Senator Mark Dayton: The long road to success in Iraq

[scarletwoman]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/3983243.html

Published July 13, 2003

At the time President Bush responded "Bring 'em on" to Iraqi insurgents, I was in Iraq with other U.S. senators, meeting and eating lunch with American soldiers north of Baghdad. Those extraordinary men and women would be far better served by the president's daily resolve to "Bring 'em home."

<snip>

Their most-developed initiative is an intensive hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Since, thank God, no such weapons were used against invading U.S. and British forces, and none were discovered thereafter by U.S. troops or U.N. inspectors, their unexplained absence should not be anyone's most urgent concern.

It is, however, because another team of U.S. intelligence experts and military attachés is searching for anyone in Iraq who has weapons of mass destruction, has seen them, or has information about them. I have no doubt that this team will capture or create something which will cover the tales (and tails!) now exposed. Stories are being peddled about new evidence, which will explain everything and justify anything. The information is classified, but trust us!

There have already been far too many exaggerations and misrepresentations about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction and their purported threat to our survival. The perpetrators of those fictions, old and new, should be ashamed of themselves.

They should also be ashamed of giving priority, personnel and money to trying to justify past statements and actions, rather than producing future successes which will bring our troops home. That should be the administration's -- and America's -- top priority.

(more...)

I think Senator Dayton makes an excellent point; the bush* (mal)administration is still playing CYA over their WMD claims, and not giving attention to the projects needed to actually rebuild Iraq.

sw

[dflprincess]

1. I liked Mark's comment last week on WCCO (tv)

when he said that Bush* should have had J.K. Rowling write the WMD story because then "at least it would have been good fiction."

Interesting that Jay Rockefeller was on the same trip to Iraq that Mark took and he's also become more vocal. Of course, Rockefeller voted for the war, maybe he has a guilty conscious.