Well heck, of course our Chickenhawk-in-Chief lied about Iraq, that's the whole reason for the mess we're in.
After all, 9/11 has been hijacked by the same neoconservative extremists that have hijacked this country and that want to abolish all the good we stand for, both nationally and internationally .
9/11 has hypocritically been abused in the past six weeks by Bush not just to defend Iraq policy and argue for oil drilling in the Arctic, but in response to questions about tax cuts, unemployment, budget deficits and even campaign finance. Meanwhile, the crudity of the administration's recent propaganda efforts, from dressing the president up in a flight suit to orchestrating the ludicrously glamorized TV movie about Dubya on 9/11, must have set even his most die-hard supporters' teeth on edge.
Meanwhile, Bush and his neoconservative extremists would have you believe that criticism is, of all things in a democratic country, unpatriotic.
Mark Twain had quite rightly derided what he called monarchical patriotism, the old idea that the king can do no wrong, and that the neoconservative extremists that have hijacked this country have changed to our country, right or wrong, and president lead, we'll follow.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/962958.asp?0cb=-61d178650
That kind of a patriotism is more at home in monarchies of yore, George Orwells Big Brother State or communist or fascist dictatorships, but most definitely not in a free democracy with free people.
Where have Bush and his neoconservative extremists brought us with their policies?
After 9/11 America had the sympathy of the world, which, in just two years time, has been squandered to the extent that international opnion polls show the USA in a free fall, laughed at for our hubris while simultaneously shocked by our transparent blatant lies and subsequent fall, first world countries formerly sympathetic to us and what we used to stand for see us as having lost all credibility. And we find ourselves hated with a vengeance by many a third world country, providing a breeding for a new generation of terrorists.
The war against Iraq that Bush just felt like fighting even though it had nothing to do with terrorism, that is going to cost us hundreds of billions of dollars that we didn't have in the first place what with a deficit that is about to go above half a trillion dollars, 33 million people living in poverty, 9 million unemployed, a huge number of Americans without what in most other highly developed countries is seen as the most basic insurance, health and pension, enormous private debt and savings basically non-existent, 46 million people who are analphabets etc etc, we coulda done lotsa better stuff with the money.
Dubyas wars have resulted in nothing but anarchy and chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, served as a huge recruiting drive for Al Qaeda, our real enemy, and was based on nothing but lies and deceit.
If you ask why Dubya diverted resources away from hunting Al Qaeda, which attacked us, to invading Iraq, which didn't, Bush, in his normal modus operandi of fact twisting, isn't embarrassed to suggest that you're weak on national security.
Fact is, Saddam Hussein was NOT linked to 9/11, had NO ties to Al Qaeda, and did NOT pose a threat to the USA !
No weapons of mass destruction have been found to this day, nor will any be found.
It was known before the war against Iraq that Al Qaeda and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest threat to Western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq. A STRIKE on Saddam could dramatically increase the risk of terrorists obtaining WMD.
Spy chiefs had virtually no intelligence about alleged quantities of chemical or biological agents held by Iraq.
There was no evidence Iraq provided terror agents to Al Qaeda.
Yet, Bush chose to wage a war against Iraq that cost us the sympathy and cooperation of the world we so desperately need, because that was the easy way out. Rather than fighting what really threatens us, ie international terrorism, but which unfortunately is not easily fought and located, he chose to go after the easy, albeit nonsensical and highly counter productive target of a nation you can find on a map and attack, which just happened to be Iraq, the main motive was not doing something effective against terror, but an intended demonstration of US power and strength to world. Never mind that that has completely back fired, we stand there as incompetent bunglers and liars, and Al Qaeda got a free recruiting drive.
Just go back to the hype of the prewar days, when Bush was desperate to sell the war, if not to the world that never believed him in the first place, then at least to his fellow citizens. The warning uttered lacled no clarity. Iraq was allegedly a breeding ground of terror, an incubator for Al Qaeda and a clear and present danger to "the civilized world". Bush made it the heart of his case. At his eve-of-war press conference back in March, the president cast the coming attack as the next step in a story that had begun on September 11 2001. Iraq was providing "training and safe haven to terrorists, terrorists who would willingly use weapons of mass destruction against America and other peace-loving countries". The irony is that, at the time, this was not true. But it is now.
With astonishing speed, Bush is making the United States nightmare come true. Iraq is fast becoming the land Dubya warned about: a throbbing hub of terror. Islamists bent on murder, all but non-existent in Saddam's Iraq, are now flocking to the country, from Syria, Iran and across the Arab world. In the way that hippies used to head for San Francisco, jihadists are surging towards Baghdad. For those eager to strike at the US infidel, Iraq is the place to be: a shooting gallery, with Americans in easy firing range. Afghanistan is perilous terrain, but Iraq is open country. For the Islamist hungry for action, there are rich pickings.
Bush insisted that Saddam's Iraq was packed with these people, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Events have taken care of that little lacuna in the US argument. Iraq may not have been a terrorists' paradise at the start of the year - a retirement home for a few has-beens, perhaps - but it is now. Operation Iraqi Freedom blew off the gates, and Islam's holy warriors have rushed in.
Not only has Bush compromised and massively denigrated the security of the USA and its citizens through the counter productive war against Iraq based on his lies, he is also hell bent on turning the very elements that define us as a country on it's head: our civil liberties, freedom, and judicial due process.
We cannot just chant the new slogans from our very own Ministry of State Propaganda / Deception, if
we let the neoconservative extremists that have hijacked this country continue on their path of destruction, deception, and infringement of what we stand for, we will start looking like all what we ever professed to be fighting.
Sticking ones head in the sand, falling for lies and deceit and cheering it on, that is mere delusion and ultimate self destruction.
