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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (28186)	2/6/2004 1:51:38 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793964

I think the reactions like yours are based on a 20/20 hindsight Political position, not the facts on the ground at the time. Hardly. I've been saying similar things since this issue emerged in Sept 2002. This Iraq invasion policy wasn't based on "facts on the ground." It was based on allegations used to rationalize a policy that never would have been accepted had the real facts been known. Or the likely consequences and costs of the actions been considered. People like Shinseki and Lindsey were pooh pahed as "wildly off the mark" when they suggested what the "true costs" of the war would be. The war would be largely "self-financing," said Wolfowitz, Iraq is a potentially wealthy country. Shenseki was canned by Rumsfeld. The National Journal articles you posted yesterday were spot on; one of them said something like, when Rumsfeld doesn't like the answer, he changes the question. Well, of course you wind up justifying most any act you want if you operate that way. Only the willfully blind at this point still maintain that the admin's mind to go to war if they couldn't "convince" Saddam to go into exile beforehand was made up well before the Senate resolution and Bush's speech to the UN. That isn't "hindsight." Nor is it mere partisan sniping. Even reasonable Republicans like David Gergen agree on this, and agree that the credibility of the country has been hurt by this whole fiasco.