Rice: Iraq War ‘Seemed the Course’

Secretary Rice says “We have to be right 100 percent of the time, they have to be right once.” This is group think. We can now see what happens when you are “wrong 100 per cent of the time”.

Rice said, “because we and the intelligence agencies around the world thought we were dealing with something that turns out to have been a different kind of threat.” She seems to have confused her Gulf Wars…We did not have the support of the intelligence communities around the world for the invasion of Iraq. The UN monitors and most of our allies believed we were wrong. Has she already forgotten “Freedom Fries”?

Condi, Condi…you simply won’t admit that the Bush Administration was hell bent on going to war with Saddam no matter what. You sold the war to the public with the WMD argument. So why don’t you just say “Yes, if we had known there were no WMD’s, there would have been no rationale for a pre-emptive invasion.” That’s it. Period. End of discussion. The more you try to defend it any other way leads people to believe that you did what so many accuse you of…politicizing the intelligence, intending to remove Saddam no matter what, and going to do what you wanted to

Rice knows that Bush twisted intelligence. She knows it’s an outright lie that Bush now claims he had bad intellgence.
We know that Cheney personally went to CIA headquarters to make them re-write their reports when they did not say what the White House wanted them to say.
We know from CIA Agent Joseph Wilson that he was the agent who found the Iraq-Nigeria Uranium deal paper to be a pure fabrication and that he reported it to the White House – which then proceeded to use the paper as evidence at the UN. And Wilson’s reward was to have the White House leak the name of his active CIA-agent wife, potentially putting her life in danger.
We also know that Bush told us there were “al-Qaeda elements” in Saddam’s Iraq. We now know he intentionally misled us because he knew those elements were being attacked by Saddam and had located their headquarters in the Kurdish No-Fly Zone, where American planes protected them from Saddam!
Bush was going to rationalize the need to take out Saddam one way or the other. It’s a shame he didn’t take out al-Qaeda first. They were our real enemy then, and they still are now.

What Condi basically admits is that even if the intel was right, they would have come up with different excuses to go to war. They decided to go to war way before 9/11 according to many insiders. The WMD was a convenient excuse.

This woman has blood stained hands. Her imprint in our national history is finished and it is disgusting. What she, and bush, and all the other warmongers are practicing is what they have done all along to justify the atrocity they are responsible for, HISTORICAL REVISIONISM!

Well, by golly, Hillary will straighten things out for H Obama! But she did believe the faulty intelligence. Just remember that she and Bill have faulty memories and were known for being the world’s best liar in the 1990′s.

I am so tired of the media beating this same dead horse. What if Bush would have just sat on his hands. What do you think the world would look like today?Saddam had over 9 months to hid everything and move it. Thanks to the new, he knew we were coming. If he had nothing to hide then why didn’t he let the UN in immediately. They found evidence of yellow cake in Syria, where do you think that came from? The bad guys have been tied up in Iraq trying to get us. I sure would rather they be fighting over there than here on our own land. Or maybe you guys would rather see American women and children dead.

Even Biden admitted that they will test Obama. I just hope not too many Americans die when they come to get us. I’m afraid Obama will not know what to say or do because it won’t be on a teleprompter all written out for him. We will hear a bunch of hums and hahs.

romario~

OMG, this isn’t group think. It’s worst. Lack of personal honesty! Denial of the obvious! This administration will go down in history as the most incompetent in history.

This interview by Stephanopoulos of Rice is one of the weakest I’ve seen. More like Hannity interviewing Palin. Reporting like this enabled Bush to draw us into the Iraq war. When will you learn!!!!

It was a lie then. It’s a lie now. A piece of garbage wrapped in an American flag and rammed down the throat of the people. Good riddance to all of these criminals.

Norris Ward, Secretary Rice’s statement, “We have to be right 100 percent of the time, they have to be right once”, has nothing to do with group think. It is a fact. For what ever reason, the jihadists have not attacked us on our own soil since 9/11. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have something in the works — the first attack on the World Trade Center happened in the early 1990s and it took until 2001 to attack America again. I would say that the Administration did not do everything right after 9/11 – there were mistakes and there was a lot of uncertainty. I am most opposed to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and any deviation from our Constitution within the US and involving US citizens (Enemy Combatants are different). Whatever your opinion of Bush et al., he faced immense challenges and with a few exceptions, I wish him well. I also wish President elect Obama well and that he understands the threats we face, the limitations on the federal government’s power in the Constitution, and that big government alone will only cause a depression.

