Insinuating that 9/11 was the fault of President Bush is a tenuous position not supported by the following facts: the plan was conceived years in advance, planned years in advance, funded years in advance and those that carried out the attack(s) had been in the United States for some time. Then the attack happened a mere 8 months after President Bush was sworn in. I'd say this was all but entirely during President Clinton's watch.




Yet since 9/11 there have been zero terrorist attacks on American soil. Credit is due President Bush. The thousands of Americans in the "crosshairs" as you put it are the men and women of our Armed Forces. They are trained and equipped for the very purpose of going into harm's way so that American civilians do not have to. These couragous men and women volunteer to join their service branch of choice knowing that there may be a bullet/rpg/mortar/missile with their name on it. This is a service to our country, in defense of our country. I whole-heartedly support them and admire them for their courage, duty and sacrifice. Focusing the enemy half a world away keeps the enemy half a world away which means you and I are that much safer stateside before our keyboards.

I am going to be busy in these next few weeks, so this will probably be my last post.



A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures, natural structures, or the biosphere in general. In the United Nations Security Council Resolution 687, all chemical weapons were classified as WMDs regardless of size. We know for abslute sure that Iraq had VX nerve toxin, so I will use that as an example. If you do not believe me, read this. Iraq originally only admitted to researching it and failing to produce it, and no evidence of it was found after the Gulf War. After the 2003 invasion, however, investigations have indicated that Iraq not only weaponized VX, but dropped three VX bombs on Iran. They most likely purchased much of it. VX does not degrade or wash away, so it is still potent. It is also outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The lethal dose for a human is 10 miligrams for skin contact and 30-50 miligrams for inhalation. A single warhead could kill up to one mllion people. The actual casualties are likely to be much less considering weather, distribution, and the type of target. But we must remember the important lesson Hajaba taught us. Chemical weapons are not to be taken lightly, no matter how benign they may appear.



The only reference I found was that of Turkey condemning us over bombings in northern Iraq that they deemed as indescriminate. Everything else was referring to the Turkish bombings of Kurdish rebels in Iraq and Turkey. I cannot find the article you read.



The Koreans are waving around their nuclear weapons because they want appeasement. Most of the danger from them does not necessarily come from them. The risk right now is that they may start an arms race or sell the technology. Unfortunately, there is not much to commit to war over right now. The most I think we should do at this point is keep up the sanctions and use military strikes against their weapons facilities. Just because Pakistan is a military dictatorship, it does not mean we should invade them. They have been cooperative for right now. Maybe down the line war will be necessary, but not now. Iraq was honestly the more dangerous country.



Definition of propaganda: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect

NBC is owned by GE. GE happens to be a huge lobbyist for the Obama administration and is getting lucrative government contracts as a result. Their biased coverage helps the Obama administration and by extension their own contracts. That makes it propaganda. The others do not really fit the mold because they have nothing to gain.



Discomfort, yes. Not pain. Initially, waterboarding causes apnea which makes people hold their breath and causes severe panic. After 2-3 minutes, it causes extreme pain, lung damage, and brain damage from water entering the lungs and lack of oxygen. The detainees were never held long enough to actually get to the painful part, just the panic and fear. If they were prolonged sessions, I would agree with you, but they were not. Actually, according to the Justice Department, waterboarding was instrumental in stopping a terrorist attack in Los Angeles. The Bush administration always kept national security issues under wraps regardless of whether it was advantageous to them. I would not expect them to release anything.



Economists are actually evenly divided on the cause and treatment of a recession. The only thing they agree on is that the lack of consumer confidence must be remedied. President Bush supporting government intervention means nothing to me. It just shows that he is a RINO. I err on the side of believing government involvement inhibits economic growth. Look at the 1981-1982 recession. In order to combat the recession, Reagan instituted tax cuts, deregulation, reductions in the rate of government spending, and a stable, carefully managed growth of the money supply. After that, Reagan was confident that the economy would restore itself after it was free. He was right. The market corrected itself and we had the longest peacetime economic expansion in history, plowing straight through the 1987 recession.

UNSCR 687 bans the Iraqi possession of all chemical weapons with a range greater than 150 km. As i recall, all chemical rounds found had a third of that range at most. Most of the rounds were in the form of short range artillery shells as I recall.

Here's a quote from the page you cited:

"ISG has not found evidence that Saddam Husayn possessed WMD stocks in 2003, but the available evidence from its investigation—including detainee interviews and document exploitation—leaves open the possibility that some weapons existed in Iraq although not of a militarily significant capability. Several senior officers asserted that if Saddam had WMD available when the 2003 war began, he would have used them to avoid being overrun by Coalition forces.

‘Amir Hamudi Hasan Al Sa’adi told an emissary from the RG leadership, on 27 January 2003, that if Saddam had WMD, he would use it, according to a former officer with direct knowledge of Iraqi military ground operations and planning.

According to a former senior RG official, Iraq had dismantled or destroyed all of its WMD assets and manufacturing facilities. Had Saddam possessed WMD assets, he would have used them to counter the Coalition invasion.

If he had CW, Saddam would have used it against Coalition Forces to save the Regime, according to a former senior official.

Iraqi military planning did not incorporate the use—or even the threat of use—of WMD after 1991, according to ‘Ali Hasan Al Majid. WMD was never part of the military plan crafted to defeat the 2003 Coalition invasion."

Again, not saying Saddam was not a ver bad man, he was, but war was unnecessary. At the time of the invasion, all evidence suggests Iraq possesed no WMDs. Keep in mind that the Chemical Weapons Convention is an independent group from the UN and anything it outlaws is not legally binding for anyone, including those who sign the convention. No, chemical weapons are very serious and all should be banned across the board, in any form.

I cannot seem to find the article to which I'm refering either, but my point was that Kurds are very militant for their indepence and have attacked other people besides those of Saddam's regime. I'm not implying that the Kurds deserved to be attacked and killed with chemical weaponry, but Saddam wasn't the only person who has killed Kurds in response to their militant actions.

So, by your definition of propaganda, Fox News was a propaganda machine during Bush's tenure. Especially since Scott McClellan (White House Press secretary 2003-2006) stated that the Bush administration gave talking points to Fox news commentators. Whether or not that is true, the point remains valid that Fox is biased towards to the right and especially so to the Bush administration. The other news stations have something gain to they bolster their own political position and agenda. Material gain is not the only gain one can obtain.

Nope, waterboard still hurts right off the bat. But its not that it causes pain or discomfort that makes it torture. It is torture because the reason it is implememnted is to gain information. Torture focuses on using coercion to gain information. I don't know what other verb you would use for that situation beside torture. "They tortured him using waterboarding to find out where the weapons were." I think any humanatarian group would consider waterboarding torture.

Reagan didn't use laissez-faire policies. He may have tried to use minimal government influence, but he did institute governmental control of the economy to recover from the recession. Laissez-faire is still bad for a recession and depression.