John McCain just authored an heroic rider to the military appropriations bill to ensure that US Military personnel act in accordance with military regulations regarding treatment of prisoners. Bush has promised to veto the entire bill if it passes the house. Gee, sounds an awful lot like "I actually voted for the $87 billion, before I voted against it." McCain is a renegade - a Republican who has morals and a conscience, so he doesn't quite fit your mold.
Colin Powell quit in disgust with the Republican party, and has characterized his testimony using information 'vetted' by the Party before the UN as the darkest moment of his career and one that he is deeply ashamed of.
Got any more?
It sure wasn't "Other Priorities" Cheney, or "Damned If I Remember Where I Was" Bush.
What was your excuse?
loathe the military Clinton or can't complete a tour of duty because I got 3 splinters Kerry...
How about a Colin Powell, or a John McCain!!!
Gee, what party are they with???
John McCain just authored an heroic rider to the military appropriations bill to ensure that US Military personnel act in accordance with military regulations regarding treatment of prisoners. Bush has promised to veto the entire bill if it passes the house. Gee, sounds an awful lot like "I actually voted for the $87 billion, before I voted against it." McCain is a renegade - a Republican who has morals and a conscience, so he doesn't quite fit your mold.
Colin Powell quit in disgust with the Republican party, and has characterized his testimony using information 'vetted' by the Party before the UN as the darkest moment of his career and one that he is deeply ashamed of.
Got any more?
when they change party affiliations, until then, keep dreamin 
They get too much at the trough - whores like them will compromise every principle, while trying to look principled. No other description fits McCain, anyone who was so viciously smeared in 2000 who would then support the author of that smear established long ago what he was and now just haggles over the price.
than Dubya said, and it slides off his back now as then. He's holding Goldwater's seat, and he wouldn't have any leverage any other way. I respect the fact that he's willing to live with it for the sake of his constituents. A person has to have faith that their time will come, and I suspect McCain's time will come, like when the neo-cons step on themselves.
did Dubya dump Powell, and smear McCain? Two of the most prominent decent Republicans out there, and somehow they can't get along with the administration.
Instead, they have the College Republicans learning from their role models Cheney and Bush, that nobody is gonna feather your nest if you don't, and you can't be off getting shot at if there's any chance that you could make more money connections at home.
People who can't account for their whereabouts have no room to smear people like Kerry. One might be a fluke; 5 are not a fluke. This guy always showed the courage to go in harm's way. Somehow I don't think he'd be hiding bad news from us, nor BSing us like the GOP has. He doesn't have to be competent to be an improvement on Dubya.
because Snowman seems stumped.
What IS the connection between Iraq and terrorism? Please tell us, because the 9/11 commission seems to have missed it. Maybe they're the traitors you're looking for - you know, people who take the time to find the facts - yeah, they MUST be traitors.
Here's another question: Why has it taken Dubya longer to find Osama than it took FDR to kick the Japs' collective ass?
Here's another question: how many days has Dubya been sober? You really think that a guy that says things like "peeance freeance Iraq" doesn't have brain damage? Does that sound sober to you? Sounds like a lush to me.
And hey, when are you gonna volunteer to go kill some ragheads? Or pay me to take your place? Yeah, I've already got about 15 years active duty under my belt, so the price is gonna be steep.
NO CONNECTIONS! NONE! NADA!
--(please don't read below this line)--
* On March 28, 1992, the Iraqi Intelligence Service compiled a 20-page list of terrorists the regime considered intelligence assets. Atop each page was the designation "Top Secret." On page 14 of that list is Osama bin Laden. The Iraqi Intelligence document reports that bin Laden "is in good relationship with our section in Syria." The document has been vetted and authenticated by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The existence of the document was first reported on CBS's 60 Minutes. It has been widely ignored.
* Saddam Hussein hosted regular conferences for terrorists in Baghdad throughout the 1990s. Mark Fineman, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, reported on one such gathering in an article published January 26, 1993. "There are delegates from the most committed Islamic organizations on Earth," he wrote. "Afghan mujahideen (holy warriors), Palestinian militants, Sudanese fundamentalists, the Islamic Brotherhood and Pakistan's Party of Islam." One speaker praised "the mujahid Saddam Hussein, who is leading this nation against the nonbelievers. Everyone has a task to do, which is to go against the American state."
