You are all liars from Bush on down......its what you all do best!
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Bush continues to justify invasion of Iraq
Washington, June 19 (IANS) :
Cornered by the damming findings of the 9/11 Commission report, US President W. Bush has now claimed that the war in Iraq became imperative after Saddam Hussein defied orders by the UN to disarm.
Speaking to soldiers at Fort Lewis in Washington, Bush said: "Saddam Hussein's regime posed a threat to the American people and people around the world. So I had a choice to make, either to trust the word of a mad man or defend America."
"Given that choice, I will defend America every time," Bush claimed.
Two primary reasons given by the Bush administration to invade Iraq -- the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and deposed Iraqi president's alleged links with Al Qaida -- have come under sever public criticism here.
The WMDs, allegedly stockpiled by Iraqi president, were never found and the investigation by the 9/11 Commission ruled out credible proof of relations between the Al Qaida and Hussein.
"America did not come to conquer Iraq, but to liberate the country," Bush told cheering soldiers.
Bush informed that a new government in Baghdad would be ushered in less than two weeks' time.
"On June 30, full sovereignty will be transferred to the interim government. The Coalition Provisional Authority will cease to exist. An American embassy will open in the capital of a free Iraq," he said.
"Iraq readies itself on the path to self-government and self-reliance, terrorists in Iraq will grow more desperate and violent. But the US will not be intimidated by the insurgents and will stay in Iraq to finish the job," Bush asserted.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted that there were ties between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein, but denied that the Bush administration has ever claimed that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Echoing the words of President Bush, Powell Thursday said: "There were clear connections and ties over time between Al Qaida and the Hussein regime."
"The question is ... how strong were those contacts? Were they responded to on the Iraqi side? And what we have been saying is that there were such contacts, and I don't think that's in dispute," Powell said.
"We never made the claim, as some are attributing to us, that, therefore, Saddam Hussein and his regime had something to do with 9/11," he said in a TV interview.
Powell said there is evidence that Hussein's regime paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, which he described as an indirect financial support for terrorism because it provided "a reward to the families of the suicide bombers."
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