I dug this up outta the good ol' memory hole to help in the discussion of the pres address tonight

[Bozita]

I hosed it off and got it ready for new readers.

Now, no fucking shortcuts. Read the whole damn thing. ... Please?


Why We Went In: Version 10.0
By P.J. Crowley | March 19, 2004

In the year since the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has repeatedly shifted its justification for going to war and constantly changed its story on intelligence, the United Nations, reconstruction, political transition and the cost to the American taxpayer. More than anything, the administration's war in Iraq resembles a software program that, at first, works brilliantly, but then catches the user in a cycle of "fatal error" messages.

Here then, in Silicon Valley terms, is a review of the Bush administration's year in Iraq:

Version 1.0 - Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat

Version 1.01 - Saddam Hussein is a gathering threat

Version 1.02 - Saddam Hussein poses a real and dangerous threat

Version 1.1 - The smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud

Version 1.2 - We can't afford to wait

Version 1.3 - We never said imminent

Version 1.3.1 - OK, maybe we did say it once or twice

Version 1.4 - We should have been more precise

Version 2.1 - Saddam has weapons of mass destruction

Version 2.2 - Saddam has nuclear weapons

Version 2.3 - Saddam has biological agents he's never accounted for

Version 2.3.1 - The trailers are mobile labs for producing chemical weapons

Version 2.3.2 - Unmanned aircraft are ready to spread Saddam's biological weapons

Version 2.4 - Saddam's going to make more of all these weapons

Version 2.5 - We all know where the weapons are

Version 2.5.1 - Well, Saddam has used weapons of mass destruction

Version 2.5.2 - Iraq is a big country. We'll find the weapons eventually.

Version 2.5.3 - Saddam had weapons of mass destruction programs

Version 2.5.4 - Saddam had "weapons of mass destruction program related activities"

Version 2.5.5 - David Kay? Who's David Kay?

Version 2.6 - It's not about misleading the American people - Saddam Hussein is gone and that's the most important thing

Version 3.0 - We based our statements on our available intelligence

Version 3.1 - Saddam tried to buy uranium ore in Niger

Version 3.1.2 - Well, that was what the British told us

Version 3.1.3 - Did we tell you about Joe Wilson's wife?

more...

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/03/b38989.html/index.html

[krispos42]

1. k/r n/t

[butterfly77]

2. Kicked&Recommended!

[mmonk]

3. Call it malware.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. 935 lies.

935 lies

[Kalun D]

5. Now Do The Same Thing For Afghanistan

Why are we still there?

More civilians needing killing? Fighting terrorism by creating more terrorists?

More of those cruise missiles and drones need deployment so we can fatten the greed pig defense industries bank account?

Saving us from "terror"? You know, the one that's 100 times less likely than death by lighting?

Saving the CIA's opium crop so Karzai's crooked brother can keep his mad profits?

Why don't you ask the president about Afghanistan? Or is a dead civilian in Afghan somehow different from a dead civilian in Iraq?

[Gman]

6. I remember that!

K&R

[Festivito]

7. Add: Every week: Field test shows we found WMD... later... Oh, not yet. :Repeat.

They tried that what, half a dozen times?

[Bozita]

8. kick for the day shift

[gratuitous]

9. Well, shit, fog of war and all that jazz

Now shut up, quit remembering stuff, and wave your flag, goddammit. This is a celebration!

[Winterblues]

10. How about "we must catapult the propaganda"

:shrug: I am sure there is a much longer list on all their excuses and declarations, "we will be greeted as liberators and have flowers thrown at our feet" "Iraqi oil will pay all our expenses" "We may be there a week or a month or even six months but certainly not a year"

[Poboy]

11. rec.