Sure, the American government is known to lie to the public on occasion. However, I still prefer being a U.S. citizen at the mercy of the U.S gov, rather than any existing Arab or Islamic dictator.
Let us suspend judgement for a while hii a_ooiioo_a Everyone is too hasty in jumping to conclusions. freealways
So anyone who thinks the principal reason for going to war was to prevent Saddam's regime from providing terrorists w/WMD is a "Bush-Rush dittohead"? Please illuminate for us what the principal reason was.
when put on the carpet. He really needs to keep quiet as opening his mouth only gets him in trouble on this and numerous other threads.
New York Times U.S. Troops Fire on Iraqi Protesters Again FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. troops opened fire on anti-American demonstrators for the second time this week as Iraqis marched Wednesday to protest the previous shooting. The city's mayor said two people were killed and 14 wounded in the clash. An Army officer said soldiers in a convoy passing the demonstrators were shot at, and then returned fire. The gunfire came less than 48 hours after a shooting during a demonstration Monday night that hospital officials said killed 13 Iraqis. There was no immediate indication of American casualties. U.S. Central Command in Qatar said it was looking into the incident. The clashes in Fallujah, a conservative Sunni Muslim city and Baath Party stronghold 30 miles west of Baghdad, reflect the area's increasing tensions as American troops try to keep the peace in Iraq. About 1,000 residents marching down Fallujah's main street stopped Wednesday in front of a battalion headquarters of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, in a compound formerly occupied by Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The demonstrators were carrying signs condemning Monday night's shooting. Protesters started throwing rocks and shoes at the compound and troops opened fire about 10:30 a.m., scattering the demonstrators. Lt. Col. Tobin Green, commander of the 2nd squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is taking over from the 82nd Airborne in Fallujah, said a six-vehicle convoy was shot at and responded with gunfire. "The evil-doers are deliberately placing at risk the good civilians. These are deliberate actions by the enemy to use the population as cover,'' said Green, whose regiment came to Iraq from Fort Carson, Colo., three weeks ago. Yeah, ok, Lt. Col. Green. You really distinguish yourself from those fanatical Islamic Jihadists with rhetoric like "evil-doers". Glad to know the U.S. has brought Intelligent Reason to this region of Religious Fanaticism. Fallujah mayor Taha Bedaiwi al-Alwani said two people were killed and 14 wounded and asked for an investigation and compensation for the victims. After a meeting Wednesday with U.S. troops, the mayor said U.S. soldiers have been asked to stay away from mosques, residential areas and other sensitive places. The Americans agreed to study the request. "Many people believe these are occupying forces. And many of them are still cautious until they see their intentions,'' said al-Alwani, a former Iraqi exile and opponent of the previous regime. Maj. Michael Marti, an intelligence officer for the division's 2nd Brigade, said soldiers in a passing convoy fired on the crowd after rocks were thrown at them and a vehicle window was broken by what was believed to be automatic weapons fire. Capt. Jeff Wilbur, a civil affairs officer, said the fire from the convoy was followed by soldiers opening fire from the compound. City officials who witnessed the gunfire said they saw or heard no shooting from among the protesters. U.S. Apache attack helicopters circled the site throughout the march and for hours afterward, barely skimming the tops of the tiled-roof minarets of Fallujah, known as "the city of mosques.'' U.S. officers met with the mayor and leading area sheiks in hopes of reducing the tensions, while several dozen demonstrators clustered angrily outside the town hall. "Get out, get out!'' one protester shouted at soldiers guarding the meeting. "We will keep this up, we will keep them on edge,'' said another protester, 29-year-old Abdul Adim Mohammed Hussein. Emerging from the meeting, the imam of the Grand Fallujah Mosque, Jamal Shaqir Mahmood, said "The Americans said 'we won't reduce the numbers, they're needed for security.' But the people of Fallujah told them we already have security.'' The American forces have given no indication they might cut back their presence in Fallujah, the site of factories suspected of being linked to banned weapons programs for Saddam's regime. However, U.S. forces did leave their station at the school where Monday's shooting took place. From the back of a pickup truck, Jamal addressed a crowd of 250 people Wednesday. "We demand the Americans leave this place,'' Jamal said. "(But) please don't confront the U.S. troops.'' Americans and Iraqis have given sharply differing accounts of Monday night's shooting. Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne said they opened fire only upon armed men -- about 25 infiltrators among a crowd of 200. Protesters insisted their demonstration was unarmed and peaceful. Gee, another surprise Dr. Ahmed Ghandim al-Ali, director of Fallujah's general hospital, said the clash Monday killed 13 Iraqis -- including three young boys -- and injured about 75. Some residents put the death toll higher, at 15. No Americans were injured.
