Hunt for WMD "officially" over

[Shamrock]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7634313/

 

WASHINGTON - In his final word, the CIA?s top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has ?gone as far as feasible? and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion.

 

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?After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted,? wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the final report he issued last fall.

 

?As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible.?

 

Comments tonyi? I guess you could say this is just a bureaucratic necessity and the search will continue on (and it does hint to that towards the end of the article), but in my eyes the central reason for invasion was bogus, and everyone knew it was bogus. Despite that, we are obviously still in Iraq and I support any good we can accomplish there. Whether or not we have nobody can really tell for a long time.

[TheTwoJuans]

They could always start it up again. Couldn't they?

[Flying_Mollusk]

In my mind the invasion of Iraq was simply about one thing. Afghanistan was too easy and too fast. The hunger for retribution had still not been met. As Bill Maher said once, and Im paraphrasing, we were so pissed after 9-11 that we said, not only are we going to beat the crap out of you, but we are going to beat the crap out of your cousin who had nothing to do with it.

 

 

One interesting and good sidenote from all of this. It seems like Bush and company arent able to easily fool the American people with smoke and mirrors anymore....or at least lets hope. I really think he wasted every last drop of political capital on Iraq and is going to find it hard to operate without the backdrop of 9-11 helping him.

[Shamrock]

Was it just a political miscalculation then? What did Bush hope to gain from the war? What has he gained/lost? The easy answers don't do much for me.

[Dan Marino Forever 13]

They could always start it up again. Couldn't they?

755182[/snapback]

We (coalition forces) basically control the company, that would be impossible.

The sad fact is that at one time Saddam used them against the Kurds. Even though we didn't find any WMD's we still freed a country from a brutal dictator, and that is worth the price.

[FutureGM]

In my mind the invasion of Iraq was simply about one thing. Afghanistan was too easy and too fast. The hunger for retribution had still not been met. As Bill Maher said once, and Im paraphrasing, we were so pissed after 9-11 that we said, not only are we going to beat the crap out of you, but we are going to beat the crap out of your cousin who had nothing to do with it.

 

One interesting and good sidenote from all of this. It seems like Bush and company arent able to easily fool the American people with smoke and mirrors anymore....or at least lets hope. I really think he wasted every last drop of political capital on Iraq and is going to find it hard to operate without the backdrop of 9-11 helping him.

755186[/snapback]

I agree with what you have to say. We spent far too little time and resources on Afghanistan, which was the most important of the two wars to our security. Then, we went into Iraq on the basis of the opinions of people like Ahmed Chalabi, and the faulty intelligence that he and other Iraqi dissidents were feeding us.

 

I think this could prove once and for all that the UN sanctions worked to at least eliminate Saddam's WMD programs, and, as we saw a few years ago, greatly caused him to downsize his military.

 

This report also proves my theory that Iraq was never a threat to the U.S., which wasn't what we were led to believe by the administration.

 

I honestly hope that the failures of this war will prevent future rushes to battle. Unfortunately, you never know with these guys.

[Shamrock]

I doubt your last point will come to fruition. Vietnam was only 30+ years ago.

[Flying_Mollusk]

The hawks will never ever ever ever, and I emphasis the word ever, admit that a war wasnt the right thing to do. For them Vietnam was the ideal war...it was just ruined by the left and the desire not to nuke the place. I bet 10 years from now theyll say they would have found the WMDs had EVERYONE supported Bush. I mean even to this day Anne Coulter defends Joe McCarthy. Side note though I guess. 9-11 certainly changed the landscape of things.

 

Interesting topic though. Need to go to class but worth more discussion.

[Das Texan]

the war was never about wmd, that was just a little silly sideshow to bush getting into iraq.

 

 

he wanted to get into iraq since before inaguration.

 

 

this was just his excuse, which is well documented if you look.

[FutureGM]

Yes, it has been well-documented that GWB wanted revenge on Saddam for the attempted assassination of his father, which made it all the more easier for him to go to war.

[Shamrock]

See, that, I can't buy.

[Dodge]

Me neither. Dubya's not trying to get revenge for his father or trying to make money off oil. He wanted to free a nation - but if he had cited that as his reason for invasion it would have been unacceptable to the world. What's up with the double standard?

[Flying_Mollusk]

A lot of it has to do with the neoconservative foreign policy in the White House. To a lot of them, Iraq was unfinished business. To them, security and development have to be forced with the barrel of a gun.

