You have to separate politics from reality. The Dems have their own raft of problems but the Reps this year have completely gone off the deep end. From their keynote speaker all the way through Bush, they are lying totally, completely, unrepentantly. It is quite astonishing.
Remember, the admin gave a presentation to the Senate in which it stated that Saddam had submarines capable of sending unmanned drones with missiles to hit our Eastern Seaboard. We do not know what other lies, fibs, gross fabrications and insanities were also relayed to Congress by this Administration...most of it is probably classified.
Remember also that this Administration presented several bald-faced total outright lies to the American People and to the UN. These included, but were certainly not limited to:
-Yellowcake from Africa (Niger yellowcake is governed by international consortium headed by the French. Iraq has its own)
- Aluminum tubes for centrifuges to enrich uranium (Oak Ridge National Lab Scientists said those photos showed missiles tubes, they were completely unrelated to centrifuge tubes)
- Biological weapon on mobile labs (turned out to be weather balloon launching trucks)
- Nuclear weapons in development (not for over a decade as was understood by nearly everyone)
- Direct ties to Al Qaeda (Even Bush admits that none have been found)
This is the Republican strategy:
1. Tell a lie
2. Tell talk radio, cable tv and right-wing rags about the lie
3. Expect corporate major media to pick it up and repeat it
4. IF the truth actually comes out, it will not be broadcast widely or often enough to snuff out the lie.
5. Rinse - repeat
This is one major reason the country is polarized. Some of us are sick and tired of being lied to by this Administration and by the RNC led by lie-meister Karl Rove. Kerry wins on ALL of the issues: economy, education, fiscal responsibility, war, commerce and security. Bush must concentrate on irrelevant things like 30-year old shrapnel because he loses on everything else.
The argument that Clinton had the ILA (Iraq Liberation Act funded for $98m, not billion but million) is no fig leaf for Bush's actions. The ILA was designed to encourage, education and aid IRAQI groups if they wanted to try and develop democracy in their own country.
$98m is nowhere near enough for an invasion AND the ILA specifically limited military action. The Clinton administration was much, much more concerned about national security than the Bush admin is. They were bombing OBL's terrorist training camps and came within a few hours of getting him.
If Clinton, or anyone else for that matter, thought SH had WMDs ready to hit the US or Israel or anyone else, they would have acted. I would bet, however, that they would have been further hampered by the Republican's fixation with sex in the Oval Office. If there was no right-wing agenda to bring Clinton down (for no good reason, Clinton is very much a moderate Republican), Clinton may have gotten OBL and prevented 911.
You have to separate the PARTY that you may support from its actions. There is no way to justify Bush's actions: 1. invading Iraq based on lies and 2. invading Iraq incompetently.
Even if you can somehow forgive Bush for 1 (he had lousy information from Tenet, it's Blair's fault, it's Cheney's fault, etc.), there is NO FORGIVING BUSH FOR INVADING IRAQ INCOMPETENTLY.
Bush was told by Shinseki, Powell and other career military men that Rumsfeld plan was a loser from the beginning. Shinseki was forced to retire, Powell was sidelined and 971 US Troops and 20,000 Iraqis have died. In addition, 26,750 US Troops have been wounded, suffered amputation or other serious injury requiring medical evacuation.
The war bill is around $200B with no end in sight. The Baathists, under Allawi, may be coming back into brutal power. Major media does a terrible job of showing what is going on in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Both countries, with their 50 million people, are in a state of chaos. If you believe that death, brutality, unemployment, fear, destruction and chaos are the equivalent of FREEDOM, then these two countries are indeed Free. |
