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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117
Hard-core CEG'er
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Hard-core CEG'er
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117 |
Excellent points gentlemen.
I would also add that significant fuel for our desire to "disarm" Iraq came from the Iraqi government. The weapons declaration to the U.N. in December 2002 did not include a great deal of material & equipment that was documented by the Iraqi government in their declaration to the U.N. from 1998.
When pressed by the U.N. inspection teams & the U.S. to produce documentation of the disposition of these materials & equipment not accounted for, the Iraqi goverment stonewalled, & ultimately became hostile toward the inspection teams & the U.S.
Iraq gave the WORLD evidence of the WMDs. Blame Irqi intelligence.
It's also quite amusing how the media have totally forgotten all of these facts in their daily reporting. There used to be info on this burried deep in the CBSnews website, but I haven't checked to see if it's still available.
The Saudi connection is an interesting debate. I've been a supporter of the administration, but there seems to be evidence to support a bit of digging into the Saudis & their support of various groups. To this day I am uncertain about their general attitude toward the west. My only guess as to why they have been summarily excluded from scrutiny since before the Reagan administration, is they simply provide the U.S. with a large enough quatity of oil that they could potentially harm the U.S. economy.
Last edited by TourDeForce; 03/11/04 08:41 PM.
Must be that jumbly-wumbly thing happening again.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 4,397
b0x @dm1n
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b0x @dm1n
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 4,397 |
I think it was justified. Simply because without the US backing up a UN compliance, more flaming dictators would try to push the UN around. Now they are all more cautious because they know if the don't comply the US will make it a personal issue.
Throw in the chemical/nuclear threats, real or not, human rights issues, and the threats to us including ex-presidents, it's a done deal.
I have lots of friends in the Military and, of course, no one "wants" war but they accept that risk when they join. Bush has taken very good care of the military, my friends have seen many improvements in pay. Of course the reserves get screwed but that's how it's always been.
-Andy
Andy W.
The problem with America is stupidity.
I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment
for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety
labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
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Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 1,469
Hard-core CEG\'er
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Hard-core CEG\'er
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 1,469 |
Exactly..
If there are no WMD in Iraq (and I am not sure theyre arent) it seems EVERYONE including Hans Blix, John Kerry, the UN. etc. that had access to the same intel, the same weapons declarations by Sadam himself, are NOW acting as if they were never convinced of a threat....that regime change was all Bushes "sceem" (and not infact OFFICIAL policy adopted by Clinton). Pathetic.
If UN believed therere were no WMD, why pass resolutions, why sanction?...Slowing starving people..wait, the UN did not KNOW they were starving people because they were doing "oil for food" (NOT KNOWING OR IGNORIN the fact that it was really a Sadam sceam to overcharge for food & give him kickbacks to the tune of some 5.5 BILLION + dollars!!)...money used in part to pay families of suicide bombers. Guess we would not have figured out THAT without invading. Other stuff we will find out (and you can qoute me here) is France's and Russia's duplicity in this, obtaining cheap oil, selling arms, being key trading partners with, in exchange for looking the other way of the oil/food scams and providing inside info as to the U.N. discussions and probably the weapons inspector site visit schedule (which we know they had). And Dems wanted to trust OUR fate to the UN security councel. I want to barf everytime Kerry talks about how he would have handled Iraq, got the UN involved (as if we did not try). His flip-flopping, backpedling, vote for then against...ZERO leadership character!
WMD or no WMD, the main reason for going to Iraq is as I described in my eariler post. Freeing a couple million persons from Sadam feels pretty good too. Ohh..did you guys see the pics of the bronze GWB statue errected in Bagdad made from the melted down Sadam statue by an Iraqi artist. ...Not a Kerry statue anywhere.
1999 Amazon Green SVT Contour (#554/2760)
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
-Soren Kierkegaard (as posted by Jato)
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 6,280
Hard-core CEG'er
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Hard-core CEG'er
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 6,280 |
Just stopped by hoping the noob bash was still on. Oh well.
