Posted on 09/27/2007 12:03:51 PM PDT by bobsunshine
Less than a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein signaled that he was willing to go into exile as long as he could take with him $1 billion and information on weapons of mass destruction, according to a report of a Feb. 22, 2003, meeting between President Bush and his Spanish counterpart published by a Spanish newspaper yesterday.
The meeting at Bush's Texas ranch was a planning session for a final diplomatic push at the United Nations. The White House was preparing to introduce a tough new Security Council resolution to pressure Hussein, but most council members saw it as a ploy to gain their authorization for war.
Spain's prime minister at the time, Jose Maria Aznar, expressed hope that war might be avoided -- or at least supported by a U.N. majority -- and Bush said that outcome would be "the best solution for us" and "would also save us $50 billion," referring to the initial U.S. estimate of what the Iraq war would cost. But Bush made it clear in the meeting that he expected to "be in Baghdad at the end of March."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
the current cost of the war in Iraq, to date, has been over 450 Billion $$$.
That is the amount in the supplementals thus granted, and does not include the Pentagon budget
Bush is requesting $189 billion in 2008
He was just playing a game of brinksmanship. All we had to do is give him a little more time, and negotiate a little harder.
“...Saddam Hussein signaled that he was willing to go into exile...”
Signaled??
I got a signal!
There were no WMD’s. The MSM, the left and the Democrats have so decreed, and the pre-war proclamations by the Clintons, Kerry, Kennedy and all of the members of Congress that recognized the threat of Hussein’s WMD’s have been washed away by the mantra of “Bush lied”. No facts, no truth and absloutely no evidence to the contrary of any nature whatsoever will change that. To the left, it’s a verity beyond reformation. Their minds are closed and no one’s at home.
But anyone who would believe that this was anything but a last-minute attempt to stop or at least disrupt the invasion would be an absolute fool.
Where would Saddam have gone??
His whole life and that of his family was based on Iraq.
If he did go somewhere else, this would only have become the headquarters for having his followers within Iraq wage war against the invading allies.
Yeah, if anyone told Bush $50 billion, they were complete idiots.
The critics need to go re-read Bush's 2002 State of the Union address. Every point is as valid now as it was then. The problem is the critics, with their welded shut minds, refuse to learn a single thing that does not validate their 09-10-01 political dogmas. They are stuck in denial.
Why Iraq
One of the really infuriating things in modern politics is the level of disinformation, misinformation, demagoguery and out right lying going on about the mission in Iraq. Democrats have spent the last 3+ years lying about Iraq out of a political calculation. The assumption is that the natural isolationist mindset of the average American voter, linked to the inherent Anti Americanism (what is misnamed the “Anti War movement”) of the more feverish Democrat activists (especially those running the US’s National “News” media) would restore them to national political dominance. The truth is the Democrat Party Leadership has simply lacked the courage to speak truth to whiners. The truth is that even if Al Gore won the 2000 election and 09-11 still happened we would be doing the EXACT same things in Iraq we are doing now.
Based on the political situation in the region left over from the 1991 Gulf War plus the domestic political consensus built up in BOTH parties since 1991 as well as fundamental military strategic laws, there was NO viable strategic choice for the US but to take out Iraq after finishing the initial operations in Afghanistan.
To start with Saddam’s Iraq was our most immediate threat. We could NOT commit significant military forces to another battle with Saddam hovering undefeated on our flank nor could we leave significant forces watching Saddam. The political containment of Iraq was breaking down. That what Oil for Food was all about. Oil for Food was an attempt by Iraq to break out of it’s diplomatic isolation and slip the shackles the UN Sanctions put on it’s military. There there was the US Strategic position to consider.
The War on Islamic Fascism is different sort of war. in facing this Asymmetrical threat, we have a hidden foe, spread out across a geographically diverse area, with covert sources of supply. Since we cannot go everywhere they hide out, in fact often cannot even locate them until the engage us, we need to draw them out of hiding into a kill zone.
Iraq is that kill zone. That is the true brilliance of the Iraq strategy. We draw the terrorists out of their world wide hiding places onto a battlefield they have to fight on for political reasons (The “Holy” soil of the Arabian peninsula) where they have to pit their weakest ability (Conventional Military combat power) against our greatest strength (ability to call down unbelievable amounts of firepower) where they will primarily have to fight other forces (the Iraqi Security forces) in a battlefield that is mostly neutral in terms of guerrilla warfare. (Iraqi-mostly open terrain as opposed to guerrilla friendly areas like the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of SE Asia).
Did any of the critics of liberating Iraq ever look at a map? Iraq, for which we had the political, legal and moral justifications to attack, is the strategic high ground of the Middle East. A Geographic barrier that severs ground communication between Iran and Syria apart as well as providing another front of attack in either state or into Saudi Arabia if needed.
There were other reasons to do Iraq but here is the strategic military reason we are in Iraq. We have taken, an maintain the initiative from the Terrorists. They are playing OUR game on ground of OUR choosing.
Problem is Counter Insurgency is SLOW and painful. Often a case of 3 steps forward, two steps back. One has to wonder if the American people have either the emotional maturity, nor the intellect” to understand. It’s so much easier to spew made for TV slogans like “No Blood for Oil” or “We support the Troops, bring them home” or dumbest of all “We are creating terrorists” then to actually THINK.
Westerners in general, and the US citizens in particular seem to have trouble grasping the fundamental fact of this foe. These Islamic Fascists have NO desire to co-exist with them. The extremists see all this PC posturing by the Hysteric Left as a sign that we are weak. Since they want us dead, weakness encourages them. There is simply no way to coexist with people who completely believe their “god” will reward them for killing us.
So we can covert to Islam, die or kill them. Iraq is about killing enough of them to make the rest of the Jihadists realize we are serious. They same way killing enough Germans, Italians and Japanese eliminated the ideologies of Nazism, Fascism and Bushido.
Americans need to understand how Bin Laden and his ilk view us. In the Arab world the USA is considered a big wimp. We have run away so many times. Lebanon, the Kurds, the Iraqis in 1991, the Iranians, Somalia, Clinton all thru the 1990s etc etc etc. The Jihadists think we will run again. In fact they are counting on it. That way they can run around screaming “We beat the American just like the Russians, come join us in Jihad” and recruit the next round of “holy warriors”. Iraq is also a show place where we show the Muslim world that there are a lines they cannot cross. On 9-11-01 they crossed that line and we can, and will, destroy them for it -
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
Whatever. We still need to take out Sadr, ‘Nutjob, Assad, and Lil’ Kim. And THEN we can move on to lead toys from china, and late night analysis from Kato Kaelin.
Wonder where Jay Rockefeller, Kennedy and Oscar Wyatt fit into this.
This is a BS story because Saddam could have gone to exile even after we invaded but he chose to walk around and make tapes about how he was still in charge.
My wife went shopping and told me that all those boxes saved us about $100! :)
Thank you for your rational perspective!!
An even better post!
someone should start a website to counter the downingstreetmemos one.
He's a libertarian.
Yes, I remember this story from way back.
why are posting this to me?
I was just pointing out that the poster was factually correct about the monetary expenditures in Iraq.
huh? how am i being intellectually dishonest?
I hear you.
It’s interesting who gets swayed...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ELleCQvew&feature=PlayList&p=1625063191293FDC&index=33
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