I just heard on a podcast some interesting quotes from noteable republicans from back in the Clinton/Bosnia days:
“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our over-extended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today�
–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)
“[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation’s armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy.�
–Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
“I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I didn’t think we had done enough in the diplomatic area.�
–Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)
“Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?�
–Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99
“If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy.�
–Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush
“You can support the troops but not the president.�
–Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)
“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is.�
–Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)
September 15, 2006 – 3:02 pm
A Defining Moment for America - The president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture.
President Bush rarely visits Congress. So it was a measure of his painfully skewed priorities that Mr. Bush made the unaccustomed trip yesterday to seek legislative permission for the CIA to make people disappear into secret prisons and have information extracted from them by means he dare not describe publicly.
Well, it looks like my longest running streak yet of not talking about war or international political issues on here has come to somewhat of an end.
I do hope I can still keep it to a minimum, though, and not get worked up into 20 paragraph rants / arguments. It will be difficult, but I think it’s still probably a good idea.
that Noam Chomsky would be invited to speak to a class of cadets at West Point academy? Not I, but it’s certainly a welcome surprise.
I haven’t actually watched the whole hour long video yet, since it’s in Real Video format and I don’t have that installed anywhere right now, but here’s an interesting short excerpt to whet the appetite: Noam answers the question posed by an audience member about the invasion of Iraq, and whether it was justified because of Saddam’s human rights record and/or his status as an “aggressor”.
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Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
I almost didn’t even want to post on this, since the conversations with people supporting the invasion usually reveal the complete unwillingness to acknowledge any evidence that puts our government in a bad light, but what the heck, here’s another one - which I’m sure will be categorically ignored by most of the American public.
I heard a right-wing guy on the radio today resorting to a Clinton-like discussion of what the phrase “facts being fixed around the policy” really meant, as if it could mean anything but what it obviously does.
Guantanamo and human rights: Practicing what we preach - by Jim Rice
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Just in case you think the allegations of torture are isolated incidents, here is a site that has documented them extensively.