Saddam was glib and arrogant…but he was no world threat. He was the result of “kick the cat” mentallity that Dubya brought into office after his dad screwed Kuwait up.

JimF, I also should have said that I actually do agree that we went into Iraq with faulty intelligence, no realistic plan, and not enough troops.

Cheney/Satan 2012

Frankly – 1st of all WMDs WERE found. Chemical weapons were found. Bio units were found minus the weapons which would fit in a vial and could have easily been buried in the sand. We know materials were hauled to Syria – not sure what. The recent Israeli raid resulted in radiation – probably from Iraq WMDs. But who knows?
But even if there had been no WMDs how many decades do you allow a country to twart UN resolutions and break the ceasefire they signed after Gulf War I? Might as well eliminate the UN if they won’t enforce any sanctions after 10 years. So the international war was justified and was successful. Took just a few weeks. Mission accomplished. What was a dismal failure was the 5 year mop-up peacekeeping operation. Had the coalition been more tough in the beginning it would not have taken 5 years. We were overly concerned with collateral damage and PR. A Patton could have dealt with it in less than a year.
The end result is a democratic Iraq – a great success by George W. Bush.

It was the bait and switch move on a grand scale. Al Qaida attacks us and Bush/Rice pivot to invade Saddam. He has no ties to Al Qaida and even acts as a buffer against Islamic fanatics and Iran. Cheney conjures up some phony intel about an Al Qaida tie in and immiment threat from WMDs and we’re off. Those who attacked us are still at large and dangerous 7 years later. Another Bush con job.

If you read Colin Powell’s self-penned biography, he clearly states that it was he who put an end to our pursuit and destruction of the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein in 1991 because he didn’t think it was “right” to have the video images of us destroying another country’s armed forces on the evening news. He advised the President to stop the onslaught. Were it not for him, George H.W. Bush would have gotten rid of Saddam the first time around and none of this would have been an issue.

hopesprings52,
Millions in America will miss President Bush amidist sorrow tears and little consolation. Hope you wont be one of them.

If CHURCHILL had faced the opposition President BUSH faced, Hittler would have won the war.
So, I for one, SALUTE YOU PRESIDENT BUSH for your LEARDESHIP!
There are times one simply can not compromise. And, you didnt. You havent compromisde. Therefore, YOU WIN. YOU WON.
And, surely many more winnings are on the way for you.
Thank You! for having kept AMERICA safe.
And Thank You! Condoleezza Rice for the good job as well.

universe2069,
Ahmadinejad won the war with greatly increased influence for Iran, as well as Vladimir, who now can increase Russian presence in Syria and Iran without much opposition. And they didn’t have to spend a nickel for it, W. did it all for them. But I neglected to mention Bin Laden, who now has another country to operate from.

Condi is the worse Secretary of State in history.
She is nothing more than a George Bush butt kisser that has done nothing of consequence in her position. I will be so glad to see her go!

Rice was ineffective because she is unable to think independently. What wasted intelligence. She and Rove and Bush know full well that they are lying when they keep repeating that it was the fault of intelligence and that everyone had the same intel. They gambled with soldiers lives and the soldiers lost.

I bet she particularly regrets ordering Blix out of Iraq when he could have categorically assured that there were no WMD. To blame it on “intelligence failures” is a totally dishonest copout.
It is difficult for me to believe that Stanford University will be willing to take this dishonest incompetent back.

A shame we have to pay for Condi to globetrot, and to hear her spout nonsense now that we know that Saddam HAD NO WMD’S and HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11.
Our intelligence agencies tried to tell them that and quickly learned that telling Bush anything he didn’t want to hear was an almost certain career-ender.
Condi, let’s recall, said (according to the transcript of her remarks) that “We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon-and we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought — maybe six months from a crude nuclear device.”
But then she made headlines around the world with the probably scripted:
“The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
We should stop paying for her travel, and hope that Hillary can be more effective and certainly, more honest.
Rice is a smart woman who let herself become a part of the Bush disinformation nonsense. Was she naive or did she compromise her principles?
In any event, had a kid of mine died in Iraq I’d have been protesting at the White House calling them war criminals, for having lied to us about the Iraq threat that wasn’t, but sending more than 4200 brave young Americans, none of them the offspring of any of the White House gang.