* Abdul Rahman Yasin is an Iraqi who mixed the chemicals for the bomb used in the first World Trade Center attack on February 26, 1993. We know this because he has confessed--twice to the FBI and once on national television in the United States. He fled to Iraq on March 5,1993, with the help of an Iraqi Intelligence operative working under cover in the Iraqi Embassy in Amman, Jordan. A reporter for Newsweek interviewed Yasin's neighbors in Baghdad who reported that he was living freely and "working for the government." U.S. soldiers uncovered Iraqi government documents in postwar Iraq that confirm this. The documents show Yasin was given both safe haven and financing by the Iraqi regime until the eve of the war in Iraq.
* Later that same month--March 1993--Wali al Ghazali was approached by an Iraqi Intelligence officer named Abdel Hussein. Ghazali, a male nurse from Najaf, met another IIS agent named Abu Mrouwah who gave him an urgent mission: assassinate former President George H.W. Bush on his upcoming trip to Kuwait. On April 14, Kuwaiti police found Ghazali and other Iraqi Intelligence assets with two hundred pounds of explosives in a Toyota Landcruiser. Ghazali, the would-be assassin, told a Kuwait court that he had "been pushed by people who had no mercy." He said: "I fear the Iraqi regime, the Iraqi regime pushed me."
* According to numerous press reports, the deputy director of Iraqi Intelligence, Faruq Hijazi, met face-to-face with Osama bin Laden in 1994. Bin Laden asked for anti-ship mines and al Qaeda training camps in Iraq. There is no indication that Iraq made good on his requests.
* That same year, according to internal Iraqi Intelligence documents authenticated by the U.S. intelligence community and reported in the June 25, 2004, New York Times, a Sudanese government official met with Uday Hussein and the director of Iraqi Intelligence to facilitate the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.
* According to the New York Times, the same Iraqi Intelligence document said that bin Laden earlier "had some reservations about being labeled an Iraqi operative" and that "presidential approval" had been granted to the Iraqi Intelligence service to meet with him. Bin Laden "also requested join operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia. At bin Laden's request, Saddam Hussein also agreed to broadcast on Iraqi television sermons of an anti-Saudi cleric.
* The Clinton administration cited an "understanding" between Iraq and al Qaeda in its 1998 indictment of Osama bin Laden. "Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq."
* The 9/11 Commission reports that Iraq and al Qaeda had a series of "friendly contacts" that did not appear to have developed into a "collaborative operations relationship." The final report provides details of meetings between senior Iraqi Intelligence officials and al Qaeda terrorists throughout the spring and summer of 1998 and indicates that "Iraqi official offered bin Laden a safe haven in Iraq."
* The offer of asylum was also included in the Senate Intelligence Committee's unanimous, bipartisan review of prewar intelligence. From p. 335 of the Senate report: "A [CIA Counterterrorism Center] operational summary from April 13, 1999, notes four other intelligence reports mentioning Saddam Hussein's "standing offer of safe haven to Osama bin Laden."
* This, from p. 316 of the Senate Intelligence Committee report: "From 1996 to 2003, the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] focused its terrorist activities on western interests, particularly against the U.S. and Israel. The CIA summarized nearly 50 intelligence reports as examples, using language directly from the intelligence reports. Ten intelligence reports, from multiple sources, indicated IIS 'casing' operations against Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in Prague began in 1998 and continued into early 2003. The CIA assessed, based on the Prague casings and a variety of other reporting, that throughout 2002 the IIS was becoming increasingly aggressive in planning attacks against U.S. interests."
* Page 331 of the Senate report: "Twelve reports received [redacted] from sources that the CIA described as having varying reliability, cited Iraq or Iraqi national involvement in al Qaeda's CBW [chemical and biological weapons] efforts."
* Abu Musab al Zarqawi traveled to Iraq in May 2002. He lived in Baghdad with the knowledge--and perhaps sponsorship--of the Iraqi regime. A passage from p. 337 of the Senate Intelligence Committee report cites a CIA report called Iraqi Support for Terrorism: "A variety of reporting indicates that senior al Qaeda terrorist planner al Zarqawi was in Baghdad [redacted]. A foreign government service asserted that the IIS knew where al Zarqawi was located despite Baghdad's claims it could not find him." More, from p. 338: "Al Zarqawi and his network were operating both in Baghdad and in the Kurdish-controlled region of Iraq. The HUMINT reporting indicated that the Iraqi regime certainly knew that al Zarqawi was in Baghdad because a foreign government service gave that information to Iraq."
