In his first speech on the Senate floor after returning from Congress's Memorial Day recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) blasted George W. Bush and his administration for ignoring pre-war intelligence that specifically predicted long-term chaos in Iraq, the likelihood of a bloody civil war and the capacity of the invasion to actually strengthen al-Qaeda.
Citing a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee called "Prewar Intelligence Assessments About Postwar Iraq," that was released the Friday before the holiday weekend, Reid asserted that "the Bush administration cannot hide behind ignorance. Whether out of hubris or incompetence, the President and his men willfully ignored the experts and sent our troops to battle unprepared for the consequences."
"Some might say, what is past is past. If the President's prewar failure was a one-time event, we could maybe forget about it, even though that would be hard," continued Reid. "But if President Bush's prewar failure was a one-time event, we could leave it to the historians to study and judge the tragedy of his incompetence. But even today, after almost 3,500 American deaths and more than 20,000 wounded, the President continues to cherry-pick facts in order to paint a rosy but very misleading picture of Iraq."
The report was one that Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) vowed to bring to public view before the Memorial Day holiday after years of the do-nothing, Republican Congress refusing to even examine the issues for fear of harming the already-tarnished White House.
"Despite more than three years of stonewalling by Republicans in Congress and the Bush Administration, Democrats have taken another major step forward in restoring accountability to government by completing another exhaustive investigation of the Bush Administration's dangerous incompetence," said Reid on May 25, when the report was released. "This new Senate Intelligence Committee report clearly demonstrates that the Bush Administration ignored and dismissed its best intelligence experts' warnings to expect major challenges in post-war Iraq. We have seen the terrible consequences to American national security that have resulted from the Bush Administration's failures over the last five years."
In a statement Monday, Reid cited the report in laying out the specifics of what the Bush administration knew -- and ignored -- in January of 2003, months before the Iraq invasion:
That installing democracy would "be a long, difficult, and probably turbulent challenge" in Iraq.
That Al Qaeda "would try to take advantage of US attention on postwar Iraq to reestablish its presence in Afghanistan."
That Iraq "was a deeply divided society that likely would engage in violent conflict unless an occupying power prevented it."
That the United States' occupation of Iraq "would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups."
That Iraq's neighbors would jockey for influence in Iraq, "including fomenting strife among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups."
That "some elements in the Iranian government could decide to try to counter aggressively the U.S. presence in Iraq or challenge U.S. goals."
That our action in Iraq "would not cause other regional states to abandon their WMD programs, or their desire to develop such programs."
"Clearly the intelligence community got it right," said Reid. "And their warnings were not issued in a vacuum: perhaps the most striking finding of the report is this: All the key Administration players were made aware of these warnings. Doug Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Steve Hadley, Scooter Libby, all key Bush officials at the National Security Council, the State Department and the Department of Defense were all on the distribution list."
And Rockefeller, who suffered for years as the ranking minority member of a lifeless Intelligence Committee -- as it did zero oversight on the Bush White House -- reinforced that what has occurred in Iraq would hardly be a surprise to an honest administration.
"Today's report shows that the Intelligence Community gave the Administration plenty of warning about the difficulties we would face if the decision was made to go to war," said Rockefeller, when the report was released on May 25. "These dire warnings were widely distributed at the highest levels of government, and it's clear that the Administration didn't plan for any of them."
More from Intelligence Committee Chairman Rockefeller:
"The Intelligence Community believed an American invasion would be exploited by Iran and al Qaeda terrorists and that an occupation of Iraq would fuel Islamist extremism. They also assessed that al Qaeda would seek to re-establish its presence in Afghanistan while the United States was diverted in Iraq.... Sadly, the Administration's refusal to heed these dire warnings, and worse, to plan for them, has led to tragic consequences for which our nation is paying a terrible price.
"The report shows that the Administration was not forthcoming with the American people about the potential costs of going to war."
Of course, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), who has been one of the loudest critics of the Intelligence Committee's failure to perform any oversight in the previous Congress, said that the Bush administration not only ignored critical intelligence in pre-war planning, but also intentionally misled the American people, despite having solid facts refuting their claims.
"The report released today by the Senate Intelligence Committee underscores that the Administration was indifferent to the predicted negative consequences of the war in Iraq," said the Wisconsin Senator, who is also on the Intelligence Committee. "The intelligence community's assessments, made prior to the war and widely disseminated within the Administration, also directly contradict many of the assertions made at the time by the Administration."
And Reid said that this report, coupled with painful interactions he's recently had with parents of troops killed in Iraq, will make him continue to press for an end to the war, despite the thin majority held by Senate Democrats.
"Our resolve has never been stronger," said the Majority Leader. " With a razor-thin majority -- and, remember, it is a razor-thin majority -- an obstinate President, and a Republican minority that continues to bow to his will, we are nonetheless making real progress."