After all, 9/11 has been hijacked by the same neoconservative extremists that have hijacked this country and that want to abolish all the good we stand for, both nationally and internationally .
9/11 has hypocritically been abused in the past six weeks by Bush not just to defend Iraq policy and argue for oil drilling in the Arctic, but in response to questions about tax cuts, unemployment, budget deficits and even campaign finance. Meanwhile, the crudity of the administration's recent propaganda efforts, from dressing the president up in a flight suit to orchestrating the ludicrously glamorized TV movie about Dubya on 9/11, must have set even his most die-hard supporters' teeth on edge.
Meanwhile, Bush and his neoconservative extremists would have you believe that criticism is, of all things in a democratic country, unpatriotic.
Mark Twain had quite rightly derided what he called monarchical patriotism, the old idea that the king can do no wrong, and that the neoconservative extremists that have hijacked this country have changed to our country, right or wrong, and president lead, we'll follow.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/962958.asp?0cb=-61d178650
That kind of a patriotism is more at home in monarchies of yore, George Orwells Big Brother State or communist or fascist dictatorships, but most definitely not in a free democracy with free people.
Where have Bush and his neoconservative extremists brought us with their policies?
After 9/11 America had the sympathy of the world, which, in just two years time, has been squandered to the extent that international opnion polls show the USA in a free fall, laughed at for our hubris while simultaneously shocked by our transparent blatant lies and subsequent fall, first world countries formerly sympathetic to us and what we used to stand for see us as having lost all credibility. And we find ourselves hated with a vengeance by many a third world country, providing a breeding for a new generation of terrorists.
The war against Iraq that Bush just felt like fighting even though it had nothing to do with terrorism, that is going to cost us hundreds of billions of dollars that we didn't have in the first place what with a deficit that is about to go above half a trillion dollars, 33 million people living in poverty, 9 million unemployed, a huge number of Americans without what in most other highly developed countries is seen as the most basic insurance, health and pension, enormous private debt and savings basically non-existent, 46 million people who are analphabets etc etc, we coulda done lotsa better stuff with the money.
Dubyas wars have resulted in nothing but anarchy and chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, served as a huge recruiting drive for Al Qaeda, our real enemy, and was based on nothing but lies and deceit.
If you ask why Dubya diverted resources away from hunting Al Qaeda, which attacked us, to invading Iraq, which didn't, Bush, in his normal modus operandi of fact twisting, isn't embarrassed to suggest that you're weak on national security.
Fact is, Saddam Hussein was NOT linked to 9/11, had NO ties to Al Qaeda, and did NOT pose a threat to the USA !
No weapons of mass destruction have been found to this day, nor will any be found.
It was known before the war against Iraq that Al Qaeda and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest threat to Western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq. A STRIKE on Saddam could dramatically increase the risk of terrorists obtaining WMD.
Spy chiefs had virtually no intelligence about alleged quantities of chemical or biological agents held by Iraq.
There was no evidence Iraq provided terror agents to Al Qaeda.
Yet, Bush chose to wage a war against Iraq that cost us the sympathy and cooperation of the world we so desperately need, because that was the easy way out. Rather than fighting what really threatens us, ie international terrorism, but which unfortunately is not easily fought and located, he chose to go after the easy, albeit nonsensical and highly counter productive target of a nation you can find on a map and attack, which just happened to be Iraq, the main motive was not doing something effective against terror, but an intended demonstration of US power and strength to world. Never mind that that has completely back fired, we stand there as incompetent bunglers and liars, and Al Qaeda got a free recruiting drive.
Just go back to the hype of the prewar days, when Bush was desperate to sell the war, if not to the world that never believed him in the first place, then at least to his fellow citizens. The warning uttered lacled no clarity. Iraq was allegedly a breeding ground of terror, an incubator for Al Qaeda and a clear and present danger to "the civilized world". Bush made it the heart of his case. At his eve-of-war press conference back in March, the president cast the coming attack as the next step in a story that had begun on September 11 2001. Iraq was providing "training and safe haven to terrorists, terrorists who would willingly use weapons of mass destruction against America and other peace-loving countries". The irony is that, at the time, this was not true. But it is now.
With astonishing speed, Bush is making the United States nightmare come true. Iraq is fast becoming the land Dubya warned about: a throbbing hub of terror. Islamists bent on murder, all but non-existent in Saddam's Iraq, are now flocking to the country, from Syria, Iran and across the Arab world. In the way that hippies used to head for San Francisco, jihadists are surging towards Baghdad. For those eager to strike at the US infidel, Iraq is the place to be: a shooting gallery, with Americans in easy firing range. Afghanistan is perilous terrain, but Iraq is open country. For the Islamist hungry for action, there are rich pickings.
Bush insisted that Saddam's Iraq was packed with these people, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Events have taken care of that little lacuna in the US argument. Iraq may not have been a terrorists' paradise at the start of the year - a retirement home for a few has-beens, perhaps - but it is now. Operation Iraqi Freedom blew off the gates, and Islam's holy warriors have rushed in.
Not only has Bush compromised and massively denigrated the security of the USA and its citizens through the counter productive war against Iraq based on his lies, he is also hell bent on turning the very elements that define us as a country on it's head: our civil liberties, freedom, and judicial due process.
We cannot just chant the new slogans from our very own Ministry of State Propaganda / Deception, if
we let the neoconservative extremists that have hijacked this country continue on their path of destruction, deception, and infringement of what we stand for, we will start looking like all what we ever professed to be fighting.
Sticking ones head in the sand, falling for lies and deceit and cheering it on, that is mere delusion and ultimate self destruction.
