Information regarding the location of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is speculative. The naysayers don’t really want to know the answer and are deliberately and repeatedly asking the wrong question. It is critically important that we understand that the mother’s milk of modern military might is money. It is the lucre with which the Hussein’s of the world buy their weapons of choice “off the shelf” in the world market. Good businessmen do not tie up their money in inventories. The toys of war are available to those that have the money and an evil intent to use those weapons.
On the basis of a recent report, there are at least 40 nations with the “know how” to produce nuclear weapons. Hussein invaded Kuwait to acquire oil fields and the revenue they would generate. The “world community” responded to Hussein’s move by giving birth to the Gulf War in which the U.S. carried the major burden and paid the biggest price. The allied forces all knew that Iraq possessed and used weapons of mass destruction on Iran, Kuwait, and their own people, who today lie in mass graves in mute testimony to Hussein’s barbarianism.
With the end of the Gulf War, the U.N. kept Hussein in check and disrupted his evil plans. In order to get back into his dirty business, he only needed to build up his treasury and wait for his friends in the U.N. to lift sanctions. He didn’t believe that the U.N. would give approval to further military action because key players such as France and Germany in the diplomacy game were profiting in the oil-for-food scam with Hussein skimming off his newly acquired assets from “under the table” kickbacks. Hussein’s biggest mistake was in underestimating President George W. Bush in his determination to stop the Hussein’s of the world in the interest of peace.
Today Hussein is gone but the billions of dollars he amassed is still paying insurgent criminals in Iraq for killing soldiers and peacekeepers of the coalition, and paying bonuses to the survivors of wacko suicide murderers. The answer in making lambs out of killers is to cut off the money. The love of the money that fuels the conflict is the root of evil. The reason why we have to work, watch, and pray is that there are political pundits that don’t know why we are there! It’s so much easier to just blame it on Bush.
In the recently published book, “Party of Defeat” by David Horowitz and Ben Johnson, the authors report that, from the beginning, the war against President Bush has been based on lies, deception, and propaganda. It’s a five year attempt to discredit the Commander-in-Chief, contending he lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence on W.M.D. was the same from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration and believed by our friends and allies around the world. This intelligence that was given to the president every morning was available to Congress, yet they refused to read it because they based their votes on political expediency.
Wake up America! We are winning the war on the battlefield with the risk of losing it all because of the politicians.
I agree that we cannot accuse Bush of lying as a way to get us into the Iraq war. It did seem to the west that Hussein's threats about having and using WMD were real. He had the money and the inclination.
On the other hand, several insiders have written about the inclination of the Bush administration to finish the job that Bush 1 (who is looking like a foreign policy genius compared to his incompetent son)started in the first Gulf War.
Our ire should be directed at that incompetency, Bush's lack of a sense of history, his thinking that Iraq as a country was older than Paul Newman. He did not have the where with all to filter the intelligence information he was given and be able to ask. "What if." He was at the mercy of those around him who may had motives of finishing the job that were not in the best interest of the country. He flat out was not up to the job of President, had no successful experience in any phase of his life before he became governor (which is figurehead position in this very independent minded state that didn't trust its governor to do much of anything, thus limiting his powers), and was elected on the smirk and handshake of a car salesman. (And I apologize to all the car sales people.)
The real blame lies, of course, with Pastor Tamel himself and all the other voters who honored such an incompetent twice, not using the senses that God gave them to see through the hoopla to the credentials of the man himself.
I don't disagree with the criticisms of George Bush and his cabinet.
Re: Hussein.
It does seem to me that there was sufficient reason to be DEEPLY concerned that intervention would be prudent sooner or later, AND frustration that the UN might let things slide for too long or just ignore the situation, ALONG WITH disgust that France and Germany were making money off of Iraq with the food for oil thing. For THOSE reasons I can see why emphasizing UN and ally involvement/agreemnt wasn't seen as supremely important. But there are still questions of how to go about such a thing as removing Saddam, and I do agree that it was a mess.
Wow! "Incompetent?" Unfortunately most of us won't be around fifty years from now to find that Bush will be considered one of the greatest and most effective presidents, NOT TO MENTION his court appointments. I am proud to have voted for Bush and would do it again, someone like Gore and Kerry may have "saved" a few soldiers lives by sacrificing many more Iraqi lives and NOT TO MENTION millions of unborn babies lives, which obviously doesn't mean squat to Gore, Kerry and everyone who shamefully voted for them.
I think there is a serious misunderstanding about the meaning of incompetency. Almost without exception, Bush haters have made categorical statements about GWB's incompetence on the basis of how the military has conducted the war in Iraq. So how is the war in Iraq going these days?
Well, let's see. First, Bush's incompetent administration removed a merciless dictator in the semblance of Nero, who invaded neighboring nations on a whim, gassed his own people for experimentation, and appeared to be more concerned about the luxurious life in one of his 70 palaces than the well-being of republic's citizenry.
Second, Bush's administration managed to punish and push Al Qaeda to the northern fringe of Iraq where they, for the most part, have been demoralized and nearly defeated.
Third, the Bush administration has thoroughly shut down Al Sadr's militia by building, training, and strengthening the Iraqi Security Forces. The ISF has grown in number, technology, and overall military capacity in leaps and bounds, which has amassed the respect of the Iraqi people and the Sadrist movement. They are a feared entity that has accrued an additional 100,000 soldiers in the last year and has caused Iran's puppet Al Sadr to withdraw his fighters from their previous pattern of slaughter.
Fourth, Iraq's violence is at all time lows, its security is at all time highs, and Iraq's economy has grown robustly since 2003. Its crude oil production has passed pre-war levels, inflation as dropped from 65% to less than 5%, and Iraq's government budget has doubled since the previous year. More than half of all Iraqis believe that life is good in Iraq, 60% believe neighborhood security is very good, 49% believe that America was "absolutely right" by invading in 2003, and 59% believe that coalition forces should stay in Iraq until security is restored.
Incompetent? No, not really. In years to come, GWB will fare well in history despite being sideswiped by the drive-by media and the treacherous DNC.
