elf6c
September 25, 2003, 3:00pm
1
Gee what a shock- the spin control away from the bogus WMD claims with which Curious George went before the Congress and the American people continues:
The weapons inspector, David Kay, is expected to present his report to Congress late next week – an event that senior U.S. officials had just weeks ago pointed to as providing a possible vindication for the administration’s prewar claims that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and had restarted its efforts to build a nuclear bomb.
But officials yesterday sought to play down expectations that Kay’s report will contain any major revelations. Kay, who is in Washington this week finishing the document, is “still gathering information from the field,” the CIA’s chief spokesman, Bill Harlow, said yesterday. “Don’t expect any firm conclusions. He will not rule in or rule out anything.”
Criticism of the Bush administration’s rationale for going to war, which was based largely on the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, has grown on Capitol Hill and overseas with the failure by U.S. intelligence and military teams to discover any proscribed weapons in the five months since Saddam Hussein’s government was toppled.
Just yesterday, Democrats seized on comments by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell – still posted on the State Department’s official Web site – from Feb. 24, 2001, in which he told reporters during a trip to Egypt about the success of decade-old economic sanctions in containing Iraq. In his remarks, which were unearthed by an Australian journalist and broadcast on the BBC in Britain, Powell said Hussein “has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”
Charming.
Gee, habe we seen this pattern before, promise an anwser is coming, start a committee or report, then classify the results or withhold evidence from them. Hate to say it guys, you missed the obvious conclusion. They didn’t have shit. The question is- what did Bush know, and when did he know it?
And here comes the future spin as to their failure to find anything:
Kay’s group, which also works under the command of Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton of the Defense Intelligence Agency, will likely grow in the near future. Military commanders in Iraq have urged Pentagon officials to send more intelligence resources to help combat the growing violence against U.S. forces and identify those behind it. Pentagon officials are considering ways to restructure the Iraq Survey Group and to make some of its personnel – mainly translators and interrogators – available to for that purpose.
You see they were need for other things- we will find that stuff sometime in 2005-- honest!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61136-2003Sep24.html
Should people actually want to debate this, there’s been a thread in GD for a day or so:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=213408
elf6c
September 25, 2003, 3:27pm
3
More bad news for reservists and National Gaurd types (whose rich daddies aren’t the Governor and can get them out of actually serving):
Bush’s empty-handed departure after two days at the United Nations, combined with warnings from the military that it will soon need fresh U.S. troops to relieve those in Iraq, makes it increasingly likely that the U.S. military will have to rely on its own reservists to do the job – a politically dicey move for Bush, whose domestic support already has declined because of the continuing instability in Iraq.
Compounding the pressure, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is considering ordering the total withdrawal of U.N. personnel from Iraq, a step recommended by his top political and security advisers after two bombing attacks against the world body in Baghdad over the past month, according to U.N. and U.S. officials. A U.N. pullout would seriously undercut efforts to assign the United Nations a broader role in overseeing Iraq’s political transition.
The White House, when it decided earlier this month to seek a new U.N. resolution, was hoping to quickly pass a measure that would encourage countries such as India, Pakistan and Turkey to send troops and others to provide money to support Iraq’s reconstruction. But the administration discovered that other countries are not willing to commit the needed military power and funding unless the United States relinquishes more control than it is willing to give to the United Nations or the Iraqis
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61046-2003Sep24.html
Doesn’t look like we are getting any help soon, despite the frantic admistration attempts to spin Bush’s UN apperance as anything but the abject failure it was.
Musharraf suggested requirements for Pakistan’s participation in Iraq peacekeeping efforts that would be almost impossible to meet. At a news conference, Musharraf said that the public in his country is “totally opposed to sending troops to Iraq” and that “President Bush does totally understand” his country’s reluctance to commit forces to Iraq. Musharraf said Pakistan would participate only under a U.N. mandate asking for Muslim troops.
Similarly, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a forum in New York today that more control should be turned over to Iraqis if Turkish troops are going to participate. “We want Iraq to be ruled by Iraqis,” Gul said.
That sentiment was echoed at the U.N. General Assembly, where foreign leaders continued to press for an expeditious transfer of authority to Iraqis as part of a new Security Council resolution. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing called for Iraqi sovereignty “at an early date.” Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear, whose country is also serving on the Security Council, said, “We believe it is essential to set a timetable.”
Not good.
elf6c
September 25, 2003, 3:29pm
4
Thanks London_Calling I don’t go to GD , so I didn’t see the thread.
That’s okay. I suspect there’s not an enormous amount of new material to debate, really. It’s not exactly unexpected.
yojimbo
September 25, 2003, 3:54pm
6
So what?
The war wasn’t about WMD’s. Never was. For proof I point you to the 6 points Blair called for to be answered for war to be averted and Saddam to remain in power.
Oh hold on a minute they were all about WMD.
Wow, don’t I feel silly now
elf6c
September 25, 2003, 6:04pm
7
Finally- a spot of good news:
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites)'s job approval has dipped to 49 percent in an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll, the lowest level of his presidency in that poll.
Bush’s job approval soared to 90 percent after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but have dropped gradually over the last two years.
The poll results reported on NBC’s “Nightly News” are close to the 50 percent job approval in a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll out Monday. Some other polls still have the president in the mid-50s.
In September 1991, Bush’s father was at 66 percent in the Gallup poll, but by the beginning of the next year his job approval had dipped below 50 percent and he lost his re-election bid later in the year.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030925/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_approval_5
Like Father, Like Son hopefully.
I’m a Republican, and I hope that he gets beat.
