Report confirms our worst suspicions
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George S. Harris
Published: June 15, 2008
So the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has finally released its report stating what most of us have suspected for the last five years.
This report comes at least three years, 3000 deaths and tens of thousands of life altering injuries too late and pulls its punches by stating that, “President Bush and his aides built the public case for war
against Iraq by exaggerating available intelligence and by ignoring disagreements among spy agencies about Iraq’s weapons programs and Saddam Hussein’s links to Al Qaeda.”
Let’s face it, they didn’t just “exaggerate and ignore,” they out and out LIED.
In addition, senate Democrats and Republicans are guilty of procrastination and cover up. Their actions are as bad as those of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and George Tenet of the CIA. If this report had
been released much earlier, it is just possible that President Bush and Vice President Cheney would have been impeached and we might have still been able to get out of a war that no one can yet figure
out how to finish.
But the American public was denied this possibility. Now we will do nothing — just shake our heads and sigh. Democrats will continue to blame Republicans, Republicans will continue to blame
Democrats and claim that it is unpatriotic to not support the president and his needless war. Many more young service members will die and even more will have their lives forever changed by wounds we
cannot imagine.
The report might as well have been printed on toilet paper because now, that is all it is good for.
GEORGE S. HARRIS
Manassas
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( willow703 ) on June 19, 2008 at 10:18 am
gregg_reynolds,
So, you’re going to impeach Bush & put Cheney in the Oval Office until 20 Jan 2009? Are you one of those Kucinich kooks?
Until there is a written, adjudicated definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, impeachment is always going to be because “we didn’t like what you did”.
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Posted by ( dgates ) on June 17, 2008 at 11:10 pm
To me it’s HUGE to bomb a country every day, targeted or not, multiple times for a year and then scale back, but continue those bombings up until the invasion in 2003. President Clinton knew it was a HUGE choice otherwise he would not have deployed additional ground, air and naval forces to the Gulf should Saddam react to our bombing. Secondly, if Bush faked intelligence to justify the war, then President Clinton did the same and was supported by the same Democratic Senators, and in some cases was urged on by them, who initially supported Bush. Shouldn’t all of them be impeached? Maybe this is why their hiding the full report. If the Bush administration is the only one hiding the facts, then why are the Democrats so intent on hiding their actions? A little sunshine would help clarify the whole picture, not just one side. And if we are all so concerned about the truth, then all us should be asking for a full accounting. If President Clinton and the Democratic leadership in the Congress did nothing wrong, why are they or anyone else trying to hide their part? The American people need a non-partisan, complete picture of our road to war in Iraq.
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Posted by ( gregg_reynolds ) on June 17, 2008 at 5:55 pm
This impeachment would not because “we don’t like what you did.“ It is a lot more complicated than that and it is not just about the Iraq invasion. There has been illegal stuff going on at the White house since before 9/11. Cheney met with the oil brass to work on our energy policy. This administration has stifled scientific inquiry. The response to Katrina was criminal. We have tortured and imprisoned innocents people who did not have anything to do with 9/11. They were just turned in to eager allies for a bribe or a grudge. We have a president not unlike Nixon who felt he was above the law. Executive privilege has been used to commit high crimes and misdemeanors. I do not think that a president who values the constitution will have anything to worry about as long as he respects the congress as one of the branches that is to provide a check and a balance and also the judicial branch. If we do not reign in the executive branch we risk our democracy.
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Posted by ( willow703 ) on June 17, 2008 at 2:47 pm
jmojoreynolds,
Yes, indeed! It is not too late to impeach the current president for the sake of the next; who, of course, will be given the message: If you do anything, at all, that we don’t like, we’ll impeach you, too.
Now, who would want the job with that hanging over his or her head?
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Posted by ( jVA ) on June 17, 2008 at 11:22 am
Come on. There is a HUGE leap from sanctions and targeted bombings to invading and occupying a country in the middle east. Both Bush I and Clinton had the smarts to realize how costly and difficult an invasion would be.
