Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

As US fighter bombers drop ordinance in and around Falluja, the outgoing marine commander questions the US strategy. The iraqi brigade that was supposed to take over has been dissolved and most of their weapons are now in the hands of the insurgents. The commander believes a bigger fight is looming.
"Those that fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them".

It does not seem remotely possible we can be out of Iraq in one year as suggested in this forum. The Brookings institute estimates the number of insurgents in Falluja to be about 20,000 while half of the entire country is outside of the control of US/coalition forces. This is the quagmire Rumsfeld told us we are not in.
There have been discussions in various political forums suggesting Israel should hit the nuclear plant in Iran since the iranian missiles can hit Israel. Israel would then be the fall guy for the US as the rest of the world would condemn it as a "threat to world peace".

CNN website is reporting a classified intelligence report noting the "pessimistic" situation in Iraq relative to stability and civil war. This report was in Bush's hands as he expressed his optimism for Iraq...

I see Time magazine is reporting hawks in the Bush administration are claiming their "latest intelligence" demonstrate banned weaponry in Iraq exists. They are waiting for the opportune time to present their "smoking gun" evidence for Bush to offer to the rest of us.
Let me see, teams of unbiased weapons inspectors comb Iraq and can't find any evidence of weapons of mass destruction but Bush's team now has "smoking gun" evidence of some sort. Why isn't this evidence being shared with the public today? Why isn't Tony Blair proclaiming he was right afterall? If it's timed to help support Bush, isn't it just a political go go act? The Bush team, at it again...

Bush has now taken the other side of the coin and made it his own argument for his war in Iraq. After months of extolling "arising democracy" in Iraq and Afghanistan, HE is now warning of increased violence in both countries! HE has now "discovered" the UN and his fellow republicans will go to the UN on Tuesday as per CNN. Another Bush horse and pony show before the election! HE has taken the initiative to "challenge" world leaders to create peace in Iraq!

Perhaps criticism from his own people will force Bush to awaken from his slumber on Iraq and acknowledge reality. McCain stated Bush is "not being straight on Iraq". Hagel says, "I do not think we can win" and reinerated the obvious, "we are in deep trouble in Iraq". Other republicans are echoing similar concerns. Bush, unfortunately, remains in his manic phase on Iraq and is currently extolling his "optimism" on Iraq...

Incredibly, Bush stated today the CIA "guessed" on it's intelligence report of instability and the threat of civil war in Iraq. The pessimistic assessment by the CIA of the situation in Iraq contrasted sharply with the optimism expressed on a daily basis by the president.
The truth is more likely that the CIA performed a critical analysis of the data and employed a rigorous methodolgy in deriving it's conclusions. This would have to be the case given the tactical and geo-political ramifications of their report.If the president believes the CIA is only "guessing", why doesn't he demand an investigation and a process that assures him of accurate estimations of the situation in Iraq? Why doesn't he offer his own sources of information to support his own conclusions?The frightening reality is he is "guessing" on the current situation in Iraq and basing his actions and policies without due regard for the inteligence report from an agency whose responsibility it is to provide credible information for branches of the government.
The action of the president in ignoring an intelligence report describing the probability of deteriorating stability and civil war in Iraq causes our civilians and our troops in to be in greater peril than the precarious environment that already exists at this time.

Ronald,
If you do a google search you will find various police groups including an association of police chiefs that endorsed Kerry shortly after he announced his position on the assault weapons ban law.(Unlike our commander in chief who ducked into a room to avoid a reporter's question on the subject and, heavens forbid, actually hold a press conference on it).
The fact is many groups endorse a political candidate throughout the course of an election year but it is NOT the ground breaking, earth shattering news event that YOU think it is. GOT IT? Or do I need to bold the print?

Well, it seems tests of our security precautions at airports revealed knives, guns and explosives could be allowed on airlines according to tests carried out by homeland security. They somehow slipped by our vigilant security forces.
It appears more tests will be carried out to see if corrections have been made.
What was that about Ronald stating guns and glock inserts being detected by x-rays/metal detectors,etc?...

As reported in the LA Times, "Bush now admits he was wrong to call the CIA report a guess". He admits he should have referred to it as an "estimation".
This is the intelligence report that denotes a pessimistic outlook on Iraq relative to political instability and the potential for civil war. The Times also states the obvious,"He doesn't believe it" but the Times also notes other reports indicate the same conclusions of the CIA report.
Again, if the president doubts the CIA report, why doesn't he demand an investigation on the inability of the CIA to provide him with accurate estimations of the situation in Iraq?
Why doesn't he provide the origins of his information that would lead him to believe his data is more credible than that of the CIA?