Boy, the liberal media is going to have a field day with this one. Aren't they?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080418/wl_mcclatchy/2913186

The blame is spread throughout the Bush administration, with Rumsfield getting much of the blame for what has gone wrong with the invasion.

The report said that the United States has suffered serious political costs, with its standing in the world seriously diminished. Moreover, operations in Iraq have diverted "manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers" from "all other efforts in the war on terror" and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.

"Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there (in Iraq ) were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East ," the report continued.

The Pentagon Institute is right, the right is wrong.

The war in Iraq makes the war in Vietnam look like a well-planned, successful effort.

The National Defense Institute, which supplies journals to all of the various defense war colleges, and other officer and senior civilian training centers, provides material on all sides of issues, the fact that they published it, does not mean that they agree with it, or otherwise suport it. DOD thinks their senior leaders should be exposed to all sides of an issue.

The disaster in Iraq speaks for itself. If you look at all sides, and add up the death, pain, financial costs and the lack of all but the smallest gains in achieving a set of goals that are quite hazy at best and weigh it all against the lack of significant security gains at home, the repercussions to our country's economy, the fallen reputation internationally that we have suffered ... it's time for us to get our troops refocused on the true heart of terrorism. Bush's fiasco will go down in history as the biggest blunder the U.S. has ever committed.

The main goal has been achieved, IE Saddam Hussin has not been able to block the flow of international trade through the gulf region.

"The main goal has been achieved, IE Saddam Hussin has not been able to block the flow of international trade through the gulf region."

?

That was the main goal?

Yes, I'm sure the commodities are flowing through the region now.

" The main goal has been achieved, IE Saddam Hussin has not been able to block the flow of international trade through the gulf region."

That's just laughable to say that was the main goal. You know it. I know it. let's just call a truce and move on from " trade-route " talk. Because you can't back any of that up. So just stop now.

"The main goal has been achieved, IE Saddam Hussin has not been able to block the flow of international trade through the gulf region."

Lets look at both sides of that as well. I'll forgo the fact that we, as a nation, were told the goal was to disarm an Iraqi stockpile of WMD's. I'll forgo the fact that the administration has conveniently rewritten the mission statement time and time again. I'll forgo the fact that most Americans believe the purpose of the war in Iraq is the war in Iraq. Bush has succeeded there, that is he has kept the war in motion throughout the balance of his tenure as CIC. I'll forgo the documented connections between the Bush family and Iraqi oil. Let's just look at your statement.

Saddam never had the ability to block the flow of international trade through the gulf region, nor would he have wanted to. On the one side, had he not been removed from power, the oil would have continued to flow to all the countries doing business with him at that time. Sure, he was a thug and a thief, but he wouldn't have wanted to disrupt trade having seen the result of that back in 1990 when UN sanctions caused most of his neighbors to stop supplying Iraq with its needed imports. On the other side, the cost of taking him out has been the destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure and the slow rebuilding effort which is up against corruption of a huge scale. Only now can it even be considered that they begin to pay for their own reconstruction.

Any way you slice it, Iraq has been a waste of lives, a waste of time and money, and only underscores the necessity of keeping a tighter oversight on presidential actions. Wait a minute, how about even a little oversight. The Republican Congress is the real demon here. They gave Bush no oversight.

"Teacher, please pick me!"

(yes)

Rubber Stamp Republican War, right?

"The main goal has been achieved, IE Saddam Hussin has not been able to block the flow of international trade through the gulf region."

So typical of the neocons, as each excuse is shot down, they come up with another one.

Soon, they will be saying the excuse was that Saddam was hiding porn magazines under his mattress.

That's the beauty of ends justify means reasoning! No need to actually account for anything at all. Just act, and whatever happens, happens!

Pay the spin doctors to put a nice warm fuzzy on it, CC drudge, and the machine goes to work later that day. All the dogma addicts consume, then wander forth, drunk, spreading the word to the masses however they think they can.

"The Republican Congress is the real demon here."

The American media is every bit as culpable as Congress. All forms marched lockstep with the Bush administration's attempt to turn the focus of the real terrorist threat and onto Iraq. Whoever says this country possesses a liberal media need look no further than the right-wing propaganda machine it turned into during the run up to the Iraq war.

Absolutely agreed!

They repeated what they were told, failing to perform their civic duty of investigation.

Had they done this, the rubber stamping would have been a LOT harder.

IMHO, most of the traditional media (I don't like the term mainstream, mostly because that is changing with the up and coming demographics), leans seriously corporate. It might be warm fuzzy lefty corporate, or hard ass rightie corporate, but it's nearly all corporate.

I believe this is a big part of why the traditional media is failing at the civic part of things. Big corporate likes wars and conflict. It's very profitable.

Valid point, but it's Congress that controls the money, not the media. The media can influence public opinion which may or may not influence Congress. Congress gave Bush the wherewithal to screw up the U.S. policy and now we're paying for it.

The main goal in Iraq was to hand both houses of Congress and the oval office back to the Democrats.

Mission Accomplished (soon!).

What in the HELL has Nwokie been smoking? LimBLAH's poop?