[FutureGM]

I'm sorry, but the Bush administration's only reason for originally going to war was WMD's. Since they didn't find any, they convieniently changed their reason to Iraqi freedom.

[Das Texan]

See, that, I can't buy.

755281[/snapback]

 

 

 

why?

 

 

its well documented, even before he took office he wanted to find a way into iraq.

[legacyofCangelosi]

Theres actually no proff that bush sent the troops in b/c of the assassination attempt on his father. I understand that before his inauguration there was always an inkling that he may attempt to do something to control iraq, but theres no concrete connection with the assassination attempt. The WMD's that were obviously there were most likely shipped off to Syria or some other neighboring country before the war started. If the weaposn that were there were indeed destroyed then there should be some record of it, but there isnt. Its also obvious that bush and his team really did think there were WMDs in there, unfortunately a nation like ours cannot afford that type of blunder with our intelligence agencies. Going to Iraq was based on false intelligence, but this is something that needs to be put behind, and we need to continue to work to fix our mistake. We wont see whether this situation ends up favorably or not until at least a decade or so.

[FutureGM]

We wont see whether this situation ends up favorably or not until at least a decade or so.

755371[/snapback]

That's true.

[Accord]

We spent far too little time and resources on Afghanistan

755204[/snapback]

Shows how much you know.

 

The war on terror in Afghanistan is going on as we speak, it is as active as ever and very successful as well. You just don't hear about it because the liberal media would rather focus on the bad things going on in Iraq rather than the great things going on in Afghanistan.

[FutureGM]

We spent far too little time and resources on Afghanistan

755204[/snapback]

Shows how much you know.

 

The war on terror in Afghanistan is going on as we speak, it is as active as ever and very successful as well. You just don't hear about it because the liberal media would rather focus on the bad things going on in Iraq rather than the great things going on in Afghanistan.

755435[/snapback]

Ok, here are some of the great things that have happened there:

 

-Went to war with Iraq right as we were getting close to capturing Osama, and he is still at large

-Never captured the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar

-We never did anything about heroin being Afghanistan's chief export, and there was another report that came out today about how heroin production has increased since the war ended.

 

Please explain to me whatever happened to Bush calling for Osama being captured "dead or alive"? I sure haven't heard him mention the name Osama in awhile....

 

I really wish that conservatives would stop whining about the so-called "liberal" media, when they control all of the branches of government (excluding the judicial, for now), and Fox News has such high ratings.

[Accord]

We spent far too little time and resources on Afghanistan

755204[/snapback]

Shows how much you know.

 

The war on terror in Afghanistan is going on as we speak, it is as active as ever and very successful as well. You just don't hear about it because the liberal media would rather focus on the bad things going on in Iraq rather than the great things going on in Afghanistan.

755435[/snapback]

Ok, here are some of the great things that have happened there:

 

-Went to war with Iraq right as we were getting close to capturing Osama, and he is still at large

-Never captured the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar

-We never did anything about heroin being Afghanistan's chief export, and there was another report that came out today about how heroin production has increased since the war ended.

 

Please explain to me whatever happened to Bush calling for Osama being captured "dead or alive"? I sure haven't heard him mention the name Osama in awhile....

 

I really wish that conservatives would stop whining about the so-called "liberal" media, when they control all of the branches of government (excluding the judicial, for now), and Fox News has such high ratings.

755439[/snapback]

 

I honestly can't believe that you're now trying to convince me that the war on terror in Afghanistan was a bad thing. I totally agree with you and the rest of the liberals on here that the war in Iraq is not justified and we should not be there, but to sit there trying to convince me how the war on terror in Afghanistan is a bad thing is just plain lunacy.

 

So just because Bush hasn't publicly spoken about Osama in the press means the search for him was called off? There are units in Afghanistan searching caves and whatnot as I type this message, not to mention the $25 million dollar reward or whatever it was is still out there and there is still a bounty on his head.

 

As far as the liberal media, you just proved my point. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you do, you just CANNOT focus on any of the positive things because your extreme hatred for Bush clouds all rational thought. For those three negative things you listed about the war in Afghanistan, there are hundreds of positives.

[FutureGM]

A lot of our resources were diverted away from Afghanistan in order to deal with Iraq, which likely let him get away.

 

I do think that the Afghanistan war was necessary, but we rushed it big time. I don't think we sent enough soldiers in in the first place.

