintained programs for biological and chemical weapons," Feith said at a news conference promoting his new memoir, "War and Decision."
Feith said government documents show the Iraqi dictator had experts and resources in place so that his regime could manufacture chemical and biological weapons within three to five weeks..........

what a giant steamin' piece o' shite

HE gave up effing golf? that's HIS contribution to end the war on terror? he's not putting HIS life on the line defending his country against the weapons of mass destruction (which were phantom weapons i might add) in iraq. he's not defending his country against the 9/11 terrorists (who almost ALL came right out of saudia arabia -trained there and were funded there - i might add). he, our king, is directly responsible (along with big dick and a handful of others) of the deaths of more than 4,000 of our men and women. the deaths of countless INNOCENT iraqis (sure some guilty ones too). the maiming both inside and out of THOUSANDS of american serivce men and women and their families.

yet he thinks giving up effing golf will absolve him? fuck it.
Bush Says He's Not A Golfer In Wartime

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
President Bush said yesterday that he gave up golfing in 2003 "in solidarity" with the families of soldiers who were dying in Iraq, concluding that it was "just not worth it anymore" to play the sport in a time of war.
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," Bush said in a White House interview with the Politico. "I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Bush said he decided to stop playing golf on Aug. 19, 2003, when a truck bomb in Baghdad killed U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than a dozen others.
He said he received word of the attack while playing golf during a stay at the family ranch near Crawford, Tex. Press reports at the time indicate he took the call from Condoleezza Rice, then his national security adviser. ...........

number 4,011

BUT much much much more. and you were meant NOT to know that
to the family and friends of lt col billy hall, i am so very sorry for your loss.



What the Family Would Let You See, the Pentagon Obstructs


By Dana Milbank


Lt. Col. Billy Hall, one of the most senior officers to be killed in the Iraq war, was laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Pentagon doesn't want you to know that. The family of 38-year-old Hall, who leaves behind two young daughters and two stepsons, gave their permission for the media to cover his Arlington burial -- a decision many grieving families make so that the nation will learn about their loved ones' sacrifice. But the military had other ideas, and they arranged the Marine's burial yesterday so that no sound, and few images, would make it into the public domain.
That's a shame, because Hall's story is a moving reminder that the war in Iraq, forgotten by much of the nation, remains real and present for some. Among those unlikely to forget the war: 6-year-old Gladys and 3-year-old Tatianna. The rest of the nation, if it remembers Hall at all, will remember him as the 4,011th American service member to die in Iraq, give or take, and the 419th to be buried at Arlington. Gladys and Tatianna will remember him as Dad. ......














Beyond the yellow rope is a grave that the family of Lt. Col. William G. Hall wanted to show you. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post

daniel ellsberg couldn't possibly speak

truer words
Pentagon Papers leaker calls Iraq invasion 'supreme war crime'

The man who leaked secret documents about the US war in Vietnam has a name for the invasion of Iraq.
"Supreme war crime."
He also has appellations for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney: "domestic enemies of the Constitution" and "war criminals."
Speaking at a church in San Francisco Saturday, Daniel Ellsberg bemoaned the Administration's war and Iraq and cautioned about the dangers of a future war in Iran, according to a report in the local Golden Gate Express.
Ellsberg leaked a sheaf of documents that would become known as the "Pentagon Papers" in 1971, a secret history of the war in Vietnam in which the Pentagon conceded the war was unlikely to be won. At the time, Ellsberg worked as a Pentagon consultant.
Ellsberg used his talk this weekend to focus on how he feels the Administration has drifted from the constitution, the Express said. He attacked Congress, too, saying its 2002 authorization of force for the war was unconstitutional..........

wow

another one left the darkside and came into the light!
Dick Cheney's Error
It's Government By the People
By Mickey Edwards
For at least six years, as I've become increasingly frustrated by the Bush administration's repeated betrayal of constitutional -- and conservative -- principles, I have defended Vice President Cheney, a man I've known for decades and with whom I served and made common cause in Congress. No longer.
I do not blame Dick Cheney for George W. Bush's transgressions; the president needs no prompting to wrap himself in the cloak of a modern-day king. Nor do I believe that the vice president so enthusiastically supports the Iraq war out of a loyalty to the oil industry that his former employer serves. By all accounts, Cheney's belief in "the military option" and the principle of president-as-decider predates his affiliation with Halliburton.
What, then, is the straw that causes me to finally consign a man I served with in the House Republican leadership to the category of "those about whom we should be greatly concerned"? .......

if you were wondering what the big dick is up to

here it is
Asked about two thirds of Americans' opposition to war, Cheney says, 'So?' - Vice President fishing on Oman sultan's yacht Wednesday
John Byrne
On the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, President Bush said he has no doubts about waging the unpopular war despite the "high cost in lives and treasure."
Vice President Dick Cheney had a different message. Informed during a Good Morning America interview broadcast Wednesday that two-thirds of Americans now think the war was not worth fighting, Cheney said: "So?"
"So you don't care what the American people think?" ABC's Martha Raddatz asked.
He added: "I think we cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations of the public opinion polls. There has in fact been fundamental change and transformation and improvement for the better. That's a huge accomplishment."..........
....................The Vice President is in Oman. Today, he went fishing in the waters between Oman and Iran, borrowing the Sultan of Oman's 60-foot royal yacht.
A Cheney spokeswoman told the Associated Press that the vice president, his wife Lynne, and daughter, Liz, a former State Department official who is traveling with her father as a private citizen, headed out under sunny skies into the Gulf of Oman on "Kingfish I," owned by Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
Cheney has had a personal relationship with the sultan going back to the time when the vice president was defense secretary, but the sultan did not go along on the fishing trip...............

huh?

wtf is up with THAT headline? what are king george and his court going to tell the families of the dead 3,868 american men and women? what did they die for? avenging 9/11? NO. iraq had NOTHING to do with that. how can ANYONE say the tide is turning for king george. he has committed ALL SORTS of crimes against humanity. how can ANYONE forget that?

