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UN approval is nice (although it wasn't enough for Kerry in the Persian Gulf War), but shouldn't be a requirement for the United States or any country to protect itself.


Against whom and what exactly?

Against Saddam who'd been kept fenced in for a decade? Or are you one of those 62% who have been convinced by the current adminstration that Iraq == Al Qaeda?
I don't recollect Saddam actually posing any threat to the US mainland. He was having a hard enough time threatening US warplanes flying over his own country. Tell us again how many serviceable fighter jets he had? He must have hidden them really well since non have been found (along with the carriers needed to get them to the USA). Or did you mean the WMDs?

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RICE [10/25/04]: When people ask whether Iraq is a part of the war on terror, well, of course. Not only did Saddam support terrorists, not only was he a weapons of mass destruction threat and all of those things, but he was a tremendous barrier to change in the Middle East.


Even now, Condi is attempting to link Saddam and Al Qaeda whilst campaiging to keep her job, despite the largest, most expensive, bipartisan Federal Commission in US history having found and declared there to be no link.

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CHENEY [8/26/02]: Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.


Simply stated, Cheney having no doubts does not mean that he was right. There were no WMDs. He was not amassing them. This statement was no more than conjecture presented as fact. And wrong.

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RUMSFELD [9/19/02]: No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq.


What exactly is a "terrorist state" beyond a phrase intended to persuade people that Saddam somehow had something to do with the awful atrocities of 9/11? And...exactly what "immediate" threat did he pose?

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RICE [9/8/02]: You will get different estimates about precisely how close he is. We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.


What Condi forgot to mention here is that the "differing estimates" provided by the then classified National Intelligence Estimate:
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"if unchecked, it [Baghdad] probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade (See INR alternative view at the end of these key judgments)"

included an opinion from the State Department's Office of Intelligence:
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The activities we have detected do not add up to a compelling case that Iraq is currently pursuing an integrated and comprehensive approach to acquire nuclear weapons.


She also omitted to mention that in early 2003, Saddam was anything but "unchecked" anyway. The IAEA and UN weapons inspectors had a pretty strong grip on Saddam's programs.

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BUSH [10/7/02]: America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

Warning Will Robinson, Danger, Danger.

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POWELL [UN]: The gravity of the moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world. Let me now turn to those deadly weapons programs and describe why they are real and present dangers to the region and to the world.

POWELL [UN]: We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.


Remember those water trucks? Oops.

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CHENEY [8/26/02]: Many of us are convinced that Saddam Hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.

2007-2009 absolute worst case scenario if all sanctions were lifted and IAEA and UN weapons inpectors stopped monitoring. And that's if you don't believe the State Department's earlier assessment.

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RUMSFELD [1/29/03]: His regime has the design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa.


Even I have a 'design' for a nuclear weapon. It comes straight out of a novel, The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth. That doesn't mean that the design would work. And we have been given no evidence that Saddam actually did have a working design. And let's talk about that Yellowcake from Niger. 15 months before Rummy came out with this statement, the CIA had concluded that:

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"There is no corroboration from other sources that such an agreement [to buy uranium from Africa] was reached or that uranium was transferred.


A year later, in October 2002, the director of the CIA himself, George Tenet, followed up with two memos and a phone call to the national security team at the White House.

Tenet wrote: "the evidence is weak" and "the Africa story is overblown."
At the same time, State Department experts weighed in with their own warning: "The claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are highly dubious."

And yet this was presented as fact.

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BUSH [1/28/03]: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

State of the Union. That wonderful forum where the President gets to tell the whole country anything he wants. Including statements based on information previously refuted by his own experts.

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BUSH [10/7/02]: Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

BUSH [9/12/02]: Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. Should Iraq acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.

BUSH [1/28/03]: Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.


These tubes were never suitable for use in a gas centrifuge, and the experts had once again already refuted the evidence before Dubya used his State of the Union to create fear and uncertainty. The IAEA, the Department of Energy and the State Department's Office of Intelligence had all concluded that the tubes were not suitable for use in a gas centrifuge. The fact that the tubes' dimensions matched exactly the known dimensions of a known conventional rocket should have been a bit of a giveaway. As should the fact that the purchase order was tendered on that really really secret network known as the internet.

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RICE [9/8/2002]"are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs."


So, what exactly do they build rocket tubes out of? And this clown is in charge of National Security?

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CHENEY [1/30/03]: His regime aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda. He could decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against us.


What utter bullshit. Cheney utterly dishonored every one of those 3000-odd people who lost their lives on 9/11 with that lie. No link between Saddam and Al Qaeda existed. And just how do you give people that you don't know something that you don't have?

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BUSH [9/25/02]: The war on terror, you can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror.


Once again, someone dishonors the dead. But this time it is the President, the Commander in Chief of the World's most powerful military forces lying. The fact is that Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, James Woosley and Paul Wolfowitz all advocated invading Iraq in 1998, and we all know how influential those people have been in this administration.

Brad, I'm having a really hard time understanding how you can trust any of the current administration enough to vote Bush, let alone defend them. Time and time again they have deliberately mislead you. $200 billion allocated so far, and over 1100 US deaths. Another $75 billion to be requested after the election, and who knows how many more deaths?

I can respect fundamental differences in opinions and policy, But this is outright Deceit.

Quotes from transcript of NOW with Bill Moyers - www.pbs.org
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