[Das Texan]

we should have gone into afghanstan the minute we determined the taliban to be responsible for 9/11.

 

 

and not leave till we had captured our intended target.

 

 

that was a monumental failure and its been a total farce.

[Accord]

we should have gone into afghanstan the minute we determined the taliban to be responsible for 9/11.

 

 

and not leave till we had captured our intended target.

 

 

that was a monumental failure and its been a total farce.

755476[/snapback]

We went into Afghanistan as fast as humanly possible, it was one of the fastest large scale military operations in history.

 

We haven't left yet....

 

Just because the media rarely ever reports about it doesn't mean it's a total farce.

 

EDIT: I just did a little bit of research... It was confirmed that Al Quaeda was responsible for the attack and they were based in Afghanistan being funded by the Taliban on September 13th. On September 15th George Tenet bried Bush with a plan to conquer Afghanistan. Logistical operations began shortly after and on October 7th, the US begins bombing Afghanistan and Marine expeditionary units enter to clear the path for the rest of the military... and the rest is history.

[Das Texan]

we should have gone into afghanstan the minute we determined the taliban to be responsible for 9/11.

 

 

and not leave till we had captured our intended target.

 

 

that was a monumental failure and its been a total farce.

755476[/snapback]

We went into Afghanistan as fast as humanly possible, it was one of the fastest large scale military operations in history.

 

We haven't left yet....

 

Just because the media rarely ever reports about it doesn't mean it's a total farce.

 

EDIT: I just did a little bit of research... It was confirmed that Al Quaeda was responsible for the attack and they were based in Afghanistan being funded by the Taliban on September 13th. On September 15th George Tenet bried Bush with a plan to conquer Afghanistan. Logistical operations began shortly after and on October 7th, the US begins bombing Afghanistan and Marine expeditionary units enter to clear the path for the rest of the military... and the rest is history.

755492[/snapback]

 

 

 

that gave bin laden nearly a month to escape and bury himself further into teh mountains.

 

 

you find out on september 13. you attack on september 14. call it unrealistic, but to give bin laden nearly a month after the attacks to retaliate is idiotic.

 

 

and the goal was to find bin laden, there should have been no other military operations, especially those of which there is no real basis for going to war until the first operation was completed. we should have been focusing our entire efforts into capturing bin laden, not stretching ourselves thinner by entering into a stupid campaign in iraq for reasons that i have yet to figure out....hell bush has probably never truly figured out other than 'saddam is a bad bad man'

[Accord]

we should have gone into afghanstan the minute we determined the taliban to be responsible for 9/11.

 

 

and not leave till we had captured our intended target.

 

 

that was a monumental failure and its been a total farce.

755476[/snapback]

We went into Afghanistan as fast as humanly possible, it was one of the fastest large scale military operations in history.

 

We haven't left yet....

 

Just because the media rarely ever reports about it doesn't mean it's a total farce.

 

EDIT: I just did a little bit of research... It was confirmed that Al Quaeda was responsible for the attack and they were based in Afghanistan being funded by the Taliban on September 13th. On September 15th George Tenet bried Bush with a plan to conquer Afghanistan. Logistical operations began shortly after and on October 7th, the US begins bombing Afghanistan and Marine expeditionary units enter to clear the path for the rest of the military... and the rest is history.

755492[/snapback]

 

 

 

that gave bin laden nearly a month to escape and bury himself further into teh mountains.

 

 

you find out on september 13. you attack on september 14. call it unrealistic, but to give bin laden nearly a month after the attacks to retaliate is idiotic.

 

 

and the goal was to find bin laden, there should have been no other military operations, especially those of which there is no real basis for going to war until the first operation was completed. we should have been focusing our entire efforts into capturing bin laden, not stretching ourselves thinner by entering into a stupid campaign in iraq for reasons that i have yet to figure out....hell bush has probably never truly figured out other than 'saddam is a bad bad man'

755755[/snapback]

 

You cannot find something out on September 13 and then attack on September 14th, it's just not realistic, infact it's impossible. You're going to attack, attack what? You can't just go in there with no plan while trying to mobilize tens of thousands of troops.

 

The goal was not to JUST find Bin Laden and nothing else, the goal was to remove the Taliban from power and the capture and kill members of Al Quaeda. Also, we did not invade Iraq until ~2 years after we were in Afghanistan. The amount of resources spent to date on trying to find Bin Laden is mind boggling, you're acting like we did nothing.

 

Your views of this are just unrealistic.