[andyfox]

Just a few months before using the mushroom cloud imagery, Powell testified that Hussein had no effective way of delivering any WMDs. Nobody expected a nuclear attack on America from Iraq. The mushroom cloud was a scare tactic. If it was an opinion, it was ill-informed. It was calcaulated statement designed to muster up support for the war.

Powell himself was not happy with the info. he brought to the UN. He told an aide that he was being instructed to make the presentation, let's make the best of it.

Richard Clarke and his assistant assert that Bush pressured them to find a connection between Iraq and 9/11. The Bush administration at first denied that Bush had even met with Clarke, then had to back down and said they did indeed meet.

Bush on finding the WMDS: Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, 2003-05-29:

Q: But, still, those countries who didn't support the Iraqi Freedom operation use the same argument, weapons of mass destruction haven't been found. So what argument will you use now to justify this war?

THE PRESIDENT: We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them. [end]

Criticism of government policy is not giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It is the essence of democracy, as the president pointed out in his Veterans Day speech. He then ignored the implications of that observation. Anyway, have Pelosi et al really said the insurgency is winning? (And if they have, wouldn't those be just opinions?) I'll look for quotes, any you can provide would be appreciated.

I'm not critical of our military performance which was exemplary. The regime fell immediately. What I am critical of is the willful ignoring of post-occupation planning. All of the things that happened--infrastructure collapse, looting, problems with disbanding the army, failure to enact martial law, etc.--were analyzed and planned for, yet those analyses and plans were ignored.

One can be in favor of haaving gone to war and still recognize that the administration oversold its case and underprepared for the occupation. You want to run the kitchen, you need to be able to stand the heat. Harry Truman said the buck stops here. This administration is trying to pass the buck by accusing its critics of being disloyal. It's shameful behavior.