Florida Senators Criticize Postwar Iraq Policy

[stickdog]

http://www.local6.com/politics/2430046/detail.html

Florida Senators Criticize Postwar Iraq Policy

MIAMI -- Florida's senators - both Democrats - criticized President Bush's Iraq policies over the weekend, saying there needed to be a clearer focus to the United States' involvement. "What we had was a brilliant military campaign, but did not prepare for the occupation," Sen. Bill Nelson said at a Saturday meeting at a public library in Lakeland. "Despite the military success we were about to have . . . We were not prepared as to how we would transition in."

Sen. Bob Graham told "Fox News Sunday" that the truck bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, which killed the top United Nations envoy and at least 20 others, was a result of the United States losing sight of its mission in the war on terrorism. "I think what we have done by shifting our focus, is to allow al-Qaida - which was on the mat in Spring 2002 - to get up, regenerate and now carry out a series of very sophisticated terrorist attacks," Graham said.

The original mission, as he understood President Bush outline it after the Sept. 11 attacks, was "to identity, dismantle and destroy all terrorist organizations of global reach, that was the mission," said Graham, who voted against the resolution to war in Iraq. "If we stayed on that mission there would have been less chance that terrorists would have been able to have taken the attacks so effectively against us and against the United Nations," he said.

Graham called for President Bush to lay out his "game plan" for postwar Iraq. "How long are were going to be there, what are we going to accomplish, what are the consequence of our being there, including loss of life and tremendous financial cost?" he asked. "And finally, what is our exit strategy, how do we get out of Iraq?"

[grytpype]

1. I wish you wouldn't make all the text italic, it's hard to read.

[Frances]

4. I also would appreciate the text not being in italics

It will be at least a week before my new glasses are ready!

[teryang]

2. Brilliant military campaign???????????

The war was fatally flawed from its initial fraudulent and illegal misconception. Only the most short sighted, cynical or ignorant politicians could have supported it.

Politically, the war was doomed from the moment the Congress passed the war resolution which was one of the most confused, irrational, and pathetic documents Congress ever passed. Read it sometime if you want to understand how f..ked up and cowardly our representatives can be. If you don't know what you doing, if you can only explain it with lies and the most tortured explanations, if its wrong and a violation of international law, how in the hell can you call it brilliant?

"It was a brilliant dive, too bad there was no water in the pool."

[ixion]

3. nothing brilliant about destroying a country

that couldn't defend itself from the US in the first place. That's similar to saying that a bully who beats up a smaller kid had a 'brilliant' fight. NOT!

[gratuitous]

6. I spent a week in Lakeland one day a couple of years ago

I, too, object to any characterization of success for the corrupt Bush administration's execution of Iraq, but after visiting a friend who lives in Lakeland, there are certain political niceties that should be observed: Mostly, the fact that quite a number of people in the area wouldn't know how to pour piss out of a boot if you printed instructions on the heel.

Sen. Nelson made many perceptive points, but they would have been roundly ignored without some pro forma praise of the military. I'm inclined to forgive the first part of the statement because the second part needs to be heard, particularly in areas that could stand to hear some criticism of the Bush regime.

[lkinsale]

5. The Bush Game Plan

The Bush Plan is, say everything is just hunky-dory, peachy keen. And keep saying it and saying it and saying it.

That's the plan.

******

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