saddam hussein

July 30, 2003 - In a Rose Garden press conference, the President answered the following:

Q Mr. President, you often speak about the need for accountability in many areas. I wonder then, why is Dr. Condoleezza Rice not being held accountable for the statement that your own White House has acknowledged was a mistake in your State of the Union address regarding Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium? And also, do you take personal responsibility for that inaccuracy?

THE PRESIDENT: I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. Absolutely. I also take responsibility for making decisions on war and peace. And I analyzed a thorough body of intelligence -- good, solid, sound intelligence -- that led me to come to the conclusion that it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

We gave the world a chance to do it. We had -- remember there's -- again, I don't want to get repetitive here, but it's important to remind everybody that there was 12 resolutions that came out of the United Nations because others recognized the threat of Saddam Hussein. Twelve times the United Nations Security Council passed resolutions in recognition of the threat that he posed. And the difference was, is that some were not willing to act on those resolutions. We were -- along with a lot of other countries -- because he posed a threat.

Dr. Condoleezza Rice is an honest, fabulous person. And America is lucky to have her service. Period.

 We now know that within that same time frame, the President also "declassified" parts of the National Intelligence Estimate, specifically the part which identified Valerie Plame. Of course that same part which identified Plame dealt with the Niger yellow cake claim.

Now one can only wonder what changed within those few days. First it was important to prove their case for war by releasing parts of the NIE which also resulted in the outing of a CIA agent whose area of expertise was on WMD, only for the President to accept responsibility for everything in that report to be wrong (with the exception of Joe Wilson being married to a CIA agent - Valerie Plame).

Now let's move forward to today, where we find this out-

Three years ago tomorrow night was when our news channels filled with images of bombs exploding in Baghdad. 9:34pm est. time will mark the anniversary of the actual start of the invasion.

So where have we gone since then? Well we did make it to Baghdad with little effort. We did find Saddam Hussein. That’s about it for the good points..

Now here we sit 3 years later and where are we. We have lost 2,318 soldiers, over 30,000 Iraqi citizens; spent over half a trillion dollars (increasing by $200 million a day) and we sit here, isolated from the rest of the world. What does our President have to say about the war now?

"More fighting and sacrifice will be required," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "For some, the temptation to retreat and abandon our commitments is strong. Yet there is no peace, there's no honor and there's no security in retreat. So America will not abandon Iraq to the terrorists who want to attack us again."

Basically the Bush plan for Iraq is the same it has been since the invasion. Think of it as football. We see upsets time and time again. A team takes to the field with an over optimistic attitude because their opponents rated a large underdog. Of course that over optimistic team comes home with their heads held down low because they were just upset. I am not saying our outcome in Iraq will be the same because we can change the rules. We can redefine what we call a win. True in war, the only winner is war.

From George Clooney:

I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.

Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake. And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.

Read the rest of his great revelation at Huffington Post.

Being a life long resident of Cincinnati, reading this has made me so happy. This area is a typically Republican area but we have some great voices on the left that come from here. Jerry Springer, Woody Harrelson and now George Clooney are all great assets to this area. Before long maybe we can make this sleepy river town into a liberal haven. Now that I would love.

Well considering the this mornings news of the US denying reports of Iraq nearing civil war, here is something else to offer a little contradicition:

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said insurgents are trying ``everything'' to foment civil war as reprisal attacks followed yesterday's bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, sacred to Shiite Muslims.

``Anti-democratic forces have tried everything to push the country into a civil war and sectarian violence,'' Zebari said today in a phone interview from Baghdad, blaming the attack on extremists and supporters of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. ``This is the biggest challenge we as Iraqis face, and efforts are under way to prevent it.''

After the Samarra blast destroyed the shrine's golden dome, about 30 Sunni Muslim mosques were attacked, and at least three Mullahs, or religious leaders, were killed, Zebari said. Eighty bullet-ridden corpses have been taken to a Baghdad morgue since yesterday afternoon, Agence France-Presse reported.

