Not really. The sure isn't a new strategy. It's been done multiple times before, and didn't work then, just like now.
but he didn't "think" either of those things. he, and we, and every intelligence service in the world "knew" saddam had wmd. we also knew (w/o quotes) he was harboring terrorists, including members of al queda. it was the nexus of these two circumstances, in a post 9/11 environment, that made leaving him in place unacceptable.
really??? Colin Powell - 2/24/2001 We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. Colin Powell - 5/15/2001 The sanctions, as they are called, have succeeded over the last 10 years, not in deterring him from moving in that direction, but from actually being able to move in that direction. The Iraqi regime militarily remains fairly weak. It doesn't have the capacity it had 10 or 12 years ago. It has been contained. And even though we have no doubt in our mind that the Iraqi regime is pursuing programs to develop weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological and nuclear -- I think the best intelligence estimates suggest that they have not been terribly successful. There's no question that they have some stockpiles of some of these sorts of weapons still under their control, but they have not been able to break out, they have not been able to come out with the capacity to deliver these kinds of systems or to actually have these kinds of systems that is much beyond where they were 10 years ago. Condoleezza Rice - 7/21/2001 But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.
Basso, assuming you admit that all is not going as you hoped for in Iraq, who do you blame it on? --liberals, the press, the inherent weakness or silliness of the American public, the troops, the generals, the fiendish terrorists, the Pope,the French and other countries, Perhaps you see America in Iraq as a losing battle of attrition that must be fought nonetheless and hopefully we can subdue them somehow, sometime. PS I have stated many times that we can "win" by nuking them, and at least avoid losing with more intense conventional bombing. I think that we are already doing the "Salvador Option" as was done fairly successfully there i.e, organizing death squads to fight the guerillas. The problem is that in Iraq our death squad guys hate us also. What?
basso, almost no intel agency believed that Saddam was harboring terrorists. It is almost certain at this stage that we know he wasn't.
What happened 4 months later had nothing to do with Saddam. Furthermore if you kept reading under the part you bolded, you would see that there whatever was believed to be stockpiled, was not believed to be a threat.
Oh puhleeze.. Sorry I try to be fair but the Wellstone was murdered conspiracy has almost no legs to stand on. I live in Minnesota and know how much this was investigated and everything points to an inexperienced pilot from a company that Wellstone had personally chosen and flown with crashing the plane. The mistake was the pilot and indirectly Wellstone since he knew the crew. This wasn't some last minute addition to the air crew that the vast Right Wing conspiracy got on board or the plane sabotaged. It was pilot error.
In that case then did you believe that the Republicans where siding with Milosevic during the Kosovo conflict? You've said here plenty of time that criticism of the Admin's policy. is akin to siding with the enemy so did you apply that same standard in 1998?
sure was convenient though, wasnt it? and i do believe the anthrax "kerfluffle" needs further investigating.
Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence. If you or anyone can show any credible evidence that it was a conspiracy I will look at it but this case has been examined ad nauseum. For that matter Wellstone's death didn't guarentee Norm Coleman's victory. Turning Wellstone's funeral into a partisan fest, along with calling out specific Republicans by name, and Mondale's crappy debate performance did.
