If you don’t recall, Shinseki was the Army Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2003. He was discredited by Wolfowitz, Rumsfield, et al, because he had the smarts and the guts to speak the truth and try to set the record straight. But, Paul and Don and this administration were hell-bent-for-leather to attack and used any kind of logic and reasoning asus a4000 battery,asus a42-a4 battery they could cook up to invade Iraq, including the discrediting of anyone who spoke against them.

The rest, as they say, is history and has resulted in an apparently endless war that is bankrupting our country a billion dollars at a time.

This rests it assured

In addition to the NIC report, some of us lowly citizens who had a bit of knowledge about the Middle East, knew in 2002 it wouldn’t work. We were sitting at our computer and kitchen table office, reading everything we could get our hands on, because a nephew had just finished college with ROTC money, and might be sent there (just returned from his fourth tour) and we were terrified of what we knew the background and history of the area to be and the inevitable outcome of such an unwise decision.

And they have continued to lie and show their ignorance – while OBL laughs his head off in a cave.

Left out of Wolfowitz’s definition of occupation are the over 150,000 troops still in Iraq who are, to this day, helping the Iraqi government squash its political enemies.

Let me get this straight: Think Progress opposes the crackdown on Sadr’s forces, because it’s perceived as political?

They should serve their sentences at Gitmo, where they can do further harm.

After the Bush puppet master Cheney and the Neo-Nitwits at PNAC with their faulty super brain Masters of the World mentality have cost America 4000+ lives, countless hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and squandered nearly 800 thousand million dollars(well not really squandered if your among the politically connected or a corrupt contractor or a corrupt former or current Iraqi that can suck up to this administration and have Swiss bank accounts), they are trying to change history by exclaiming “It’s not my fault!”.

Too bad Wolfie. Too bad Dougie. Too bad Dickie. You guys screwed up big time and I’m going to do all that I can to hang the millstone of the Iraq fiasco around you necks. You broke it, now you get to keep it for all posterity to see.

Now, if we can only hang a big red toe tag on George W Bush that says “IMPEACHED for gross incompentence!” I can ride off into the sunset knowing all posterity will see the shrub for what he is, the worst president I’ve seen in my lifetime. Worst than Nixon.

“Trying to eliminate Saddam…would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible…. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq …. There was no viable “exit strategy” we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.”

George H. W. Bush
If only his son could read.

You’re right. “Eliminating”, “neutralizing”, or “marginalizing”, might be a better description than “squashing”, though it’s arguing semantics.

And? The biggest mistake made, aside from invading Iraq in the first place, is the continuing support to anyone who claims they won’t attack us. Even if the fragile alliances hold, supporting all sides in a civil conflict is guaranteed to bring continuing chaos. Current policy has zero chance of bringing Democracy, or stability, to anyone.

Oh, and the training and arming part too, doesn’t seem like “squash[ing]” to me.

So, how does arming and paying and training all parties of a multi-faceted civil war bring about peace, stability and Democracy in the Middle East? Just asking.

And, don’t forget the numerous “un permanent” permanent bases we have built.

As long as we have troops in their country, against their will, we will be occupying Iraq. If we are in a “war” in Iraq, perhaps someone can define who is the army we are fighting. And please don’t say the “terrorists” because that is ridiculous, especially since no one can seem to describe who and what is a “terrorist”.