* More recently, Hudayfa Azzam, the son of bin Laden's longtime mentor Abdullah Azzam, told Agence France Presse that the Iraqi regime worked closely with al Qaeda in Iraq before the war. "Saddam Hussein's regime welcomed them with open arms and young al Qaeda members entered Iraq in large numbers, setting up an organization to confront the occupation," he said in an interview published August 29, 2004. Azzam added that al Qaeda fighters "infiltrated into Iraq with the help of Kurdish mujahideen from Afghanistan, across mountains in Iran" and that once they arrived, Saddam "strictly and directly" controlled their activities.
As an aside, what was your MOS? And why serve 15 and not go 5 more to collect a pension? Just asking.
My hat is off to you for your research. It would be helpful to me and others if you could cite more completely (ie dates) or link to your sources. I am in fact saving your response for review.
Even in the absence of specific connections, it would be reasonable to assume Saddam would sell WMDs to the highest bidder. If, of course he had WMDs. Yep, lots of people, including the prior administration, seem to think he had them.
None of that is really the issue, IMHO. To me, the issue was and remains, once we have it, what are we gonna do with it, that makes the cure any better than the disease? Why, for example, is our strategy based on long term presence in potentially hostile countries, instead of eg focusing more on transportation security? I'm sure you're aware we check an incredibly small percentage of inbound countainers.
IOW, where are we going with this? Does anybody really think that we can reform Iraqi politics more readily than we did the Vietnamese? Your best answer would be of course that we had no choice - but that is not at all clear, even with a long story. In any event, it would be very smart ot get a plan, fast. Don't you think?
Personally, I regarded Colin Powell as the canary in the mine. I could not imagine that a man with his background would be part of another Vietnam. Needless to say, I was more than a little concerned when he left the administration.
I think the domestic effect of the war is more important than the war itself - the financial cost and many other risks. Eg, I do not see the justification in suspending habeas corpus, allowing US citizens to be held indefinitely on US soil without charges.
No, I don't have faith in a man who slings mud at people with clear records (both Kerry and McCain) while refusing to disclose his own record. And as you are well aware, I have utter contempt for those who advocate war too easily, yet somehow found an easy way out when it was their turn. And yeah, I do wonder if Bush's speech patterns suggest he may not be that securely on the wagon.
And I'm inclined to credit the 9/11 commission's evaluation that the administration overlooked the signals of 9/1l; and it's hard to avoid the suspicion that they misjudged the risk of Katrina. I am not at all convinced that a new bureaucracy has made us any more secure. Busier, yes; not more secure.
As to asides, I'm not going to post anything more personal on the www. Just not real smart or relevant. If someday we share beers, I may tell some stories.
this is from a dubious source. Otherwise could you please forward this to the White House because even Chimpy himself isn't peddling this pap anymore.
Of course, being on the net is a convenience, and doesn't always authenticate anything.
I think MA is to be commended for his effort in putting this together (assuming he did, it looks like it), but he should have the links handy, which is what I'm waiting for.
Personally, I think the way we got there doesn't change the fact that we ARE there, and have to deal with that reality now. The way we got there may teach us a lot about how our system works and how it might be changed, but that is only half the problem.
My personal concern is that Cyber's dream - while admirable - is a hallucination, and that any real political change almost certainly has to come from within. I don't think we're going to make Iraq into a Turkey, and it's going to be much easier to make it into a Vietnam.
us YOUR opinions? Granted it takes thinking that can be done only with a head above the shoulders .......
Not to defend CyberRepublican, even though in a prevous thread I encouraged him to continue to post, but at least this fellow takes the time to read up and try to learn something about the issues he cares enough to post about. But I think he's reading the wrong things and not exercising any kind of critical judgement. He reminds me a lot of a co-worker who repeats any and all liberal cant no matter how ridiculous and non-sensical it is.
Or perhaps CyberRepublican honeslty believes all of this? It's his right to be wrong.
Still, i'm reconsidering my encouragement to him in a previous thread.
gibberish he wants, and anybody else has a right to call him on it.
The usual logical limit on free political speech is assault, inciting to riot, that sort of thing. Where it's physically impossible, that really doesn't apply. Common sense tells me if you don't like it, you don't have to answer it. If it curls your toes, well, consider it a freebie.
Yeah, private businesses have other considerations, but frankly, I don't see that anybody should get excited about it. No, I don't think anybody's feelings can or should be anybody else's responsibility, because it's too easy to manipulate something that can't be observed, let alone measured.