quote:Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged on Thursday he ordered the detention of an Iraqi terrorism suspect who was held for more than seven months without notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross, but said the man was "treated humanely."
"He has been treated humanely. There's no implication of any problem. He was not at Abu Ghraib. He is not there now. He has never been there to my knowledge,"
quote:Bush, in a brief appearance before reporters, was asked why the administration insists that Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda had a relationship "when even you have denied any connection between Saddam and September 11, and now the September 11 commission says that there was no collaborative relationship at all?"
The president answered:"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda, because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda."
He referred to meetings in Sudan between Iraqi intelligence agents and al Qaeda and said Saddam had connections with organizations considered by the United States to be terror groups -- including Abu Nidal. That group is a spinoff from the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
In the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, Bush had made stronger statements alleging cooperation between Iraq and al Qaeda. In a October 2002 speech, he said, "Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases."
quote:The poll, conducted in May and obtained by Reuters on Thursday, found only 10 percent of Iraqis had confidence in U.S.-led forces -- down from 28 percent in January. Fifty-five percent would feel safer if those troops left Iraq immediately.
With security topping the list of concerns for Iraqis, 67 percent of those polled blamed an increase in violent attacks around the country on a loss of faith in U.S.-led forces.
The poll also indicated growing support for rebel Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who launched an uprising against U.S. forces in the holy city of Najaf in April.
Eighty-one percent said their opinion of Sadr, who this week told his fighters to go home, was better or much better than it was three months ago. But only 22 of the 1,093 people interviewed would pick him to lead Iraq.
Our foreign policy is a disaster. our president is reviled around the world, we've wasted billions on a war which was by no means imminently necessary (an estimate i saw was that every us citizen owed about $4,000 in taxes to pay for the expected cost iraq), and somehow the administration has the gall to keep releasing statements trying to pin this whole thing on Al Qaeda and defending Rumsfeld (they were treated humanely, we kept them hidden just for laughs).
kerry makes me want to hit things, but please, anything but this.
posted
so i think fetuses (shouldn't it be fetii?) aren't real people and you think iraqis aren't real people eh? (sarcasm)
Posts: 380 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Perhaps one shouldn't think.. of Iraq as a patriot thing. Perhaps people need to stop attacking from left or right and seeing it as purely wrong or purely right. I think there are many many mistakes that have been made in Iraq, for the most part because it is a military led effort.
That and honestly, as much as I believe a leader should take responsibility for everything that happens under him, wether it is his mistake or not, we might all want to just step back and stop blaming every US wrong on Bush. A lot of people seem to think that simply getting Bush out of office will get rid of all our problems. That terror will go away, that the islamic fundamentalists will love us etc. I won't say good or bad to any of these things at the moment, but I do ask that everyone take a step back and reevalute their thoughts on the idea.
Posts: 1753 | Registered: May 2001
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quote: we might all want to just step back and stop blaming every US wrong on Bush. A lot of people seem to think that simply getting Bush out of office will get rid of all our problems. That terror will go away, that the islamic fundamentalists will love us etc.
to be perfectly honest, i'm just very very angry. i think seething is the word i need. i started getting a very uncomfortable, almost nauseous feeling the first time i heard bush lambast "evildoers" after 9/11 and this feeling of suffocation has been increasing since then. i have disagreed with so much of what he's done, seen so much of his actions, statements, and policies as small-minded, knee-jerk, and dissembling, that at this point the only way i can think to react to the utter mess we've found ourselves in is through anger. anger that it was allowed to come to this, anger that we as a country let this happen, anger that our leaders could be so idiotic.
i don't really care if removing bush fixes the problems, i'm just really really mad at him, and have absolutely no confidence that he is capable of fixing the situation.
Posts: 380 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
While removing Bush from office will not solve the problems we are facing now, (and that would be a very naive outlook to begin with) I believe it would be a stepo in the right direction towards putting right some of the wrongs and getting the problems fixed. As it is, regardless of WHO is in office next term, we are going to have to deal with these things for the next SEVERAL years and administrations.
Posts: 986 | Registered: Jul 2001
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