Iraq


What, tenet Should Have Resigned?

Nora Ephron is right that we set our expectations too high if we expect government officials to resign as a matter of principle:

The notion that George Tenet — or Colin Powell, to take another example of a person we keep asking this question about — would have resigned just because he knew that the administration was lying about weapons of mass destruction, is truly laughable. …

We have such affection for the idea that people will quit on a matter of principle that it’s almost sweet. We believe that they quit for moral reasons, that they quit because they want to take a stand against impropriety, that they quit, willingly quit, because they know right from wrong. Once again, let me say this: no one quits.

This administration doesn’t even fire people until the last ounce of incompetence is wrung out of them.*
Unfortunately she becomes an apologist for the bush war when she says:

And in fairness to Tenet and Powell, what’s clear now wasn’t so clear back in the day. That image of the two of them at the United Nations is today such an indelible marker on the road to war. But they couldn’t have known at that time that the war would be such an unmitigated disaster; they surely couldn’t have known that there wouldn’t even be a July 4th sparkler found in all of Iraq;

Sure, the full scope of the bush administration’s incompetence was not yet obvious but, yes, they should have known the sparkler bit. That was tenet’s job….
More importantly even if they had found sparklers that would not have provided a moral excuse for the invasion, for the wasted Iraqi and American lives.

*Given how many of the incompetents are left this is a truly depressing thought.


w Had Two Good Reasons to Veto the Iraq Supplemental Funding Bill

There are two good reasons for bush to have vetod the Iraq Supplemental Funding bill.
First, as he noted in his veto remarks:

…the bill is loaded with billions of dollars in non-emergency spending that has nothing to do with fighting the war on terror. Congress should debate these spending measures on their own merits — and not as part of an emergency funding bill for our troops.

He is absolutely correct. No bill should include spending not directly related to the subject of the bill. The dems should be ashamed of themselves for continuing this behavior.
w should also be ashamed of himself for calling this out given his abysmal failure to use this as a valid reason to wield his veto for the past 6 years.
The second, which he forgot to mention, is that the money won’t be needed. That he is ending this misbegotten invasion and occupation immediately.
Since he forgot, congress should not.

Rather, congress should do the only just and reasonable things that they can do: withdraw their approval for the use of military force in Iraq and provide no additional funding.


Our Troops Do Deserve Better

w in his veto remarks:

Without a war funding bill, we add to the uncertainty felt by our military families. Our troops and their families deserve better — and their elected leaders can do better.
Here in Washington, we have our differences on the way forward in Iraq, and we will debate them openly. Yet whatever our differences, surely we can agree that our troops are worthy of this funding — and that we have a responsibility to get it to them without further delay.

Our troops do deserve better.
Our troops do deserve the best we can give them.

Yes, george, our troops deserve to be brought home now!



gates Explains the bush Legacy

Following his swearing in ceremony new defense secretary robert gates said:

Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility, and endanger Americans for decades to come.

Is there any doubt that the Iraq venture has not been a failure for some time?

No matter the next course of action (inaction?) it is a calamity that will haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to come!