Bleak Outlook for U.S. in Iraq, Says Blix

[kskiska]

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - "There's a hatred against the United States and you have 130,000 American troops sitting there as a big target," said Hans Blix as he leaned forward to make his point about the future of Iraq and its military occupation.

"The borders, although guarded, are not watertight. Weapons of mass destruction may not be there but conventional weapons are and the U.S. does not have the capacity to guard it all," Blix added. "The outlook is bad."

His time over as chief U.N. weapons inspector, he has a bone to pick with those who took the United States and Britain to war with Iraq on claims that Baghdad could wage quick and terrible destruction.

"This was the basis upon which the war was sold and justified and today I think no one would say Iraq constituted a danger in the Spring of 2003," said the 75-year-old Swede.

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[PartyPooper]

1. Hans Blix, what do you know? Surely, you're no wiser than omnipotent *!

:eyes:

[truthisfreedom]

2. this makes me get a lump in my throat.

anyone but bush in 2004. no matter what happens. anyone but bush.

[Voltaire99]

5. Wait a minute

Some of the candidates would just perpetuate this policy. If it's the policy you oppose - and wisely so! - don't elect a surrogate who will simply perpetuate it.

[Trajan]

6. Divide the question ....

Starting a war .... and abandoning the festering wound of Iraq are two separate questions ....

The GOP started a war based on false pretenses, and many Dems gave their support AFTER being deceived by OSP / PNAC machinations ... yet even those who opposed this war would agree that SOME US presence there, under the UN aegis, would be necessary until a valid, legitimate interim government could be established ...

Power vacuums are generally bloodbaths .... Allowing UN control of Iraq's reorganization, with the assistance of WILLING allies and the US (including Muslim nations) is a far better option than simply walking away .... It is a moral imperative to find a humane solution ....

So: lets not muddy the two separate issues .... STARTING a war without just cause is NOT the same of seeking a just end through international consensus ....

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

3. The man hasn't lied or been wrong yet.

Unless you ask a freep. Then you get the "we already found the WMD. Under that rose bush, remember?"

[PartyPooper]

4. The 'nukular nursery'. I remember it well.

Funny, how that went down the memory hole along with the two trailers and the aluminum tubes.

[leftchick]

7. poor Hans, he has not been paying attention....

We are there to spread "Democracy" and "Freedom" to the Iraqis. Those WMD are sooo yesterday.... :(

[Malva Zebrina]

8. Bush lied

Bush lied and attacked and killed thousands of innocents for his "noble cause"-

I am so distraught over that fact more than anything else--more than all of his lies and all of his total Potempkin, the "emperor wears no clothes" assinine posturing, I hate George Bush.

It is depressing to see an evil man such as he, continue on with no formidable challenge to that fact. It is depressing to see him dressed up in tie and tails and his cohort dressed up in outlandish, boorish, classless atrocities she has paid thousands of dollars for , without seeing him demonstrate a single shred of shame or conscience--Indeed, with even more arrogance than before , he declares his evil "noble" and she tells us it "was necessary".

That he has not been brought to task over this heinous crime indicates to me that the country has decayed in it's moral imperative. We are now, under him, as he continues on day by day, incredibly netting in thousands and then millions of dollars in campaign donations, in order to remain in the White House as president, a ruthless barbarian state.

[0007]

9. Ahmed Chalabi will be the man that the U.S. will soon hate...

the U.S. thought that Saddam Hussein was the answer and installed him. Ahmed Chalabi is no better.



Ahmad Chalabi, an American-trained financier who has close ties to senior Pentagon officials and is a prominent member of the council, the U.S.-appointed interim government in Iraq. Another possibility, some in the administration say, is that Iraq could evolve toward a political compromise forged by the exile Ahmad Chalabi — a secular Shiite. Mr. Chalabi might manage to stitch together pro-Iranian groups, Kurds and others into a government.

A top administration official predicted recently that in that event, Mr. Chalabi — who set up an office for his opposition group in Tehran before the American invasion of Iraq — could become the first Iraqi prime minister.

U.S. authorities insist that ties between business and government officials have not tainted any contracts. "We're following all the standard federal rules" in awarding U.S. contracts, said a Pentagon official, who asked to remain unidentified.