Just like a stupid Arab to bring a Rock to a gunfight. The moral of the story: Don't throw rocks at men with machine guns, unless you really want that Darwin award...
Reuters Lawmaker Says Halliburton's Role Expanded in Iraq Halliburton (HAL.N), the oil giant once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, appears to have been given a bigger role in rebuilding Iraq's oil industry, according to letters between the U.S. military and Congress. In a letter sent on Tuesday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, California Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat, raised questions about the contract awarded without competition to a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root. Waxman said originally the contract had been described as one to extinguish oil well fires and do related repairs, but Halliburton now appeared to have a more lucrative and direct role in rebuilding Iraq's oil industry. "It now appears however, that the contract with Halliburton -- a company with close ties to the Administration -- can now include 'operation' of Iraqi oil fields and 'distribution' of Iraqi oil," wrote Waxman to Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Waxman was replying to a letter from Flowers sent last week which said the scope of work included extinguishing oil well fires and cleaning up related damage as well as the "operation of facilities and distribution of products." The letter from Flowers did not indicate what was meant by the operation of facilities or the distribution of products but the White House has always said that Iraq's oil industry belongs to its people. Flowers' office was not immediately available for comment. Asked on Wednesday about the issue, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "It's not a White House issue ... the White House does not get involved in who gets contracts." The total amount of the Halliburton contract is not known but last month army officials said it would be far less than the "worst-case scenario" ceiling of $7 billion. When the contract was first awarded to Halliburton, some Democrats raised questions over whether the company's close ties to the administration had helped it secure the work, a suggestion the White House strongly rejects. Cheney was formerly chief executive for five years of Houston-based Halliburton, the world's second-largest oilfield service company. Company officials in Houston were not immediately available to comment on the Iraqi contract. No, I guess they weren't
New York Times U.S. Tests Iraqi Vehicle Suspected as Mobile Weapons Lab The Pentagon said today that American forces in Iraq are testing a trailer that they suspect the Iraqis operated as a mobile biological weapons laboratory. "The facility, this mobile production facility, came into our hands on the 19th of April at a Kurdish checkpoint near a place called Tallkayf in northern Iraq," Stephen Cambone, an Under Secretary of Defense, said this afternoon. The official emphasized that it was too soon to tell whether the trailer was "the smoking gun," or irrefutable evidence that Saddam Hussein's government indeed had weapons of mass destruction. But Mr. Cambone said the trailer appears to be the kind of mobile lab that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described several months ago in a report to the United Nations Security Council. That report was delivered as the Bush administration sought justification to forcibly disarm Mr. Hussein's government. "The Kurds reported to us that the trailer may have been in the company of military vehicles prior to that, and along with a decontamination truck," Mr. Cambone said. The vehicles was painted in what appeared to be a military color scheme, Mr. Cambone said. He listed several characteristics that American military officials regard as suspicious: a fermenter, which could be used for growing cultures; gas cylinders to supply clean air for production, and "a system to capture and compress exhaust gases to eliminate any signature of the production." Mr. Cambone said that some of the equipment on the trailer could have been used for purposes other than producing biological weapons agents, but that American and British weapons experts have concluded, based in part on information from a defector, "that the unit does not appear to perform any function beyond what the defector said it was for, which was the production of biological agents." Although the findings were not conclusive as of today, and may not be for some time, they were nevertheless important, for the White House as well as the Pentagon. The Bush administration has repeatedly cited Mr. Hussein's supposed possession of deadly weapons as the basic reason for going to war to unseat him. And the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, has repeatedly been pressed on that point, as he was just today. "Well, we went to war, didn't we, to find these â because we said that these weapons were a direct and imminent threat to the United States," one reporter said at today's White House briefing. "Isn't that true?" "Absolutely," Mr. Fleischer replied. "One of the reasons that we went to war was because of their possession of weapons of mass destruction. And nothing has changed on that front at all." "We have always had confidence, we continue to have confidence that weapons of mass destruction will be found," Mr. Fleischer said. Yeah, next you'll be searching a Tonka truck or a wheelbarrow to find your "smoking gun" weapons lab
Yes, Bush is innocent until proven guilty, but if in fact they don't find WMD....well, even then you couldn't prove his guilt of conspiracy or ulterior motives.....but it doesn't look great either. After the fact justification of the process by pointing to Iraq and saying, "Look how much better off the Iraq people are" leads us down the slope of ignoring debate and rationale for agression in the name of defense, and then focusing on justification after conclusion as a means to an end policy. When we have to justify what we do, rather than accomplish the stated goals from the get go is one dangerous situation. It is then never ending, as rationalization is a never ending process to justify almost anything after the fact.