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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (149690)	10/28/2004 7:37:52 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I am quite surprised that you are trivializing the war, trivializing the presidents role in taking the country to war, and trivializing his responsibility for the war. The issue at hand: what do large stockpiles of weapons, including huge amounts of high explosives that can be used in a nuclear weapons programs, have to do with President Bush's decision to go to war and his conduct of the the war? Short answer: Everything. This issue is an all too familiar reminder that Bush's conduct of the war has been gravely flawed from the start. This issue really gets to the meat of the entire matter. Lets look at why the war was called and what the objective was. Bush's ever diminishing rationale for war was initially predicated on preemptively attacking Saddam to prevent dangerous weapons from reaching terrorists. The rationale for the war is not up for debate, unless you are willing to admit that Bush's reasons for war are not as he stated to the American people. March 17 2003 Address to the nation, 2 days before war was declared, giving Husayn one last ultimatum, and providing the American people with the justification for going to war: The danger is clear: Using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other.-- President Bush March 19, 2003 Address to the nation announcing he has ordered the war: My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.-- President Bush All throughout 2002 and 2003 the administration's rationale justifying action against Iraq and the goal, consistently hammered home through every possible media outlet, and at the UN, was to DISARM Saddam. Yet the war plan very clearly was not aimed at that goal. Great stockpiles of ammunition including a massive stockpile of high explosives - perfect raw materials for the terrorist - were left unguarded even though their precise location was known - before the war. Disarmament was the Bush's stated PRIMARY goal of the war, yet the war plan WAS NOT, obviously, designed to accomplish this goal. I can cite reference after reference that points to dozens of sites left unguarded; in fact many weapons caches even today remain unsecured - their contents unaccounted for. Many weapons caches have been reported looted. There is only one conclusion that can be made: The war plan, briefed to Bush many times and ultimately his to approve, clearly was completely deficient to achieve the stated goals. Yet Bush approved it anyway. He IS accountable, and voters have the tool to hold him to account next week.