For Bush, Advances But Not Approval

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
The war in Iraq seems to have taken a turn for the better and the opposition at home has failed in all efforts to impose its own strategy. North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program. The budget deficit is falling. A new attorney general has been confirmed despite objections from the left.
After more than two years of being buffeted by one political disaster after another, President Bush and his strategists think they may finally be getting back at least a bit of their footing. While still facing enormous challenges, from the crisis in Pakistan to the backlash over children's health care, they hope Bush has arrested his downward spiral and established a better foundation for the remainder of his time in office. ..............

how can one think we are 'winning'?

winning? doing a good job? helping the people of iraq? saving the united states from terrorists (by being in iraq that is)? bringing 'democracy' to the middle east? delusional. insanity. evil. lying. oil. millions displaced. thousands of us dead. tens of thousands of them dead. no no no

Gen. Rorschach and the Iraq-Shaped Inkblot

By Dana Milbank
Which of the following best characterizes the situation in Iraq?
a. Impressive, effective and satisfactory?
b. Worrisome, alarming and weak?
If you chose (a), congratulations -- you are supported by Gen. James Jones and his commission studying security in Iraq. And if you chose (b), well, you are also supported by Jones and his commission, who presented their report to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.
"Our overall evaluation is that real progress has been achieved," Jones told the senators, and then he qualified that judgment with words such as "uneven," "unsatisfactory," "overly sectarian" and "failed."........

one of the problems all along

has been we do NOT know who 'our enemies' are in iraq. we never will. MOST of whom WE created ourselves i might add. they didn't give a hoot about us (they were NOT going to attack us, they didn't attack us on 9/11, they were incapable of attacking us. terrorists were NOT training in iraq, etc). they didn't until we invaded their country. killed many, displaced many, maimed many. caused them to be without the basics of food, water, housing, electricty.

we don't belong there. we must bring our men and women home

'In the Land of the Blood Feuds'
South of Baghdad, U.S. Troops Navigate Fault Lines of Sect and Tribe


By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service

KHIDR, Iraq -- In the pre-dawn gloom, through weary villages shaded in gray, the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, searched for the enemy. An aerial drone had spotted men burying weapons in a nearby Sunni cemetery.
The soldiers walked along a thin ribbon of sandy road, flanked by tall reeds and palm trees, until they reached this forlorn place covered with crumbling gravestones. Silence mocked the unit, for the men had vanished. Soldiers pried open graves searching for the cache and 15 minutes later found four guns and some ammunition. Lt. Thomas Murphy, 32, wondered who the men had been. Members of al-Qaeda in Iraq? Loyalists of the former government? Tribesmen? "Here we have so many different enemies," he said.
On the unruly outer fringes of the Sunni area south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death, American soldiers navigate more than a dozen battle zones straddling the fault lines of sect and tribe. Al-Qaeda in Iraq -- identified by President Bush and his generals as the main U.S. enemy -- is just one of myriad armed groups competing here for influence and authority. ........

you put your right foot in - you put your right foot out

you put your left foot in you put your left foot out.......

wtf??????

don't 'emphasize' a withdrawal when you're NOT DOING IT NOW. when you have our men and women in harm's way MORE AND MORE. don't effing TALK about a withdrawal. JUST effing DO IT. you were wrong. you ARE wrong and you're continuing to be WRONG. bring them home NOW


Bush Plans To Stress Next Phase In Iraq War
GOP Dissent Spurs Change In Message but Not Course


By Peter Baker and Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writers

President Bush, facing a growing Republican revolt against his Iraq policy, has rejected calls to change course but will launch a campaign emphasizing his intent to draw down U.S. forces next year and move toward a more limited mission if security conditions improve, senior officials said yesterday.
Top administration officials have begun talking with key Senate Republicans to walk them through his view of the next phase in the war, beyond the troop increase he announced six months ago today. Bush plans to lay out what an aide called "his vision for the post-surge" starting in Cleveland today to assure the nation that he, too, wants to begin bringing troops home eventually.......

one more has drifted AWAY from the dark side

well drifted at least on THIS issue and it is a very important issue. the lives of our men and women and innocent iraqis are at stake

technical troubles or not, i'm glad he came out of the muck and mire for a moment.

however, do we have to wait for one at a time to change their minds? how many more have to come into the light before this unjust immoral and illegal war is actually STOPPED?

Key GOP Senator Breaks With Bush
Domenici Urges Change In Strategy on Iraq War


By Shailagh Murray and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writers

White House efforts to keep congressional Republicans united over the Iraq war suffered another major defection yesterday as Sen. Pete V. Domenici (N.M.) broke with President Bush and called for an immediate change in U.S. strategy that could end combat operations by spring.
The six-term lawmaker, party loyalist and former staunch war supporter represents one of the most significant GOP losses to date. Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Albuquerque, Domenici said he began to question his stance on Iraq late last month, after several conversations with the family members of dead soldiers from his home state, and as it became clear that Iraqi leaders are making little progress toward national reconciliation........

And Now, an Important Announcement About [Thump]

By Dana Milbank
The war in Iraq has been a series of errors, so it's only fitting that the exit plan should have its share of miscues, too.
Yesterday, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M), previously a full-throated supporter of the war, gave a news conference in Albuquerque to urge an expedited withdrawal of U.S. troops. It could have been a major turning point in the war if the audio feed hadn't run into technical difficulties.........