380 tons - wow...that's more than even i weigh
380 Tons of Explosives Missing from Sensitive Former Iraqi Military Installation. The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations. (source: new york times, 25 oct 2004)
Saddam Hussein's regime posed a threat to the security of the United States and the world. With the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, a leader who pursued, used, and possessed weapons of mass destruction is no longer in power.(source: results in iraq: 10 ways the liberation of iraq supports the war on terrorism)
yet i read for myself the cia's summation of key findings on iraq's weapons of mass destruction at the time we shocked and awed in baghdad, and i think i've got it straight now:
not only did the us fail to find weapons of mass destruction in iraq since there were apparently none there to begin with it also seems to have lost a boatload of potent suckers that were.
yeah, these missing weapons are really bugging me, making my voting finger itch.
maybe me and others. i see that the president has finally broken his public silence on the weapons today in pennsylvania:
today - 27 oct 2004 - from the ap: [bush in pa]: Now the senator is making wild charges about missing explosives when his top foreign policy adviser admits, quote, we do not know the facts, Bush said. Think about that - the senator's denigrating the action of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts. Unfortunately, that's part of a pattern of saying almost anything to get elected.
Bush was referring to remarks made by Kerry adviser Richard Holbrooke Tuesday in an interview with Fox News. Holbrooke said the U.N. inspectors had told the American military this was a major depot. He added: I don't know what happened. I do know one thing - in most administrations the buck stops in the Oval Office. (source: kerry hammers at bush on missing explosives in iraq, minneapolis star tribune)
buck stopping. yeah, that's the ticket...
as i wait for tuesday, i'm still mulling on this oldie but goodie the debates dredged up, too:
13 mar 2002 white house press conference excerpt:
Q Mr. President, in your speeches now you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? Also, can you tell the American people if you have any more information, if you know if he is dead or alive? Final part -- deep in your heart, don't you truly believe that until you find out if he is dead or alive, you won't really eliminate the threat of --
THE PRESIDENT: Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he's alive at all. Who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not; we haven't heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is -- really indicates to me people don't understand the scope of the mission.
Terror is bigger than one person. And he's just -- he's a person who's now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match. He is -- as I mentioned in my speech, I do mention the fact that this is a fellow who is willing to commit youngsters to their death and he, himself, tries to hide -- if, in fact, he's hiding at all.
So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you. I'm more worried about making sure that our soldiers are well-supplied; that the strategy is clear; that the coalition is strong; that when we find enemy bunched up like we did in Shahikot Mountains, that the military has all the support it needs to go in and do the job, which they did.
And there will be other battles in Afghanistan. There's going to be other struggles like Shahikot, and I'm just as confident about the outcome of those future battles as I was about Shahikot, where our soldiers are performing brilliantly. We're tough, we're strong, they're well-equipped. We have a good strategy. We are showing the world we know how to fight a guerrilla war with conventional means.
Q But don't you believe that the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead or alive?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I say, we haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run. I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban.
I call my philosophy and approach compassionate conservatism. It is compassionate to actively help our fellow citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on responsibility and results. And with this hopeful approach, we will make a real difference in people's lives.
source: president george w. bush, fact sheet on compassionate conservatism, april 30, 2002)
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Despite the competing meanings of the term, liberalism remains, according to the oxford companion, a focal point of Americans' efforts to balance the benefits of capitalism with larger moral and ethical priorities. (source: now with bill moyer
Long distance supporters : Pakistani schoolchildren walk with a cut-out of US Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry... as part of a rally organized by the World Minorities Alliance NGO to show support for Kerry. (AFP/Jewel Samad)
Yahoo! News - AFP Top Photos
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