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  1. #1
    Boy's Guard Senior Member LeftEyeNine's Avatar
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    Default Bush Confesses

    WASHINGTON -President Bush said Wednesday the responsibility for invading Iraq based in part on faulty weapons intelligence rested solely with him, taking on the issue in his most direct and personal terms in the 1,000-plus days since the war's first shots.

    "It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said. "As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."
    The president's mea culpa was accompanied by a robust defense of the divisive war.

    "Saddam was a threat — and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," Bush declared, as he has before.
    Democrats were not moved by Bush's speech, the last of four designed to boost his credibility on the war and the public's backing for it.
    "There was no reason for America to go to war when we did, the way we did, and for the false reasons we were given," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

    Bush offered few qualms about the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He said foreign intelligence agencies — including several for governments who didn't back his decision to invade — also believed before the war that Saddam Hussein possessed them. And he said his administration has begun making changes to the U.S. intelligence apparatus to head off future errors.
    The president also contended the Iraqi president had intended to restart weapons programs.
    As in the past, Bush acknowledged no regrets about launching the war despite the problems with his initial justification. He revisited a long list of other previously cited reasons, including Iraqi violations of a no-fly zone in its airspace, Saddam's invasion of Kuwait a decade earlier and Iraq's defiance of United Nations resolutions.
    "My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision," the president said to polite applause from his audience at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan forum for the study of world affairs.
    Bush has repeatedly noted that the decision to go to war was his responsibility. And he has acknowledged for more than a year that most of the intelligence behind the claims of Saddam's weapons programs turned out to be faulty. But he has never linked the two so clearly and so personally.
    On the eve of parliamentary elections in Iraq, Bush's speech was meant to wrap up an aggressive push-back against war critics with an overarching explanation, nearly three years later, of why he went into Iraq and why he believes U.S. troops must remain there.
    Bush predicted a higher turnout than in earlier balloting of Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs in Thursday's voting, which will establish Iraq's first permanent, democratically elected government. The Sunnis provide the backbone of the insurgency and largely shunned Jan. 30 elections for an interim Parliament that wrote the nation's constitution. Their participation was higher in the October election to adopt the constitution.
    But the president also said that Americans shouldn't hope for violence to wane, and shouldn't even expect to know results before early January.
    "We can ... expect that the elections will be followed by days of uncertainty," he said. "It's going to take awhile."
    Wednesday's remarks followed a pattern of more frank talk from Bush on Iraq. Each installment in the recent round of Iraq speeches, which began last month at the Naval Academy, has included descriptions of fixes for early mistakes and sober assessments of remaining challenges.
    That reflects the majority of Americans who, confronted with daily doses of bad news and rising death counts in Iraq, disapprove of Bush's policies there and question the outlook for victory. For instance, a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that most people see progress in areas such as establishing democracy and training Iraqi security forces but are split on whether the United States is defeating the insurgents.

    Answering critics who have said he's offered no definition of victory in Iraq, Bush offered a succinct summation.
    "Victory will be achieved by meeting certain objectives: when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can protect their own people and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot attacks against our country," he said. "These objectives, not timetables set by politicians in Washington, will drive our force levels in Iraq."
    Still, some said they had hoped to hear more specific benchmarks.
    "The American public, the Iraqi people and our brave troops still don't have any clarity about the U.S. military mission in Iraq," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
    The president's approach received a warmer welcome from several House Democrats whom Bush hosted at the White House for a top-level Iraq briefing before his speech. "There was a dose of reality that I have not heard before," said Rep. Steve Israel
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

    Uncle George, you'll make me cry..Oh, thanks for the handkerchief, you're so gentle..
    Last edited by LeftEyeNine; 12-15-2005 at 04:28.

  2. #2
    RIP Tosa, my trolling end now Senior Member Devastatin Dave's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    The beauty of this post is that it shows how much people want this transition of Iraq to fail simply because of their intense hatred of George Bush. How pathetic...
    RIP Tosa

  3. #3
    Boy's Guard Senior Member LeftEyeNine's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    The beauty of the post above shows how many people fail to see that George W. Bush grew the hatred himself, and express their appeal since they think that I open up a website, choose some poltical figures and bash them simply because I do not like their appearance. How pathetic..
    Last edited by LeftEyeNine; 12-15-2005 at 06:27.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Confesses? Oh shut up..