Article continues here

Yup. It might not be exactly there yet but damn, it sure is getting close. The worst part is once it happens, our troops are stuck right in the middle and will most likely fall victim to even more attacks. Murtha's plan sounds a lot better now - doesn't it?

Here is an interesting article that doesn't paint the pretty picture in Iraq
that the administration would want us to believe.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Despite US claims of progress in quelling the
insurgency in Iraq, it remains as robust as ever and could grow a good deal
stronger, according to a new study.

The study by two veteran defense analysts working for the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy also said the US operation in Iraq was at a
"tipping point" that will last for six to nine months.

"I think the outcome of this tipping period is probably going to dictate
whether or not the US effort in Iraq succeeds or fails," analyst Jeffrey
White said at a lunch unveiling the report.

The study said the insurgency, comprised of nationalists, members of
Saddam Hussein's toppled regime and foreign Islamic fighters, showed no sign
of losing steam 32 months after the US-led invasion.

"Although thousands of insurgents have been killed and tens of thousands
of Iraqis have been detained ... incident and casualty data reinforce the
impression that the insurgency is as robust and lethal as ever," it said.

The following graph represents the growing number of fatalities we experience
per month. While we had some months with higher fatality levels in 2004, over
all the monthly rate of fatality is increasing.

Data courtesy of ICASUALTIES.ORG

The report goes on to further detail more serious problems we could
experience in Iraq if the insurgency continues to grow.

Moreover, the researchers said, the insurgency has managed to exploit
only a fraction of the disgruntled minority Sunni Muslim population with any
kind of military training.

Crooks and
Liars has the video up of vice-President Cheney's comments to the AEI today.
He supported opposing views while still slamming Senators who feel the country
was mislead into war. Mr. Cheney should realize that those Senators are in the
company of a majority of this country.

He continued to say that Saddam would not comply with U.N. weapon inspectors.
I guess he should of watched the news coverage in 2002 when U.N. weapon
inspectors were destroying missiles in Iraq. Of course he also tried to reaffirm
a tie between Iraq and 9/11 once again. Kind of hard to defend yourself from
lying while standing in front of cameras and lying.

Some have suggested that liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein we have
simply stirred up a hornets nest. The overlook a fundamental fact - we were
not in Iraq on September 11 2001 and the terrorists hit us anyway. The
reality is the terrorists were at war with our country long before the
liberation of Iraq and long before the attacks of 9/11.

Cheney did try and win the hearts of any military personnel who may have
heard his comments. He said that some people say the debate hurts our troops
when in fact he knows they will not waver because of debate at home. True he is
now calling most Republicans in Congress, including those who have served,
liars. They are the ones that continually bring up the so-called "negative
effect" those comments have on our troops.

In a few hours, Iraqis will be taking to the poll to either approve or reject
their new constitution. Historical in the sense of it being their first
constitution, the biggest story behind this vote will be the work done by the
Bush administration.

Is the constitution does pass, then we can be sure to hear a onslaught of
Bush supporters claiming victory over the anti-war movement. Even though it may
appear to be a victory on the outside, once you peel back the layers and look
inside it will still be much the same. Now the insurgents will truly have
something to revolt against.

Insurgents have already tried to hinder the preparations for the vote.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents sabotaged power lines, knocking out
electricity and water across the Baghdad area Friday and plunging the
capital into darkness on the eve of a landmark vote on a constitution aimed
at defining democracy in a nation once ruled by Saddam Hussein.

For most of the day, Iraqis were hunkered down in their homes, with the
streets of the Iraqi capital almost empty hours before a 10 p.m. curfew and
the country sealed off from the outside world as borders and airports were
closed for Saturday's referendum.

The widespread power outage blamed on insurgents hit soon after sundown,
when Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan,
leaving Baghdad's skyline black except for pinpoints of light from private
generators.

Click here for full
article.

This most likely only a preview of what the next 24 hours will provide in
Iraq. The news coming out of the war torn country should be rather grim as
insurgents try and disrupt the vote.