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117
Hard-core CEG'er
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Hard-core CEG'er
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117 |
Good call Dan. You also bring up a good point about waiting for U.N. involvement. What a joke that would have been. All this turn around in Iraq, they now have an interim Constitution, and are preparing to sew the seeds of democracy. Great stuff. Meanwhile, in the U.N. quagmire of Serbia, they still don't have their sh!t together & they had a head start of how many years???  Yea, let's bring in the U.N. (scoff)
Must be that jumbly-wumbly thing happening again.
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Hard-core CEG\'er
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Hard-core CEG\'er
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 3,037 |
I saw this program on PBS last weekend...it was a taped teleconference between a group of US highschoolers and Baghdad kids of the same age. You'd be astonished at how bright and open those Iraqi kids were, and many had very little accent at all and some were better spoken than the American kids. But anyway, this was taped after the US had invaded but before Hussein was captured. One of the US kids asked how the Iraqi kids viewed Hussein before, during, and after the war. An Iraqi boy, probably 17 or so, made a few comments that weren't very nice, but he also said that since they didn't know where Hussein was, he expected to be killed for speaking out and that he'd see everyone in heaven. The rest of the Iraqi kids kinda laughed nervously. The American kids looked shocked.
We've got no idea what that kind of life could have been like.
"Think of it, if you like, as a librarian with a G-string under the tweed." Clarkson on the Mondeo.
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Hard-core CEG\'er
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Hard-core CEG\'er
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good job dan nixon and andy. that is exactly right. someone eventually has to stand up and summarily pound dictators with inflated egos who are trying to over compensate for a lack of any manhood of their own by trying push around everyone else (i.e. little man syndrome). their behavior is no different then that of my niece when she is acting snotty, except that someone makes her stand in the corner usually correcting the attitude.
further more the john kerry's of the world need to go back and study ww2. at one point hitler was not a threat so the rest of europe let him do what he wanted......they paid dearly for that. if the world the dem's would prefer we could always step back and let isreal flatten is enemies in the middle east. but then we would have a doosy of a problem now wouldn't we.
Last edited by acrdklr; 03/11/04 09:18 PM.
00 black/tan svt, #2052 of 2150, born 2/1/00
formerly known as my csvt
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Hard-core CEG\'er
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Hard-core CEG\'er
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Posts: 1,469 |
I must say that it bothers me that the Republican's are just not getting the "big picture" message out very well. Many people have not heard this stuff as it is barried/ignored in mainsteam media. Iraq is still not over but all things considered a huge win with shockwave's reverberation throughout the world. But months of Dem propaganda vs a quiet administration have taken a toll...I really hope Bush can get the word out. You know, the economy, healthcare, etc has a way of balancing out no matter who is in the White House. Kerry will not be able to do much damage here. But the war on terror requires leadership...and Kerry just ain't got it. Even the Dems only went to him as a fallback after Dean imploded.
1999 Amazon Green SVT Contour (#554/2760)
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
-Soren Kierkegaard (as posted by Jato)
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117
Hard-core CEG'er
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Hard-core CEG'er
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 7,117 |
Originally posted by Dan Nixon: ...I really hope Bush can get the word out.
Not to worry. The Bush campaign has not even begun.
Besides, the Clintons & their camp will not allow Kerry to win. If he does, that means Hillary will be running against a Democratic incumbent in '08 - not a good idea.
There has been talk about her signing on as VP, but I don't think that's gonna happen either. When the Kerry campaign implodes, she won't want to be a part of it. The only reason she might want to sign on is to be able to torpedo him from inside & have plausible deniability because she's on the ticket.
Must be that jumbly-wumbly thing happening again.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,149
Hard-core CEG'er
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Hard-core CEG'er
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 4,149 |
Hillary wants her own show to run. No way she'll sign on as VP IMNSHO.
-- 1999 SVT #220 --
In retrospect, it was all downhill from here. RIP, CEG.
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