NYTimes on Bush Interview

[Ned]

Originally posted by East Street Trader
Bush's administration does not accept that those incarcerated in Guantanamo bay are PoWs Ned.

Because if they were, the terms of the Geneva Convention required their release long ago. And require them to have been treated wholly differently meanwhile.

I think the major problem we have is that we need to question these folks about future attacks. The Geneva Convention prevents that, I believe.

But, why do POWs have to be release before the war is over?

[Agathon]

Come on Ned, won't you answer my questions?

[Ned]

Agathon, do you think it was prudent to let Saddam essentially kick the UN inspectors out in 1998 and do nothing realistic to force Saddam to abide by the UN resolutions on WMD?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ned
Agathon, do you think it was prudent to let Saddam essentially kick the UN inspectors out in 1998 and do nothing realistic to force Saddam to abide by the UN resolutions on WMD?

I can't believe I have to say this again..

Once more with feeling....

1. HE DIDN'T KICK THEM OUT!!!! THEY LEFT BECAUSE THE US TOLD THEM TOO BECAUSE CLINTON WAS GOING TO BOMB THE CRAP OUT OF IRAQ!!!!!

2. IF SADDAM HAD WANTED TO KICK THEM OUT HE WOULD HAVE BEEN WELL WITHIN HIS RIGHTS TO DO SO BECAUSE IT'S A WELL KNOWN FACT THAT THE US WAS USING THE INSPECTIONS TO SPY ON IRAQ!!!!

3. THE UN RESOLUTIONS WERE SUPPOSED TO PREVENT IRAQ FROM BEING A THREAT TO IT'S NEIGHBOURS. THE INSPECTORS WERE PRETTY SURE THEY'D GOTTEN RID OF MOST OF THEM AND THUS IRAQ WAS NO LONGER A THREAT!!!

4. UN RESOLUTIONS ARE THE UN'S TO UPHOLD. IF THE UN CHOOSES NOT TO UPHOLD THEM, THAT IS ITS BUSINESS, NOT AMERICA'S!!!!

[Ned]

So, in your opinion, the UN should have done nothing to get the inspectors back in.

It is your opinion that the UN is a joke?

[rev]

DanS: you're correct: Mr. Powell's UN presentation was massive and quite convincing.

But we gave the same intelligence to UN inspectors while they were still in Iraq and they performed some first-hand investigation. They came back and told us -- and the media -- that our intelligence was "garbage".

I'd be very, VERY surprised if those in the highest levels of our government were not aware of the results of the UN inspectors' closer examinations.

The CIA is not made up of stupid people. They know that when almost all of your intelligence comes from defectors, particularly when most of those defectors are brought out of the country by a single person (Chalabi) -- particularly, again, when that person has made it clear that he seeks the end to the regime currently in power.

The CIA gave Bush all their intelligence, filled with footnotes and doubts; this administration took the footnotes and doubts out and gave it to the public.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ned
So, in your opinion, the UN should have done nothing to get the inspectors back in.

It is your opinion that the UN is a joke?

They should have done if they wanted to.

And @ whoever said that Powell's evidence was quite convincing.

You right wing losers still can't accept that you were wrong. Not mildly wrong, or somewhat wrong, but totally wrong. Your opinions are even more of a laughingstock now than they were last year.

Just admit it.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Tripledoc
What is the 'office of special planning' btw ?

The Office of Special Planning was a unit created by the neo-cons in the Pentagon to sift through all the data on Iraq and cherry pick information for the President that would make the case for war, regardless of whether or not the data had been analyzed, vetted, or discredited.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Agathon


They should have done if they wanted to.

And @ whoever said that Powell's evidence was quite convincing.

You right wing losers still can't accept that you were wrong. Not mildly wrong, or somewhat wrong, but totally wrong. Your opinions are even more of a laughingstock now than they were last year.

Just admit it.

Agathon, why don't you just admit that the United Nations is a joke and a laughingstock without the United States.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Ned
So, in your opinion, the UN should have done nothing to get the inspectors back in.

The UN did get inspectors back in Ned..

The US did not accept their work and decided to invade. Do keep your facts straight.

[Ned]

Originally posted by GePap


The UN did get inspectors back in Ned..

The US did not accept their work and decided to invade. Do keep your facts straight.

The UN got the inspectors back in after the Congress voted for war if they did not go back in.

So much for the UN's credibility and for anyone who contends the UN means anything without the US.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ned


The UN got the inspectors back in after the Congress voted for war if they did not go back in.

So much for the UN's credibility and for anyone who contends the US means anything without the US.

This is how it is supposed to work. The US wanted to do something about Iraq. The UN wasn't keen, so the US stepped up the diplomatic pressure. That got the inspectors back in - there was nothing wrong with that, and I would have been less disturbed had the US managed to persuade the UN that invasion was the only option. But they didn't, and that's what matters.

I thought the first Gulf War was a transparent power grab by the US, but at least Bush pere did it right - and the US came out of that war in probably the greatest position of diplomatic strength that it has ever enjoyed. Too bad dumbo couldn't see the wood for the trees.

[Ned]

Agathon, indeed, Bush I did good. But, in hindsight, he should have demanded Saddam's head. I wonder just how Bush I would have fared in world opinion if he had demanded Saddam's surrender?

[Q Classic]

fared, not faired.

[Q Classic]

i don't really have anything more substantive to say right now, mostly because it's still somewhat interesting to see both sides go at it.