I have posted a lot of messages in the last year conveying my disappointment at the way the war in Iraq was progressing. There were some high points along the way, but I still maintain we are killing the wrong people. HOWEVER, I think people are unfair to President Bush regarding the rationale for the war.
As far as the weapons inspectors being on the ground before and President Bush trying to use the "lame" excuse of "they wouldn't let us in" - it is worth remembering that there were HUGE tracts of Iraq that the Iraqis in fact would NOT let the inspectors inspect, because they were declared presidential palaces. We never knew what was really in them until American soldiers stood in them and looked with their own eyes.
It should also be noted that even the oh-so-revered Bill Clinton himself, and his administration, believed the intelligence estimates that said Iraq had WMD and was actively pursuing them. President Bush's administration had what they believed was credible intel, and they acted on it. In real life, intel is never 100%, in the Middle East we are lucky if it is 80% due to the religious fanatic aspect. Only in the movies do the facts line up like dominos for the players to stumble across and in one fell swoop see things line up and figure out the truth. The Iraqis didn't cooperate. We told them there would be consequences. They still refused. We kicked thunder out of them and deposed their entire government. Sooner or later they will learn to answer our "requests".
As for the Democrats, I just returned from a business trip to Nashua, New Hampshire, and was there in the flesh during the primary. Our hotel had quite a few media folks with the big satellite comm vans parked outside, and they hung around the restaurant and lounge area just like the rest of us. It was interesting to watch them as they sat in the bar watching the TV coverage of the campaigning, as their "journalistic impartiality" went right out the freakin' window! Why do I say that, you ask? Oh, I don't know, maybe it struck me as rather biased when the whole crowd jumped up and CHEERED AND CLAPPED when Kerry made a speech, and maybe the adoring puff-piece interviews with the candidates seemed less pointed and confrontational than their similar pieces with the Republicans. Listening to these guys in the hotel, and the Democratic staffers and aides blowing smoke about all the great new things that their candidates were going to do (by taxing and controlling thunder out of us) was a real revelation to me: the Dems are even more slimey than I thought.
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
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