Knowing the nature of politics, I am reasonably certain that anyone with the resources could dig up contradictory speeches by ANY politician. And the president of the United States and his henchmen have serious resources. So I am unsurprised that George W. Bush was able to find comments by Democrats that said bad things about Saddam Hussein. Really, who the HELL was (or is) going to be quoted as saying something GOOD about him?

But quoting Democrats as saying Saddam Hssein is a bad guy is simply not the same thing as mobilizing the American military for an invasion and occupation of the sovreign nation of Iraq. Many of those Democrats were caught up in the administration's propaganda machine where the only two choices the American people could distinguish were (1) defend America or (2) betray America. It turns out there was at least a third choice, which was (3) get the facts before rushing into a war that will cost the lives of American troops.

I remember quite clearly that the ill-conceived PATRIOT Act was bum-rushed through Congress by a singleminded administratoion that was more interested in forcing lawmakers to make a snap decision than make an informed and reasoned decision. The call to war was likewise staged. Critical intelligence was released to Democratic lawmakers extremely shortly before the vote was called. No one really had the time to study it and ask if the conclusions of the administration were faulty. And why the rush? Not a single one of the intelligence documents indicated that Saddam Hussein could launch any kind of pre-emptive attack on the United States. No one suggested that America was in danger of being invaded. There was no need to rush blindly into war. That was just the way the administration choreographed it.

And sure, George W. Bush can make speeches now about how Democrats supported him, but what he SHOULD be doing is making fun of them for letting him rush them into a decision that they should have taken the time to make carefully and responsibly.

Can you imagine if George W. Bush and his lunatic administration had been in office during the Cuban missile crisis? We would all be so much radioactive dust right now. We—especially the troops we sent into Iraq—need to be THANKFUL that Bush's intelligence data was absolutley wrong. Otherwise, we might have been engaged in a small-scale nuclear war in Iraq. And you know, if Hussein HAD had nukes, he would have used them on Israel just because. (I mean, he was being invaded by the strongest military machine in the world. He was going down anyway. Why not take all the Jews with him?) Israel, in turn, would have struck back at any number of other Arab nations. They wouldn't have taken it lying down. It is called ESCALATION.

We dodged a bullet, but idiots that we are, we still haven't taken the gun away from the child playing with it.