Bush Ignored Pre-War Intelligence

A lot of folks die.
At lasts the war ends.
The world is made safe
For Dick Cheney's friends.
-Calvin Trillin

Analysts Warned of Iraq Chaos

By Walter Pincus and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and "probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups" in the Muslim world.

The intelligence assessments, made in January 2003 and widely circulated within the Bush administration before the war, said that establishing democracy in Iraq would be "a long, difficult and probably turbulent challenge." The assessments noted that Iraqi political culture was "largely bereft of the social underpinnings" to support democratic development.

The report was released the same day President Bush signed a $120 billion war funding bill from Congress that includes benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

In a statement attached to yesterday's 229-page report, the Senate intelligence committee's chairman, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.), and three other Democratic panel members said: "The most chilling and prescient warning from the intelligence community prior to the war was that the American invasion would bring about instability in Iraq that would be exploited by Iran and al Qaeda terrorists."

Time to Pull the Plug on Iraq

Q. Why did the Democratic majority in Congress delete troop withdrawal language from the bill funding Bush's war?
A. They'd rather win the White House in 2008 than end the war now.

Poll: 76% Say War's Going Badly
Record Number In Survey Say Getting Involved In Iraq Was Mistake

(CBS) As President Bush and Congress hammer out an Iraq war funding bill, a CBS News/New York Times poll shows the number of Americans who say the war is going badly has reached a new high of 76%, rising 10 percent this month to 76 percent.

Even a majority of Republicans, 52 percent, now say the war is going at least somewhat badly – a 16-point increase from the middle of April.

Cheneys Pose with Little Bastard

This was the day when Monica Goodling testified before Congress that her former boss, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is a liar. Like many others, this was a day when more U.S. soldiers died in Vice President Dick Cheney's WMD-free war. Somehow, Cheney and wife Lynne found time in their busy schedule this day to pose for a photo op with their latest grandchild.

The Cheneys' daughter Mary delivered an 8-pound, 6-ounce baby boy on Wednesday, the first child for her and her female partner of 15 years, Heather Poe. In keeping with hypocritical right-wing family values, Dick Cheney vowed that he will fight to the death to see that this grandchild has only one legal parent.

GOP Lacks Foresight

Memorial honoring fallen soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan runs out of room

By Frank Davies, San Jose Mercury News

WASHINGTON - Congress already has run out of space on a memorial created last year to honor all of the U.S. service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a grim sign of the times, the "Wall of the Fallen," set up by House Republican leaders in June, is almost full. The mounting death toll from Iraq has forced U.S. House staffers to study how to reconfigure the display in the lobby of the Rayburn Building - the largest office building for members of Congress - to squeeze in more names.

According to the Defense Department, 3,736 U.S. service members died in the two wars by the end of April. New names are added to the display every few months, but none have been added since November. The last name listed is Lance Cpl. Luke Holler, 21-year-old Marine reservist from Bulverde, Texas, killed by an explosive device on Nov. 2.

In the current format, there is space for about 130 more names, but 506 Americans have died since mid-November. In April, 104 Americans were killed in the war's sixth-deadliest month.

Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan said it was difficult to plan how much blank space to leave in a display listing fatalities while a war is going on. When he walked by the wall recently, Ehlers said he realized: "Boy, we could have a problem. More space is needed."

Mission Accomplished Plus 4

Four Years After This

3,415
3,394
U.S. Soldiers Killed

Zero
WMD


Bodies piling up with no WMD and no end in sight