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Bush has a history of irresponsibility. From his youth, his Daddy got him into Yale, then the Texas Air National Guard (to avoid service in Vietnam). Bush was AWOL during his tour of "duty," but nothing was done to him for deserting. After school and his dis-service to the country, Georgie was involved in one failed business venture after another. Each time, Daddy's friends bailed him out, paid Georgie out, and sent him off with wads of cash and not an iota of accountability. It's no wonder that little Georgie's view is one of self-entitlement, expecting others to pay for his mistakes and decisions, and that only his close personal friends and allies should surround him. He befriends and uses others to clean his mess, just like his Daddy taught him. When things go awry, it's never Georgie's fault, his poor judgement, but being misinformed by others, or someone else's decisions.
Consider that while there was credible evidence of an impending attack (months prior to 9/11) that were ignored. Our own FBI field offices sent memos warning of the suspicious activities of the 9/11 hijackers that were dismissed. Foreign intelligence agencies, including the Mosad, MI6, and others warned that an attack on American soil was immenent, yet thosewithin the administration scoffed. Our own intelligence offices overseas had laid out the case, consisting of communications intercepts and other top-secret intelligence showing the increasing likelihood that al-Qaeda would soon attack the United States. When Tenet and others in the foreign intelligence community approached Rice (then at NSA), she brushed them off. President Bush had said he "didn't want to swat at flies." It was a lost opportunity to prevent or disrupt the Sept. 11 attacks.
First, the majority of U.S. military commanders were opposed to the Iraq invasion, mainly because they wanted to focus on Afghanistan, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and capturing Bin-Laden. They were overruled. The US and UK government fabricated information to justify their military strike on Iraq: false information was circulated concerning weapons of mass destruction. There has been little public disclosure of discussion, planning and agreement among American policy planners even regarding a vision for a post-war Iraq, so without clear military or political goals, one can wonder WHY it was so important to begin this venture, while legitimate threats to national security far more serious than those from Iraq " namely, from North Korea and Al Qaeda " were moved to the back burner.
The impact of our preemptive war doctrine on 50 years of progress in the international law of dispute resolution provides a precedent for any country to attack another. (Ironically, the U.S. will be doing in 2003 exactly what Saddam did in 1990: invading another country without provocation.) Thus, our action in Iraq can and will make us far more vulnerable when we go before the U.N. to argue against other nations waging war, without first employing diplomacy and garnering international support. The doctine of torture ("enhanced interrogation techniques"), indefinite detentions and other measures employed by our government are contrary to international law, human rights, and our own Constitution to which the administration, legislators and others serving the government swore to protect and preserve.
Once the operation began, the military commanders requested 50,000 additional troups, knowing they would be needed. Rumsfeld and the administration disagreed, and overruled the wisdom and judgements of the ground commanders. We went into war without enough troops to handle the job, and many of those were not adequately trained, coming from the ranks of National Guard (not trained for foreign combat).
Military commanders requested fully armored vehicles and body armor, better equipment for their operations, they did not get what they needed, as PREFERRED (ie those with direct finacial ties to the administration) private contractors could not manufacture them, no one else (who could have provided these needs) was selected to adequately supply and armor our troops. In many instances, the private no-bid contractors have impeded military operations in Iraq. Private contrators in Iraq have committed atrocities (rape, murder, torture), yet are quickly, quietly immunized, and can only be addressed by grievances or arbitration.
That the justification for this war was a hoax (lies and skewed "intelligence"), by neo-con groups: PNAC, AIPAC, and others whose agenda is to serve their own economic interests, and promote the interests of Israel are insane and criminal.
That the benchmarks for success: democracy, coalition government, oil revenues paying the costs of the war, etc. have not yet been met, and are routinely downgraded, diluted, and becoming more obscure daily, while nearly 4,000 Americans have died, 30,000 are wounded, another 23,000 with diseases, illnesses directly attributable to their service in Iraq, is an irony that seems to have escaped most.
The moronic justification of the Iraq war is to perpetuate it, not to expell terrorists from Iraq, or to improve our security at home. The real culprits of 9/11 are Al-Qaeda, headed by Bin-Laden, who remain at large, refortify, recruit, and strengthn daily, due to our obsession and preoccupation with Iraq, the cooperation of warlords in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There are 900,000 Americans on so-called "terrorist-watch" lists, who are under scrutiny, based upon lists that are far outdated (3 years or more), and real terrorists still at large, obtaining visas to Europe and America.
TERRORISM is the act of instilling fear, coersion, threats, or intimidation. "The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing people, societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." By this definition, the rule of this current administration (regime) is a terrorist organization, just as much as Bin-Laden. We've been ruled by fear, threat, intimidation, suppression of the media, suppression of legal, civil and human rights for nothing more than political expediency, NOT for our safety, security or to promote democracy.
Bin-Laden took responsibility for the attack on 9/11, but Georgie has yet to take responsibility for preventing or disrupting it. Hitler openly pronounced his program dubbed the Final Solution, which brought upon him world condemnation, yet Georgie won't admit his ill-conceived war in Iraq has destroyed two nations: Iraq and America.
Posted March 19, 2008 | 11:10 AM (EST)