This election is, ultimately, going to some down to pro-war or anti-war. Every other issue will be moot. Sad, but true.
John Kerry has finally spoken the words that make the November election an easy choice. On "60 Minutes" this past Sunday night, according to the official transcript released by CBS News, Kerry said: "I am against the ? the war." He tried to qualify them, to fudge them a bit, but no matter. The words are now out.
He and John Edwards were reduced to headshaking on "60 Minutes" to explain why they were right to vote to authorize the Iraq war and why they are right to criticize George W. Bush's supposed "failure" to build international support for that war.
If President Bush had had greater success in building international support for the war in Iraq, they said in unison on Sunday night, "we would have found out" that Saddam Hussein did not have stockpiles of banned weapons.
Try to follow the twisted logic here. Kerry and Edwards say, if we'd done better building a coalition (which simply means bringing in France and Germany, those stalwarts of Old Europe) to go to war with us, we would have somehow magically discerned that Saddam didn't have WMD and therefore we wouldn't have had to go to war at all.
This is quite a novel argument. After all, the world's most implacable foe of the Iraq war, French President Jacques Chirac, actually did believe Saddam possessed WMD's. If he had evidence that Saddam was disarmed, wouldn't he have used that evidence to stop us from going to war?
Of course he would have. So would German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. So would Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But Putin, who opposed the war, actually thought that Saddam was preparing to stage terrorist attacks on the United States.
So those who sought to prevent us from going to war with Saddam thought that (#1) he possessed WMD and (#2) he was actively pursuing terrorism against the United States.
And yet, according to Kerry and Edwards, if those folks had decided to join us rather than try to stop us, they would have led us to the supposed truth about how little at risk we were from Saddam.
Wow.
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Clan Mac Cullaich: - Brewed in Scotland - Bottled in Ulster - Uncorked in America
Bush would still have read the lies that were put in front of him by his puppet-masters. I am beginning to think that mabye he did NOT lie. That would imply he had SOME contact with reality. Maybe he is merely stupid and incompetent, instead.
maisky: I am beginning to think that mabye he did NOT lie.
My mission here on Earth is completed. I may now return to Beta Aquilae.
maisky: I THOUGHT this one would do a bloodpressure check on Brother Shamalama!
Fortunately the ICU wing at Emory Hospital has an internet connection so that I can continue my windy diatribes no matter what condition Brother Maisky puts me in.
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Bush didn't lie. And he is no more stupid and incompetent that any major politico across several countries. Everyone "knew" Saddam had WMD's as far back as the end of Gulf War 1.
And me? I think he had them until US tanks started rolling across Iraq. Today many have been dismantled, many have been shipped to other countries. If US tanks had not rolled he would still have them, and would either be using them or selling them - both unacceptable.
And the international intelligence community botched this one. They were simply looking for evidence "after the fact". I believe the intelligence community, at least here in the US, has been continually gutted since the fall of the USSR, and they needed redemption; Saddam provided that. But it backfired on them.
It will take many years, and many administrations, before we fully believe the CIA again. And that's a very dangerous situation.
Kerry must have splinters in his bum from the past 20 years of sitting on that fence!
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Roisin-Teagan
"There, in that hand, on that shoulder under that chin---all of its lightness delicately balanced and its strings skillfully bowed---it becomes a voice."---Rich Mullins
"At 18, if you have oversized aspirations, the whole world sees you as a dreamer. At 40, you get the reputation for being a visionary." ---Rich Mullins
"God gives the gifts where He finds the vessel empty enough to receive them."---C.S. Lewis