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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/12/22/114038/29

Bush's War
by kos

Wed Dec 22nd, 2004

So, who is to blame for all the deaths in Iraq?  Let's mull this one
over a bit, shall we?

Bush claims Saddam is a threat.  Bush claims Saddam has WMDs.  Bush
claims Saddam has ties to Al Qaida.  Bush and his administration promote
questionable intelligence that supports their preconceptions and
prejudices, and reject that which counters it.

Bush puts Rummy in charge of the war. Rummy fires general who says "we
need more troops".  Rummy says we can do more with less.  Rummy says
"lighter is better than armored".  Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld say we'll
be met with flower petals.  They say the war will be entirely paid for
by oil revenues.  They say the reconstruction will be paid for entirely
by oil revenues.

Bush says he's giving diplomacy a chance, but he's giving the world a
middle finger.  Powell says he's showing the Security Council evidence
of Saddam's duplicity, but he shows them pictures of warehouses.  Bush
claims a coalition of the willing, that's really a coalition of the
billing -- a mish-mash of third-world nations with token contributions.
Only England offers tangible support.

Bush sends the troops into battle, claiming he had no choice.  But
Saddam had caved on every Bush demand (inspectors were allowed back in,
his long-range missiles were being destroyed).

No WMDs are found.  No ties with Al Qaida are found.  No military
capable of threatening Iraq's neighbors is found. Saddam's army
collapses quickly and the country's defenders retreat into "insurgency"
mode.

Bush declares mission accomplished. Bush taunts the insurgency.  The
insurgency kills our men and women.  The commanders on the ground scream
for more troops.  They scream for armor.  They scream for protected mess
halls. Those screams fall on deaf ears.

More soldiers are killed.  1,320 Americans, 74 Britons, seven
Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 19
Italians, one Latvian, 16 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11
Spaniards, two Thai and nine Ukrainians. The wounded number in the five
figures.

Nevermind the innocent Iraqis who have been "liberated" to death.  And
while we scream about Saddam's torture chambers, we create new ones of
our own.

So thousands die, for a war built on false justifications, managed
poorly, with underequipped, undermanned, and under-armored forces.  And
to add insult to injury, we've had to pay for this mess, to the tune of
$200 billion.

So who sent our troops into Iraq on false pretenses?  Who sent them in
unarmored?  Who refused to provide enough troops to stabilize the
country effectively?  Who taunted the Iraqi opposition with "bring 'em
on"?  Who approved the American-branded torture chambers?  Who has
rewarded the secretary of defense who has negligently ignored the armor
shortage in Iraq?

And who keeps them there as they continue to die?