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Monday, Oct 25, 2004
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight Strikes Again!
Okay, well now Saddam's weapons may be in the hands of terrorists ...
By JAMES GLANZ, WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.
Rove, Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Powell
Planning for Success
I hate war, but I am not a passivist. I think there are times that justify the use of overwhelming force. But the U.S. is and has been entirely too trigger happy.
My favorite example is Manuel Noriega. The U.S. military burned down a shanty town with an errant attack that was intended for a Panamanian Defense Force installation. Hundreds of innocents were burnt to death to exectute a felony arrest warrant -- of our own operative. That was a stupid, rash over-reaction.
But Tora Bora? Fuck yeah. A fast, firm, targeted attack by U.S. special forces, backed by the Marines, backed by the Army and Air Force, backed by NATO. And perhaps a "hot pursuit" or two into the tribal regions of Pakistan. I would have bought into that. And I'd consider it a patriotic duty to pay the taxes necessary to finance such a war.
The broader question of an aerial bombardment, invasion, urban warfare and overthrow of the government is different. These are very blunt instruments. The Bush administration's record in re-building an Afghan nation shows the effect of giving short-sighted, ham-handed people access to the most powerful blunt instruments on the planet.
And Iraq? Saddam was an impotent schmuck who didn't pose a threat to his nearest neighbors, much less the U.S. He did all his ethnic cleansing, civilian gassing, and nuclear technology development under Reagan and Bush 41. By the late 90's he was muzzled.
And to overthrow the Iraqi government without a plan to set up a new one in its place? Oh wait, they did have a plan. After the parade with flowers and chocolates, Chalabi would be treated as returning a deity, and summarily crowned the Queen of Baghdad. Or something like that. What a gaggle of morons these people are. They are mad as hatters. And just to be clear about that metaphor, I literally mean that they have degraded brain function caused by exposure to neurotoxins. Or at least Bush does.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and Powell have to go. I often wonder what they will do after January. I imagine Bush will fall back into an Elvis-like reclusion, drinking whiskey and shooting at televisions. Dick and Lynne will retire somewhere quiet to agonize in the shame of being parents of a lesbian. Wolfowitz will take an emeritus position at a think tank, where he will regale the interns with the tale of his night of terror in Baghdad -- over and over again. Rice will be a provost at a small college near Kokomo, that will be honored to have a reknowned Sovietologist in their midst. Powell will join Adam West and Danny Bonaduce on the late night infomercial circuit, monetizing the last scrap of his integrity.
They Call It Camp Victory
Seitz Had Been In Iraq Less Than 3 Months
POSTED: 4:59 pm EDT October 24, 2004 BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The war in Iraq is hitting close to home again.
NewsChannel5 reported an attack at Camp Victory, the main U.S. base near Baghdad International Airport and what is supposed to be the most secure area in Baghdad has claimed the life of a U.S. State Department agent from northeast Ohio.
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