U.S. Justifies War, Germany Says 'We Were Right'

[Flagg]

U.S. Justifies War, Germany Says 'We Were Right'
16 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By John Chalmers

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld launched a spirited justification of the Iraq (news - web sites) war on Saturday, responding to Germany's insistence that the invasion was wrong and events had proved it right.



But both sides took a conciliatory stance at a security conference in the German city of Munich, with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer opening the door -- albeit reluctantly -- for NATO (news - web sites) to take a stabilization role in Iraq.


There was none of the open acrimony between the two men that electrified last year's Munich conference, which came just weeks before the United States unleashed its campaign to topple Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

[sallyseven]

1. Bushies are caving

They know what they did was wrong.

[UpInArms]

2. Wrong?

How about criminal?

They should be facing war crime tribunals and live the rest of their lives in prison.

[kalian]

5. Not going to happen....

unfortunately... :eyes:

[hippiechick]

3. Since when has the BFEE ever had a conscience ?

They're just covering their asses to get Int'l troops in there to help clean up the mess we made, and so that Halliburton & Carlyle can get their military & mess hall contracts & rake in a couple bazillion more dollars.

BFEE motto: We broke it, you fix it.

:hippie:

[unblock]

4. later, rumsfeld argued that hitler's invasion of poland was a-ok

same rationale. "pre-emptive" strike of a massive military against a puny country with no legitimate excuse.

[kalian]

6. Yup...

based on shrub's and rummy's definition, it was "OK" to invade
Poland since they were an "imminent" threat....not!
The similarities are very disturbing...

[teryang]

7. Poland has attacked Germany for the last time!

I think the central Europeans are delighted that the American ruling class has decayed into diastrous buffoonery. While they publicly take this tact and that, critical and diplomatic, they secretly rejoice and encourage our worst traits, trusting that our path downward is accelerating.

[Barkley]

8. Good "Old Europe" was right!

[GermanDJ]

9. What has become of the NATO worries me

I mean, maybe NATO never was what we were told (a defense against the big bad in the east). That's not for me to say: Maybe they really defended us (Western Europe) against the threat of communism.

But when you look at it: NATO is becoming less and less a unity based on defense. Right now it's at best cleaning up the mess that illegal military aggression leaves behind and at worst it's a threat against a lot of countries, especially Russia, some countries around the Caspian Sea and SE Asia.

The only international organization that has any right to get involved in Iraq (apart from the Red Cross, NGO's, etc.) is the UN. THEY have to help the Iraqis to govern their land, establish a real democracy, etc. What the he** does another military organization have to do in Iraq?

The Iraqis must feel that they get screwed yet again.

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. Story link?

Thanks

An aside question for DU'ers today:
Have been having mega trouble getting into DU LBN and postings today. Have had to reload on almost every attempt to access this site. Anyone else experiencing online technical difficulties?

I keep getting a 502 Connection Hangup message. This is only happening when I access DU, not any other Internet sites.

on edit:
Can see original posting cannot be updated due to time limit.
Here's the link:
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=821179&tw=wn_wire_story