Do you support Hans Blix's decision not to have destroyed those kinds of explosives in Saddam's possession back in 1995 when he had the chance? We asked him to, but he refused, saying that Saddam might have some sort of civil application for them. I think that's irresponsible. About as irresponsible as Kerry jumping on this before he knows the full story.

The IAEA and the UN are the enemy. They enabled the Saddamites to be what they were and what some continue to be. John Kerry is taking the side of people like Mohamed el-Baradei against the integrity and judgement of our men and women in uniform. It's un-American to take the side of the enemy like this.

Why can't y'all be fair about anything?

I am appalled that the administration run by an AWOL drunk would dare shift the blame for their own incomptence to the fine young men and women who proudly wear the uniform so wantonly refused by the likes Bush/Cheney.

God Bless America and God Bless John Kerry.

Haha toby. Your post gives the impression that you have gone off the deep end. It's not just the UN and the IAEA-there are pictures of imbed reporters with the military at the explosives site. Also, David Kay backs this up. The only person who impugned the military was Rudy Guiliani. The full story is out there. Sorry but Toby the fact of the matter is: you can't handle the truth

Yeah, and in typical fashion, Bush supporters are coming back with: it's always someone else's fault!

Toby, we are fair about calling you out on your stupid Republican talking point arguments. When you demonstrate a seemingly impossible ability to think and reason for yourself we might begin to think you have some credibility.

Thank you, Mary.

MR. Petzold.... I bet you support this line spouted all the time by likes of rethugs and the NRA regarding the 2nd Amendment: Guns don't kill people, people(criminals) using guns kill people. It's the criminals that need to be taken care of, not the guns. Dont' take away the guns. So I am offering this same philosophy you use regarding guns that would be consistent but in direct contradiction to what you stated above regarding Hans Blix and the explosives, explosives don't kill people...bad guys/evildoers using explosives kill people.

Bottom line Toby, the explosives were protected and under seal, the US was warned by the IAEA about them. These explosives were there before and after the invasion and fall of Hussein. The US failed to have enough troops on the ground to keep these sealed explosives protected and out of hands of the criminals. The bad guys(not Hussein)looted the explosives and now are using them to kill our troops and probably others. Our troops were not ordered to protect that sight or ordered to destroy those explosives as you suggest Hans Blix should have done. Why wasn't the sight bombed after we took over the country? Who is in charge of ordering our troops to carry out these missions and who is the person in charge of this War and responsible for everything good and bad that occurs with this War, The Commander in Chief, George Dubya Bush. The buck stops there! It's not only the fatal incompetence it's the lack of responsibility not only for the successes but also for the catrosphic and colossal failures.

Mary you are so correct on so many levels with your comment Bush is fatally incompetent......

Oh, Toby, you're really stretching it now. I almost feel sorry for you. It's pathetic that you or anyone other than paid Bush campaign staff could try to defend this latest evidence of malfeasance.

Remember in 2000 when Bush supporters liked to talk smack about how Cheney/Bush meant that the "adults were back in charge"? On the contrary, four years of incredibly irresponsible actions, a complete unwillingness to admit error, and an immature black and white view of the world indicate that this has been an administration of spoiled children.

John Kerry is taking the side of people like Mohamed el-Baradei against the integrity and judgement of our men and women in uniform.

against the integrity of our men and women in uniform?

I think not.

Our men and women in uniform were never given orders to secure the stuff. It's the falt of the war planners. Brass and civilian.

They enabled the Saddamites to be what they were and what some continue to be.

I thin kyou'd have to include the Reagan and G H W Bush administrations in that little group of yours.

This argument and the lengths the right has gone to in order to prove themselves correct reminds me of the arguments about creationism, namely, that, since you can't prove evolution in a lab somewhere, that means all of the other corresponding evidence is wrong and therefore, "creationism" is the only thing that's correct.

In this Orwellian example, we have people who have raised doubt in people's minds by saying "we don't know when they were taken" and transferring that into "John Kerry is anti-American and Saddam took them and gave them to the Russians and blah blah blah..."

At best, I will grant that it's possible that some of the explosives were gone before the invasion. Can we be sure they were all there? No, probably not.

But the tapes shown by an embedded reporter, along with David Kay, the IAEA and Iraqi officials, along with insiders in the administration and the armed forced commander (Anderson) all suggest that the explosives were there, and were eventually looted sometime after April 18.

But even with that admission, it gives us a situation where since we're not 100% sure, but only about 98% sure, ipso facto, we're all wrong and we're idiots, and the Admin. is right.

When in reality, what the Bushies are doing is actually akin to what happened with Dan Rather - trying valiantly to prove that they were correct and hanging onto any bit of evidence they can find.

1. An NBC reporter said "we didn't see them." This, of course, proved to be inoperative.

2. Saddam took them first. Of course, the IAEA says, well, no, that's not true.

3. The Russians took it. This of course, turned out false, the Russians denied it and now, Rumsfeld even distanced himself from this issue.

4. Those aren't the exact explosives you're seeing in the tape. (Very Obi-Wan Kenobi, I admit, but it's not really proof of anything.)

And the latest post on this "well, the IAEA is the enemy" is just crazy -- especially when we're talking about trusting the Bush people, who have proved themselves unworthy of any benefit of the doubt anymore.

The IAEA and the UN are the enemy.

How about the media, the French and David Kay, while you're at it?

The insurgents are the enemy, you fucking idiot. Stick your head in the oven, willya?

I want one of those seals, as a lapel pin or badge (how large are they?). A perfect counter to the purple-heart bandaids from the Rethuglican convention.

Ed

emal:

MR. Petzold.... I bet you support this line spouted all the time by likes of rethugs and the NRA regarding the 2nd Amendment: Guns don't kill people, people(criminals) using guns kill people.

That's essentially right, although your characterization of those who believe that "line" is typical of the contemptuous attitude of know-nothing liberals who can't bear to make individuals accountable for their own actions.

It's the criminals that need to be taken care of, not the guns.

Right. That would be the morally responsible position to take, which is why it's an alien concept to you.

Dont' take away the guns.

That's where your ignorant crap hits the fan, emal. A law-abiding society does intend to take away the guns of those who shouldn't have them. Such a society accomplishes this by incarcerating and/or executing those who would abuse a gun in committing a crime. And it is in the nature of warfare that the victorious country deprive the loser of his weapons. In Iraq, that means taking and destroying the hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives that Saddam had. We have done that. Do you understand? Do you understand that it cannot all be accomplished in the wink of an eye?

So I am offering this same philosophy you use regarding guns that would be consistent but in direct contradiction to what you stated above regarding Hans Blix and the explosives, explosives don't kill people...bad guys/evildoers using explosives kill people.

Sophistry. As soon as you recognize the moral inequalities between us and these Islamofascists (and you can bet your ass that Saddam was among that number), the better off you'll be.