Congress Delegation in Iraq During Blast

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030819/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_congress&cid=512&ncid=1480

WASHINGTON - Several members of Congress were in Baghdad, meeting with the top American civilian administrator when a deadly truck bomb ripped apart the U.N. headquarters. The congressional delegation had been scheduled to meet later with United Nations officials.

"It was a shock," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who spoke with reporters in Washington by telephone after the delegation had left Baghdad and flown to Kuwait City, Kuwait. snip

McCain and others said the attack would not deter U.S. efforts "to bring peace and democracy to Iraq."

"Our faith and resolve is unshaken here," said Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn.

Nevertheless, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., called the attack "a terrible blow to our efforts to put an international face on our efforts to bring reconstruction to Iraq."

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[Beetwasher]

1. Dayam! This is pretty fucked up right here!

"The congressional delegation had been scheduled to meet later with United Nations (news - web sites) officials."

and...

"One member of the delegation, Sen. Maria Cantwell (news, bio, voting record), D-Wash., had been scheduled to meet with Sergio Vieira de Mello, the chief U.N. official in Iraq (news - web sites), who was killed in the attack."

[stickdog]

10. Except they were to meet at the far more secure US headquarters (NT)

[LeftCoast]

2. This bombing was a clear msg to the world

This is going to make it even more difficult for Bushco to get new (non-US) "peace-keepers" into Iraq. Very smart of the folks who did this.

I just don't see a way that the US comes out of this situation as a 'winner'. It seems to me that once the assault phase of the war ended and the guerilla war started things have just gone down-hill for the US. Everything we do now simply breeds more anti-US fighters.

[stickdog]

11. Does BushCo really want new (non-US) "peace-keepers" into Iraq?

If not, isn't BushCo the big winner here?

[DemoTex]

3. Did the Congress Critters flee Bagdhad like Bu$h did Florida on 9/11?

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he and some others were meeting with L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, when they were interrupted by news of the bombing. Bremer then went to the scene of the bombing while most of the congressional delegation later flew to Kuwait.

[wabeewoman]

5. Our local radio (Washington State)

said Cantwell was running late due to transportation and left immediately after the blast with the rest of the delegation to Kuit. And a friend told me that her grandson had been assigned to guard the UN in Bagdad and had just gotten orders to go somewhere else so she didn't know if he had been there or was gone already. For what its worth....

[stickdog]

12. Interesting.

How many other Americans were given the order to "go somewhere else" right before the hotel was attacked?

[NNN0LHI]

7. I am more concerned about what a supposedly intelligent, liberal,...

>>>"Our faith and resolve is unshaken here," said Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn.<<<

...Dem politician like Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn says about this mess then anything Mac. This statement proves to me that these people either just don't get it, or they all getting a cut from the action. Niether of which sets well with me. We are depending on either idiots, or crooks to represent us. I don't know which is worse?

Don

[Philosophy]

4. Further begs the question of why there were no US soldiers guarding there

Shouldn't there have been a whole bunch of US soldiers there to secure the area before the imminent arrival of the members of Congress? :tinfoilhat:

[stickdog]

13. The UN leaders were supposed to come to the US base.

Not vice versa as reported by so many disinfo specialists.

[DemoTex]

6. Who is in charge of security in Bagdhad? At the UN hdqs?

The US military is! We are military occupiers. We are running the show. This is another major military failure by Bu$hco.

[teryang]

8. "It was a shock"

Better get used to it.

Gen. Killer McCaffrey an "expert," can't figure out the resistance strategy. He said it just appears so "counter-intuitive." They are blowing up their own water supplies and utilities. Why attack the UN? (This is a man whose slaughter of untold thousands of retreating Iraqi republican guards under a cease fire in Iraq I did more to engender Iraqi hatred of Americans than any other single act of one man except the nitwit in the WH.)

His stupid counterintuitive observation shows the divide between the so called white/anglo "experts" on the mid east and terrorism and the reality. It is a scorched earth policy directed at conventional sources of legitimacy in the Arab world. Can't provide order? Can't provide basic government services? Can't distribute food and water? Then you will never have ruling legitimacy. It is the cloud of doom for the American installed Provisional Authority and the IRC.

They might as well ask usurper Bush why. Why according to dimwit: "Because they hate peace. They are murderers with no respect for innocent lives." The words could apply to him and his cabinet. They invaded a country illegally, killed, maimed and crippled thousands of Iraqis including thousands of innocents, and now would like peace as a hostile invader occupying someone else's country. It would have been nice for many invaders throughout history, if the opposition just metamorphed into slavish quislings overnight. Ahhh, we are done with our invasion, you're supposed to stop fighting back. I guess they didn't get the PNAC memo.

[stickdog]

14. Counter-intuitive indeed.

Unless it was US black ops -- in which case it makes perfect sense.

[Paschall]

9. McCain's comment is a hummer

"McCain and others said the attack would not deter U.S. efforts 'to bring peace and democracy to Iraq.'"

Funny how they hid the truth from us so well. Who knew that before last March Iraq was not at peace?