Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush

Washington Post ^ | November 19, 2006 | Peter Baker

[TheTruthAintPretty]

The weekend after the statue of Saddam Hussein fell, Kenneth Adelman and a couple of other promoters of the Iraq war gathered at Vice President Cheney's residence to celebrate. The invasion had been the "cakewalk" Adelman predicted. Cheney and his guests raised their glasses, toasting President Bush and victory. "It was a euphoric moment," Adelman recalled.

Forty-three months later, the cakewalk looks more like a death march, and Adelman has broken with the Bush team. He had an angry falling-out with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this fall. He and Cheney are no longer on speaking terms. And he believes that "the president is ultimately responsible" for what Adelman now calls "the debacle that was Iraq."

[indthkr]

bump for later..........

[melancholy]

The Russians killed over 1 million Afghani's

Man! I million?! You've got to stop reading Afghani blogs!

[kcvl]

[Diplomat]

Fine, you state the Afghani dead in the 10 years of the failed Soviet occupation.

[melancholy]

Fine, you state the Afghani dead in the 10 years of the failed Soviet occupation.

5 killed, 10 injured, 2 missing, and 7 displaced to Pakistan.

Source: unknown, could be the same as yours.

[driftless2]

So what would you have done with Iran?

[edsheppa]

Don't forget Syria.

Completely close the borders. Encourage dissension. Arm and train dissidents. Massive communications and propaganda effort - e.g. the mullahs have outlawed satellite dishes so send in alternatives. Economic pressure on Iran and its trading partners. Sabotage. Provoke an armed confrontation.

What I wouldn't do is what the US has done so far - jaw jaw in the UN.

[My2Cents]

LS, is there a link to that article? Thanks.

[driftless2]

Provoke a confrontation? You mean war, right? We'll have to disagree about what was the greater danger. You're right about Iran being a dangerous state, but Iran never invaded other countries, used wmds, or tried to assassinate an American president. There were too many instances of possible Iraqi connections to everything from terror attacks using wmds to possible involvement with 9/11. While they might not all be true, there's too much smoke and too much evidence of Hussein's past crimes to assume they're all false. For instance the chemical mixer in the first 9/11 bombing was an Iraqi named Abdul Rahman Yasin. After the bombing he went back to Iraq where he was given shelter by Hussein.

The Irani's certainly support international terrorism, but not of the stuff that can be assumed or traced to Hussein can be traced to the Irani's. In my mind, Iraq was the more immediate threat.