Kennedy: "final nail in the coffin for President Bush's phoney argument"

[sabra]

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1413652006

<snip>

Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and the Senate Majority leader, said he had not seen the classified report, but said Americans understand that the US must continue to fight terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.

"Either we are going to be fighting this battle, this war overseas, or it's going to be right here in this country," Mr Frist said yesterday during ABC television's This Week broadcast, echoing an argument that the US president, George Bush, frequently makes.

But one of the sternest critics of the war, Ted Kennedy, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, said: "This intelligence document should put the final nail in the coffin for President Bush's phoney argument about the Iraq war.

"The fact that we need a new direction in Iraq to really win the war on terror and make Americans safer could not be clearer or more urgent - yet this administration stubbornly clings to a failed 'stay-the-course' strategy.

"How many more independent reports, how many more deaths, how much deeper into civil war will Iraq need to fall for the White House to wake up and change its strategy in Iraq?"

[Laurab]

1. One can only hope. k&r for Teddy!

[Dystopian]

2. K & R for Teddy! eom

[rosesaylavee]

3. Yes, how many more deaths

or data points B***sh?

[Erika]

4. Terrorists are renegades who should be treated by law enforcement

When there are units set up overseas training these fanatics, bombings are permissable.

There is no sane reason to believe arm to arm combat is ever a possibiliyy here. W has overshot his wad. Again.

[IChing]

5. His 'wad' was the deaths of thousands upon thousands

and billions and billions of $

thank you Ted, I hope it is true for I want that coffin to viewed by
Americans and that coffin needs to be shown in state under honors
unlike the respect that was given to our dead soldiers.

[Old and In the Way]

6. What'll be the new reason de jour for justifying the traversty in Iraq?

"We must save the Unitary Executive's Right to torture"!

If the actions of this administration- lying about the causus belli to invade and occupy Iraq; the secret energy meetings, taking down the fight against terrorism pre-9/11; allowing us to become stuck in a quagmire that is draining our Treasury and destroying our international reputation and national discourse; creating the conditions to allow a ten-fold increase in radical terrorism....can we consider what, in other times, would be tantamount to treason? The bin Ladens' fronted George a lot of money many years ago....the House of Bush has always been a sockpuppet for the House of Saud - who's to say that the bill has not come due?

Seriously, if the actuals of GHW Bush do not constitute a prima facia case for treason against the United States of America, I really don't know what someone could do to be charged with it today.

[ninkasi]

9. It was obvious to anybody with any ability to use common sense

That Bush wanted to invade Iraq all along. We could very plainly see that such an invasion would unite Muslims against the illegal and unjustified action of invading a Muslim country not guilty of being involved with the events of 9-11.
The Bush administration used bullying and claims of being un-American to silence the critics. They have been shameless in their use of dragging out what was, after all, a national tragedy and trying to pain the Democratic party as a bunch of wimpy appeasers.

This war has been extremely brutal to both the citizens of Iraq, and our own troops, and our troops have been lied to, and discarded after they can no longer provide cannon fodder for Dubya. In ever horrifying steps, Bush has led the country to show support for a monstrous war, to allow him to ignore laws he doesn't like, to use 9-11 in every speech, regardless of what the speech was about.

Now, it has come to this. Say it out loud, to see how it sounds. The president of the United States not only wants to use torture, even though even somebody of his limited intelligence should be able to realize that innocent people will be tortured,he also insists that his crimes be declared retroactively NOT crimes. He wants to kidnap people, he wants every phase of national life to be subject to his whims. Holding people without charges, not allowing them to consult with lawyers, or their families, using torture to get confessions which may not be true out of anybody he deems to be a terrorist.

We have accused him to wanting to act like a king. We are mistaken. He wants to act like a god. I agree with every word you wrote, Old and In the Way. As frightening as it is to contemplate, I have no doubts that he has ordered other actions that would be considered even more shocking. He is a traitor. He is a sociopath, and is enabled by one of the most corrupt Congresses in our country's history. I don't know what made you choose your screen name, but as far as I'm concerned, your age has given you wisdom, and you are not only NOT in the way, you are among the ones we need to pay attention to the most.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Kind words Nikasi!

I hate that the reality is, what it is and our Congress is compliant in allowing this petulant boy-king to have his way like it is some devine right of his heritage. He's killing us, literally and figutively.....at some point, we will enter into an extra-legal crisis to resolve this mess.

As far as my screen name, at the time of my initial sign-up, I happened to be listening to the great bluegrass
band, Old and In the Way, playing their namesake song, "Old and In the Way". I think the words tell the story...

Old And In The Way
Lyrics: David Grisman
Music: David Grisman


Chorus
Old and in the way, that's what I heard them say
They used to heed the words he said, but that was yesterday
Gold will turn to gray and youth will fade away
They'll never care about you, call you old and in the way

Once I hear tell, he was happy
He had his share of friends and good times
Now, those friends have all passed on
He don't have a place called home
Looking back to a better day, feeling old and in the way



When just a boy, he left his home
Thought he'd have the world on a string
Now the years have come and gone
Through the streets he walks alone
Like the old dog gone astray, he's just old and in the way

[ninkasi]

12. Thank you for sharing that

I completely understand now why you chose the name. I always enjoy your comments. Your screen name expresses how I sometimes feel. I'm 63, and a great-grandmother. Sometimes, I can see the thought "Hey, you're old, and we're young, and the future belongs to us". Youth can sometimes be trying.

Thats why I admire some of the younger Democrats, like our Ava. She might be young, but they will never get her to drink the Kool-Aide. I completely admire, and stand in awe of, the many talented people we have right here on this forum. Without people like you, I would be curled up in a fetal position, just praying that this period of American history will serve as an example of how close we came to a dictatorship. We won't give up, though, will we?

[Old and In the Way]

13. Give up? Never! Take heart that our fight is righteous and true.

They had it all figured out...except for one thing, that damn internets. It's the great equalizer, the only media that they can't buy and control. I suspect that if the Republicans could do-over one vote, it would have killed the legislation creating the "www" back in the 90s. They never saw it coming. We will wear the bastards down; there are lots more of us and our numbers are growing. The Republican Syndicate is living on borrowed time. They've reached as far as they can go, soon...maybe this year, maybe 2008, maybe 2010, the House of Cards comes tumbling down. And this time, unlike in the 80s/90s, they'll be no mercy for these criminals. I only regret that the Internet was not availabe to us when we had them on the ropes for Iran-Contra, BCCI, Guns-for-Hostages, I think the outcome would have been completely different.

[Miss Chybil]

7. The White House will never wake up.

Like Clinton said about the terrorists, they live by an ideology, the don't worry about facts. It's the same with the Bush administration. We are at the mercy of dangerous fools - on this side of the globe and the other.

[opihimoimoi]

8. THE GOP: The ONE Plan Party...no new ideas...just the same old one

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. GO Teddy! recommended!