Does this sound like a "Gathering Threat" to you?

[mburbank]

U.S. Report Undercuts Bush War Rationale


By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Undercutting the Bush's administration's rationale for invading Iraq , the final report of the chief U.S. arms inspector concludes that Saddam Hussein did not vigorously pursue a program to develop weapons of mass destruction after international inspectors left Baghdad in 1998, according to lawmakers and others briefed on the report.


In drafts, weapons hunter Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam's Iraq had no stockpiles of the banned weapons but said he found signs of idle programs that Saddam could have revived if international attention had waned.

"It appears that he did not vigorously pursue those programs after the inspectors left," a Bush administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in advance of the report's release.

[Brandon]

Tony Blair has apologized. Still waiting on the apology from the Bushies, though.

[Dole]

He hasn't really apologised. He might have just about apologised for the fact that weapons weren't found (no fault of his own you understand) but he not in any way apologised for lying to the electorate or taking the country to war.

[Zhukov]

John Howard has said he "Will never apologise".

Even if they did apologise, would it really mean anything? If they said 'sorry' do you think that George Bush or Tony Blair would actually be sorry?

Not fucking likely.

[pjalne]

When are the election results announced tomorrow?

[mburbank]

Chenney says the report justifys the war. The report makes clear that they wanted sanctions to be over so they could start from scratch on a weapons program that hdn't existed since 1991.

When they said things like they had vast stock piles of WMD and could use them in 45 minutes and were less than a year away from a nuclear weapon that's what they meant.

And when later they said Iraq was a gathering threat, that's what they meant. It was just they forgot to mention how slowly it was gathering, or that it was pretty much just desires for weapons gathering as opposed to weapons.

And when later they referd to "Weapons of Mass Destruction Program Realated activities" they meant activities related to getting sanctions lifted some day so that they could then start from scratch on a weapons program, provided that the sanctions wre so lifted that everybody stopped watching them at all.

See, when a guy like Sadaam says "Please lift all sanctions and then turn around and close your eyes for a few years. That's what I want you to do and I really would like it if you would" you have no choice but to invade.

Now if countries like Iran and N. Korea actually make nukes, that's a nuanced call. If Pakistan makes nukes and sells nuclear technology to states that sponsor terrorism, the main thing is that their allies now and the guy who did all the selling all on his own has promised he won't do it again. And if Allies like Israel and SOUTH KOREA have nukes, well, they're not supposed to but if that frightens other countries they need to remember that Israel and South Korea are our allies and we own the world. As long as these other countries don't say "Could you please, please just pay no attention to us while we get the program rolling and not do anything annoying like sanction us while we make serious plans to kill you all." If they say anything like that, THEN we gotta crush 'em.

[Preechr]

B-B-BUT MY OPPONENT SENDS MARSHMALLOW SAUSAGES!!! WON'T SOMEBODY PLEEEEEEEEZE THINK OF WHAT THE TROOPS WILL... Um... think... OF! Yeah!

[Brandon]

Even if they did apologise, would it really mean anything? If they said 'sorry' do you think that George Bush or Tony Blair would actually be sorry?
Probably not.

Still, it would be nice to see Bush actually, y'know.. take responsibility for his own fuck-ups every once in a while -- especially since the fuck-up in question resulted in a pantload of deaths, increased anti-Americanism abroad, and an even further destabilized Middle East.

Is a simple "my bad" too much to ask?