"When we take up the Defense authorization bill, we will not just work to correct the President's neglect of troop readiness and protection, we will give our Republican colleagues another opportunity to join us and bring a responsible end to this war. We will fight for that every day this year, as long as the President and a few allies left here in Congress continue to defy the reality the rest of us see clearly."
Harry, this is not news. Anyone with half the effort could have told you this well before the invasion started, let alone someone in your position and those of your comrades who are in a much better position to gleam the intelligence reports.
Yet, what did you and those around you do? You let it happen.
But the straw that broke the back is of course the resent vote to continue this illegal invasion that you are now pointing to as being a folly to begin with. With this you have lost all credibility. You along with the rest of the so-called current representatives of the people, who allowed and enabled this criminal act to happen and not only have not brought those to justice who have committed this horrendous crime, have instead allowed it to continue.
To hell with you Harry. And to hell to this government.
If you are to gain an measure of respect you need to stop blowing smoke and actually do fucking something and bring charges against ALL those that are in violation of the law no matter the consequences. For you not do so would mean you would remain the Paper-Tiger you are and our country will continue to be the shell of it's once great promise.
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 20 diaries, 1781 comments)
on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 11:42:59 AM
What about bush admitting that the plan is for tropps to be there for the next 50 years ???? the demos knew this before the elections. I will say this for the hundereth time it was all a shell game give us a spending bill without time tabels and we will give you your pork filled bill tit for tat. And if the demos get into the white house ( wich is a big maybe after the way they caved in) all of a sudden it will be that we cant leave iraq becuse of the people because Iran because of security or heven help us the one they always scream ITS BECAUSE OF THE CHILDREN they will find a way to use those bases we are building. And if I was a republican running in 08 I would point out over and over agian You elected the demos and what did they do about the war NOTHING. If you cant trust them on this how can you trust them at all .
by
mike (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 92 comments)
on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 2:46:41 PM
No, we part ideals, on this one. If you divide this country you are doomed.
The dems did not pull out of all of the world treaties that have taken 55 years (longer on some) to agree and ratify by bi-party congresses.
The dems did not take the labor and environmental regulations out of the 'free trade' deals.
The dems did not stop regulations of corporate labor, safety and environmental laws.
The dems did not lock (literally) the minority out of their own conferences.
The dems did not allow torture, openly and fight the passing of law against it.
No, the dems are not the same as the neocons. Neither are the repubs.
At the ethics hearings, representatives of repub and dem 'think tanks', stated that they had never in their 20-30 years in public life had they ever seen such corruption.
People from both sides of the aisle are going public with the law breaking of this regime.
It will take all of us, united to fix this. Both sides will have to fight for our fairness in media laws. Both sides will have to fight for paper trail voting.
If we don't do this. Then decent repubs will not be elected either. It will be fixed for the same corrupt neo-cons that are in now. We need to get rid of, Leiberman, and some of the other dems, too.
Also, the 'out of Iraq right now' congress voted against the bill that bush vetoed. The dems could not even get their own party to pull together on that. I am mad that they didn't just resubmit the same bill, but they knew that their own party would not stand behind them.
So, if you want a complete fascist government, just sit back and let the neo-con repubs take back the congress.
As long as the dems had complete control, the EPA was doing it's job and improving many aspects of the environment, FEMA was doing their job and helping victims not corporations, regulations were in place to make corporations accountable for environment, work safety, public safety, and anti-trust, Social Security was in tact, the deficit was less than half of what it is now, the trade deficit was less than half of what it is now and we were on our way to a balanced budget, there were no wars, bleeding life and funds at a steady flow, we were respected by most of the world, and were working on education, medical, and infrastructure not world empire.
That alone, will keep me voting Dem and holding their 'feet to the fire'.
Our job is to find progressive Dems that are able to stay in the middle left and be elected. Far right and far left are equally wrong. KKK or Marxist communist.
It's time to think of our constitution and our country and do whatever we can to get them back.
by
LYNNE KRINGLER (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 67 comments)
on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 10:41:58 PM
...there is nothing I want to hear from Harry Reid except, "I resign!" Anything else is now seen by yours truly as out and out bullshit. Same thing goes for Nancy "impeachment is off the table" Pelosi. When those two chicken shit twits say goodbye, then I'll listen to what they have to say.
I realize that politics is about compromise. I realize that in life, there are compromises that must be made. However, when it comes to principle, there is no such thing as compromise. It is obvious that Reid, Pelosi, and the rest of the Demo-creeps who joined the Great Congressional Puss Out of 2007 don't have an idea of what a principle is. Since the principle is representing the people who put them in office, they can't even be bothered to do their jobs.
So, Harry, Nancy, et al, here is what I want to hear from your pathetic, cowardly lips before I consider anything you say to be worthy of hearing: "I fucked up," "I have no principles," "I am a coward," and last, but definitely not least, "I resign!"
Until I hear those words from your lips, you have no credibility with me, or most of the rest of America.
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Wednesday, June 6, 2007 at 4:27:03 AM
5 comments
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