"John" wrote:

Dan Luke wrote:

[snip]

I'm sure you remember...

"Mission accomplished!"
- Banner welcoming George W. Bush aboard the USS Lincoln, May, 2003?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but in May 2003, the USS Lincoln *was*
returning home (to its home port in Washington). Its mission certainly
was acccomplished, and with pride. Please try to pay attention with a
little more care.

Utter baloney. The Bush appearance aboard the Lincoln was a cynically
arranged propaganda show, meant to pump up the President's image with the
lie that something of value to the U. S. had been accomplished in Iraq.

[snip]

It takes some very intense denial to see the invasion of Iraq as anything
but a grotesque blunder. Even serious American conservative thinkers are
beginning to admit this. Now, the harm done is becoming evident:
American power and international influence--squandered in Iraq--are in
short supply when needed to confront *real* threats.

Uh huh. So sorry to see a tyrant committing atrocities on his own people
disposed of to a courtroom, I see. Probably much easier for you to turn
your back on it and pretend otherwise. Conversely, I think it is a good
thing, no, a great thing, that someone who maintained political control
through rape rooms and lobbing off ears, not to mention horrible God-awful
unspeakable pain through torture is out of the picture. Think how much
you would want your wife, sister, mother, daughter to be raped by henchman
of the state to influence you because you are "suspected" of being not
completely loyal to a dictator.

That is a feeble attempt to dodge the real issue: America's security has
been profoundly harmed by the fiasco in Iraq. Beyond the wasted lives,
resources and diplomatic capital, our own National Intelligence Council has
concluded that the war has created a vast new terrorist training and
recruiting ground where none existed bfo
============================
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Jan13.html

Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the
opportunity for enhancing technical skills," said David B. Low, the national
intelligence officer for transnational threats. "There is even, under the
best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are
not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will
therefore disperse to various other countries."
=============================

It is dishonest of Bush/Cheney apologists to pretend that the U. S. went to
Iraq to "save" its people from Saddam. Even worse is the apologists'
attempt to portray critics of the war as indifferent to that people's
suffering.

The world is full of evil dictators; it is not America's duty to depose them
by force and rebuild nations when they are gone--if indeed such
nation-building is even possible, which events in Iraq cast into extreme
doubt.

--
Dan

"These are exciting times for the Iraqi people!"
-George W. Bush