FRONT Page Yahoo! In the News: Memos show determined U.S. march to war

[BigBearJohn]

Knight Ridder, for example, reported on Feb. 13, 2002, that the president had decided in principle on overthrowing the Iraqi leader and ordered "a combination of military, diplomatic and covert steps" to achieve that goal.

Six days later, then-Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., visited U.S. Central Command headquarters and, Graham said in a memoir, was told by Gen. Tommy Franks that despite ongoing operations in Afghanistan, "military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq." Franks denied making the comment.

Richard Haass, the State Department's director of policy planning, told an interviewer that in an early July 2002 chat with then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, he questioned putting Iraq at the center of the U.S. war against terrorism. He said Rice advised him "essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath."

Moreover, they echo other accounts of Bush's determination to unseat Saddam, who once tried to assassinate his father.

In a March 22, 2002, letter to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Blair political adviser Peter Ricketts advised steering the public rationale for war away from "regime change."

"'Regime change' does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam," Ricketts wrote.

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/bush_administration

[CatWoman]

1. GOOD!!!

Since DU is so slow, I'm going on Yahoo to slap some freepers around.

[tmooses]

2. I think the media misses a huge point when they make statements

like "Knight Ridder, for example, reported on Feb. 13, 2002, that the president had decided in principle on overthrowing the Iraqi leader and ordered "a combination of military, diplomatic and covert steps" to achieve that goal.

Six days later, then-Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., visited U.S. Central Command headquarters and, Graham said in a memoir, was told by Gen. Tommy Franks that despite ongoing operations in
Afghanistan, "military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq." Franks denied making the comment. "

There's a lot of difference between deciding in principle to overthrow
Saddam and manipulating facts to predicate an invasion of a sovereign
country preemptively and lying to Congress on what efforts and intelligence was available. It's good that at least Bush's criminal behavior is getting a little bit more media attention, but it does make me wonder why we knew 3 years ago what was going on and now it seems like a revelation to some people. The news was out there for everyone-including the ones who now believe that Bush lied. When we invaded Iraq in March of 2003, I was being castigated by coworkers for being anti-American, not supporting the troops and not patriotic.
I don't have contact with those people anymore, but I wonder if their attitudes have changed.

[ailsagirl]

3. This is great!! Any mention of it whatsoever on TV news??

[Fridays Child]

4. Kicked and Rated 5

[BigBearJohn]

5. .