    Quit being such a drama queen, little bush-basher. He is the President of the US, he has taken responsibility for the war since the beginning, as is fitting of anyone holding that office.

  5. #5
    Very Senior Member Gawain of Orkeny's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Not only that he said WMDs or no WMDs it was the right desicion faulty intelligence be damned.
    Fighting for Truth , Justice and the American way

  6. #6
    Oni Member Samurai Waki's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    I am on the agreement that removing Saddam was the right thing to do. Even though he is quite elderly, had he died, then you'd have his son running the country...and he would've made Saddam look like a Saint. Good Riddance.
    Whats done is done, now America must stay put, and stick with it...too much is at stake, if we were to leave it would give everyone else in the world one more reason not to trust America's intentions and credibility.

  7. #7
    Nobody expects the Senior Member Lemur's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Actually, this is very encouraging. If the White House is willing to move beyond their we-are-infalliable tactic, and act like more of a wartime Presidency, it's all to the good. They should talk about mistakes, they should brace the public for problems, they should offer realistic assessments.

    The President of the United States is not a cheerleader. He's supposed to be a leader. Constantly blowing sunshine up the public's posterior is not leadership; it's pandering.

    I heard that the President has also been speaking in front of audiences that are not pre-selected to say nothing but "we love you." Again, this is good -- it's about time W acted like a wartime leader.

  8. #8
    Mystic Bard Member Soulforged's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Quote Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube
    Ah, good 'ol Dubya. This raises my estimation of him. Few presidents would ever admit blame to something this big. Still, I'd rather see the video of this speach.
    Yes but you've to admit that it's a good sign of political etics. The preocupation of the politician should be his own responsability...I think that Bush has taken care of that, at least.
    Born On The Flames

  9. #9
    smell the glove Senior Member Major Robert Dump's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    lame duck = no accountability = why not?
    Baby Quit Your Cryin' Put Your Clown Britches On!!!

  10. #10
    Dyslexic agnostic insomniac Senior Member Goofball's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Quote Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump
    lame duck = no accountability = why not?
    You've hit the nail on the head there, MRD.

    This is nothing more than an attempt by a President with nothing to lose to draw voters' ire onto himself, and hopefully deflect it away from his party in future elections.

    Hopefully Americans will be clever enough to see through this crap and remember that the Republicans are the ones responsible for all of those flag-draped caskets when it comes time to vote again.
    "What, have Canadians run out of guns to steal from other Canadians and now need to piss all over our glee?"

    - TSM

  11. #11
    Member Member Alexander the Pretty Good's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    And the Democrats who voted for it too.


  12. #12
    Dyslexic agnostic insomniac Senior Member Goofball's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Quote Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good
    And the Democrats who voted for it too.

    I can't believe you have the balls to even say that. They voted for it because Bush et al sold them a false bill of goods.

    Maybe this little story will simplify it for you:

    Bush et al: *hand Dems a chocolate covered turd*

    Democrats: What's this?

    Bush et al: It's really good, it's a chocolate covered macadamia nut. *giggles* Don't worry, we had our people x-ray it, we know what's inside...

    Democrats: *take bite of chocolate covered turd* You liars! That was a turd, not a macadamia nut!

    Bush et al: Hey, don't blame us. You're the ones who decided to take a bite...
    "What, have Canadians run out of guns to steal from other Canadians and now need to piss all over our glee?"

    - TSM

  13. #13
    karoshi Senior Member solypsist's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    good thing the guy in charge of all this "faulty intelligence" got his just rewards
    /sarcasm



  14. #14
    Old Town Road Senior Member Strike For The South's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Quote Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good
    And the Democrats who voted for it too.

    All the parties are the same looking out for no one but there lobbiests. Im going to quote Bill Hicks on this "I think the puppet on the left is to my liking" "really the one on the right seems to better fit me" This country needs to wake up politially as do the people. Or one day were going to wake up and realize we pissed it all down the drian
    There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford

    My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

    I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.

  15. #15
    Member Member Alexander the Pretty Good's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bush Confesses

    Goofball - I do have the balls to post what happens to be fact.

    You cannot deny that the Democrats in Congress voted overwhelmingly for the war.

    And if the Democrats were misled, then hopefully Americans will be clever enough to remember that the Democrats are the ones stupid enough to go along with "all of those flag-draped caskets" when it comes time to vote again.

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