http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTELLIGENCE_CONGRESS?SITE=CATOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-03-01-03-57-24<snip>
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region's rival Islamic sects against each other, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said in an unusually frank assessment Tuesday.
"If chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be defeated in that country ... this would have implications for the rest of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world," Negroponte said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats.
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So instead on a thug like Saddam who had the "potential" to become a regional threat but had no WMD, we now find ourselves on the precipice of an Pan-Islamic Civil War without borders which not clearly threatens regional stability and is utterly antithetical to Democracy, but it runs the risk of shutting down the flow of oil from the region completely as well as destabilizing Riyadh. Not to mention moderate arab states.
All because we made about 16 bajillion false assumptions about the threat Saddam posed to what.....regional stability. At least with thugs in power sectarian infighting could be held in check.
Was there was ever a better case of "better the devil you know"???
George Bush is solely responsible for this mess. By miscalculation...by prevarication...by misstep after mistep...by utter malfeasance.
And yet the arrogant SOB continues hell bent on his path of destruction.
This is our stake in the ground...this is where the GOP can be split
I personally do not believe kicking Nero's ass to the curb (impeachment) has any impact on what hell he may have wrought on the world.
It sure will be an important apology to make.