Something like 70% of the country believes the war in Iraq was worth it. Obama is hardly on the fringe in this regard.
It amazes me how conservatives go crazy about “socialism” if you want to see your tax dollars spent on roads, education, health care, and infrastructure at home. But the sky is apparantly the limit on spending when it comes to Iraq.
I expect President Obama to get us out of Iraq in the safest and most expedient way possible. And I expect my family to be better in the long run for it. (Particularly my family members who are on the third and preparing for their fourth deployments. I assure you they are planning to vote Obama this November.)
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Posted by ( Godsaveus ) on June 17, 2008 at 10:40 am
The intention to attack Iraq did not start with President Bush. President Clinton debates the use of force with the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright if Iraq refuses the visit of another team of UN inspectors. Finally, Secretary Albright said at the UN that US would not use any force. Although president Bush led this invasion, president Clinton laid the groundwork with a number the sanctions, President Clinton signed the “Iraq Liberation Act.”, Signed in response to Iraq’s termination of its cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors. One month after the passage of the “Iraq Liberation Act,” the U.S. and UK launched a bombardment campaign of Iraq called Operation desert Fox. The campaign’s express rationale was to hamper the Hussein government’s ability to produce chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, but U.S. national security personnel also hoped it would help weaken Hussein’s grip on power. President Bush mishandle the war in Iraq in his first stage in all means, but with a new lead under General Petraus the situation is getting better. I never will put my life and my love ones in the hand of Barak H. Obama as the Commander in Chief, knowing that he opposed the attack against Iraq having all the facts in that time lead the Congress and President Bush launch the attack against Iraq.
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Posted by ( dgates ) on June 16, 2008 at 10:58 pm
The report would carry a lot more weight had the Democrats not stripped out the analysis of the Clinton Administration’s statements on Iraq, Al Qaeda, and WMD. Of course, had they not, it would have been an embarrassment to many in the Party leadership and would probably explain why Senator Clinton chose not to recant her vote in support going to war. It also would have exposed senior Senators like Carl Levin and John Kerry to criticism for their urging the Clinton Administration to take military action against Iraq and then slamming Bush for doing so. If you think I’m wrong, check the 1998 Congressional Record. Secondly, the lack of negative articles on Iraq or any articles on Iraq in the Potomac News tells me, we must be doing well in Iraq. This and other media and military reports on the successes of our troops and Iraqi forces tell me the new strategy in Iraq is working. I’m glad this editorial staff wasn’t around for WW II. We might have lost.
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Posted by ( jmojoreynolds ) on June 16, 2008 at 3:23 pm
It is not too late to impeach! We need to do it for the sake of the next president. The executive branch has gotten out of control. That would send a clear message that we have three equal branches of government, before it is too late. If God forbid there is another terrorist attack, I do believe a president might completely ignore our constitution, and there would be many htat would think it is justified. That is a truly scary thought!
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Posted by ( barnun ) on June 16, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I’ve said before, my own personal conspiracy theory is the Iraq is really all about Iran. Look on a map at Iraq, Iran and Afganistan. They used Iraq as an excuse to get a US presence in the middle east. I think having a Major military base in that region would be a good thing in the long run.
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Posted by ( jVA ) on June 16, 2008 at 12:42 pm
“jVa states “There are facts and there are political opinions.” but then immediatly follows up by trying to state his opinion.“
My apologies barnun. I did not mean to imply that the report itself actually stated that anybody actually lied. (I don’t think that it does.) I was speaking hypothetically. As in: the facts either support that somebody lied or they don’t. My personal opinion about it is irrelevant.
If you’ve read any of the report though the facts are at the least pretty disturbing. There is a lot of evidence of the White House overstating their intel, putting out statements that they knew had been contradicted, etc;
I don’t know. Most Americans aren’t dummies. We’ve all heard this stuff from a variety of sources over the past few years. It seems very hard to defend the Bush White House at this point. Just my opinion, of course!
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