A shame we have to pay for Condi to globetrot, and to hear her spout nonsense now that we know that Saddam HAD NO WMD’S and HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11.
Our intelligence agencies tried to tell them that and quickly learned that telling Bush anything he didn’t want to hear was an almost certain career-ender.
Condi, let’s recall, said (according to the transcript of her remarks) that “We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon-and we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought — maybe six months from a crude nuclear device.”
But then she made headlines around the world with the probably scripted:
“The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
We should stop paying for her travel, and hope that Hillary can be more effective and certainly, more honest.
Rice is a smart woman who let herself become a part of the Bush disinformation nonsense. Was she naive or did she compromise her principles?
In any event, had a kid of mine died in Iraq I’d have been protesting at the White House calling them war criminals, for having lied to us about the Iraq threat that wasn’t, but sending more than 4200 brave young Americans, none of them the offspring of any of the White House gang.

Nice story staphonopolous. Do you think you might find time now to do a story on the Obama Supreme Court decision tomorrow. Hope that’s not too much to ask.

We went to Iraq for the Cheney oil rights and used WOMD as the excuse. We still don’t have the oil rights. Cheney was the real president; Bush was the puppet.

I believe Neal said some of what I wanted to say!!!! Thanks Neal!
I don’t blame Bush for the CIA’s need for war.
It was bad intelligence that lead us there. I believe they had an adgenda and they wanted Bush to send us to war for them.
They get to travel more when there is war. They don’t work in the U.S.A. when we are at war. They work out of the country and they like the fact that they stay in these nice hotels and work with shady people. They have now become the shady people.
Why blame Chaney, or even Condi for the work they did?
They were to work for the President and I believe they failed to do so.
I believe that Bush even replaced the head man, so that the evidence he was given might be more credible.
I believe Bush did what he thought he should do to protect us. I thank him and the others who work to protect us everday.
I believe all the weapons that Saddam had ended up in Syria and other countries, and that they had plenty of time to move them, since the U.N. would not move on Iraq.
We told them about the attack in plenty of time for the sands to be moved and weapons to be buried.
Even Saddam found a hole, so why shouldn’t we think his weapons are underground or in Syria.

Condi said, “I still am concerned that everyday, the terrorists plot against us…………And that undoubtedly defending the homeland continues to be the greatest threat.”
Then why haven’t you and the current administration secured our own borders? Only a tiny fraction, less than 1%, of all cargo containers entering this country through our ports are inspected. Instead of prosecuting an illegal war you should have spent some of that trillion dollars on personnel, training, and equipment so EVERYTHING entering our country gets inspected. You should have also spent some of that money on really securing our nuclear facilities here. We know that you will never admit the true agenda of Cheney/Bush regarding the invasion of Iraq. Trying to re-write history is the only party-accepted line at this point…..

I love you guys, Chemical Ali (Ali Hassan al-Majid) just got sentenced to a SECOND death sentance for gasing the Kurds and you still don’t believe there are chemical weapons in Iraq (also known as weapons of mass destruction). Please, get a clue!

Bush/Rice
History will vindicate you hopefully despite all of the liberal lies that will fill the history books no doubt. Clinton thought he had WMD’s, he was just too busy playing hide the cigar to do anything about it. Saddam built numerous torture chambers and murdered over 700,000 of his own people with CHEMICAL weopons, but yet he was no threat to the free world.

Actually, there were two key intelligence failures. The first occurred at the Whitehouse and the second at the State Dept. Clueless is as clueless does.

I am sick to my stomach that Stanford is re-hiring Condi Rice back at their school. She now wants to work on Public School Education issues for k-12 grades. Who the heck is she to claim to know anything about Public Education? She has no children, has never even toured a public school or gone to a public school her whole life. Has no idea that teachers who change careers lose their social security. And why should she care when she gets millions of dollars of dividends from Chevron Oil. She has no idea that Public Schools in California and many other places are falling apart because Republicans like her don’t want to raise taxes or approve Bond measures to raise funds for the Public Schools. Very sad indeed. I have lost all respect for Standford.
Maybe you can convince her to help the homeless along University Ave in Palo Alto or have her go work in a Public School like one in East Palo Alto for a year or two and see how she likes it. If she does work in one then her social security also be deducted appropriately just like the rest of us.
George, I am also disappointed you didn’t even ask any of these questions.