So it's fucking war then

The diplomatic window has been closed” - like it was ever truly open. This war was always going to happen.

Fuck GWB and his unelected, blinkered, warmongering ‘advisers’.

Fuck 'em for marginalising the UN.

Fuck their ropy and shambolic “evidence”.

Fuck Chirac for helping to close that window by being an obstinate fuckwit.

Fuck Blair for ignoring the people who pay his salary.

Fuck OBL and his minions for the senseless slaughter that gave this horrible situation a lever.

Fuck Saddam Hussein for existing. Fuck the people who helped him into power. (Psst. Dude. Go into exile. Now.)

All we can do now is hope it’s short and concise; that civilian casualties are minimal; that allied and Iraqi forces casualties are small; that the repercussions and recruitment to Islamist terrorism aren’t as huge as they might be; that the humanitarian side-effects are minimised; that Hussein doesn’t indeed have hidden WMD that he’ll unleash; that Israel isn’t attacked; that Israel doesn’t retaliate if attacked; that a post-Saddam Iraq will be a better place for the Iraqi people.

Fuck. :mad:

I don’t think it will be nearly as bad as people think. We’ll squish Saddam like an ant, and the fight won’t last longer then 2 weeks. I know our boys will do the best they can to avoid civilians, and that’s all we can hope for.

Next time, if you don’t mind, quote the person as to what he actually said. I watched Powell’s news conference just a few minutes ago and every time he uttered the phrase you misquoted, he said, and said quite clearly, “window is closing.”

Hey there are millions of humans already starving to death, dying of AIDS and other hideous diseases, being tortured by brutal military regimes, being killed on highways by speeding and drunk drivers, being molested by friends or other trusted people, natural disasters causing misery and mayhem, deadly comets heading towards the earth and Kathy Lee Gifford out there somewhere planning a return to TV.

At least March Madness (which will end in April) is beginning.

Eh? What might the card mean? George, what up with the cards?

Monty, when the OP provides a cite, why don’t you read the cite before demanding accurate quotes? The quoted phrase is an accurate quotation of Ari Fleischer, as reported by the BBC in the link itself.

Ari’s about 26 months late with the news, though, IMO.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…

Don’t make me start singing songs from Duck Soup, people.

Yeah, but we could have hoped for more. We could have hoped for a peaceful solution, for continued successful containment of Saddam, or even for a stronger Security Council resolution sometime in the near future if all else failed, but thanks to the administration’s pathetic diplomatic bungling, we’ll never know if any of those things could have been achieved.

Sure we can know. Just get off your butt and start research into the multiverse. Find a reality where each of those happened and them come back and tell me how it came out.

If we wipe out Saddam in less then a week, would you still have hoped for more?

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Such as?

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Ha!

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Ha!

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Yes this was totally fucked up diplomatically. I think going for a second resolution was pretty stupid, but Blair needed to cover his ass, so we needed to try.

I must admit I’m pretty confused on the issue. I’m all for wiping Hussein off the face of the earth, but we really seem to be turning the world against us in this situation. In the end, I’m glad we are going to war, I just hope it’s nice and quick.

I am a right winger personally, but I think that is the best case scenario that everyone is hoping for and will probably happen in Iraq.

The scary part is what people don’t know what will happen in other largly Muslim countries in the area. Is it going to cause fanatics to revolt against their own US-Friendly governments? What happens if Saddam pisses off Israel and they come marching in? What will the other Muslim countries think of that?

I sure as hell hope its as “easy” as that and its the end of it, but nobody knows for sure.

Hell, the media is making it sound like we’re all going to die of the flu anyhow, so why are we even worring about this war? :wink:

He must be from some different Texas.

I agree with Bernse. When we invade (and it looks like there’s no chance we won’t at this point), we’ll mostly likely lose every ounce of goodwill we ever had with the Arab nations in the Near and Middle east. The Israeli and Palestinian peace process will be thoroughly screwed. No one there will trust us.

And Dubya hasn’t the diplomatic skills to win them back. His “aw-shucks” good guy routine isn’t going to work here. :frowning:

Yeah, that’s my racket, thanks. :slight_smile:

To war, to war
to war we’re going to go
with a hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi-de
hi-de-hi-de-ho…

Yeah, you’re right. It’s only been twelve years since he’s attacked another country. And his military apparatus is completely decimated, but that’s no reason to believe he won’t rise up and invade us any day now. This is Bizzarro World, where anything can happen! :rolleyes:

Thirty to forty-five days to disarm doesn’t sound like a “non-starter” to me. Unless you’re really out for blood and will settle for nothing less, that is. An able, intelligent team of statesmen could have gotten that resolution. Too bad we don’t have one working for us.

It was fucked up diplomatically from the day Bush started down the “You’re either with us or against us” road. What he and his team has been practicing cannot properly be called “diplomacy”. More like “asscovering”, as you so astutely picked up on.

Yes, you are.

I guess we’ll just disagree about that, then.

But will U.N. get the arms of respectability back?

“Perhaps one way will be, if we use military force, in the post-Saddam Iraq the U.N. will definitely need to have a role. And that way it can begin to get its legs, legs of responsibility back.”—the Azores, March 16, 2003.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2080236/

“Show your cards” means to call someone in a poker game. If you think they are bluffing, you are telling them to put up or shut up. If you are just calling a bet or a raise, it simply means it is time to determine the winner.

containment?

You obviously are not one of the people sitting in the desert with the wind blowing 70+ mph.

Out of interest, just what is the acceptable figure to you for civilian fatalities. Come on, give us a nice round number: 100; 1000; 10,000; more even?

And also out of interest, if it were you and yours that were amongst the casualties, just what number of deaths would then be “all we can hope for”?