Bush's Dad Foresaw 'incalculable' Costs of Iraq War to Oust Saddam

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB5LQ32BYD.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Not many people foresaw the postwar difficulties the administration has endured in Iraq. Of the few who did, two stand out, both lions of the Republican Party.

One was President George H.W. Bush. The other was his secretary of state, James A. Baker.

"Incalculable human and political costs" would have been the result, the senior Bush has said, if his administration had pushed all the way to Baghdad and sought to overthrow Saddam Hussein after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Iraqi army from Kuwait during the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

"We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect rule Iraq," Bush wrote. "The coalition would have instantly collapsed. ... Going in and thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish.

"Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different - and perhaps barren - outcome."

more

[truthisfreedom]

1. barren like the inside of junior's head. a wasteland of broken connections

and incomplete thoughts...

[leftchick]

2. "Not many people foresaw "!?!... Horseshit!

Only MILLIONS of people worldwide KNEW what would happen. And happen it did...

:grr:

[AnnitaR]

5. Exactly! HORSESHIT!!

But god forbid anybody remember all of the millions of us who marched against this illegal war!

[Inland]

9. Lots foresaw, but Bush dismissed them and their warnings

The only thing the article adds is just how blind and determined Bush was in making his blunders. Ignoring millions, and pundits, and voices in his own adminstration, and his own dad.

[drdtroit]

15. Truth out!

and the GOP and indentured media didn't give credence to any of it because tthe nay-sayers didn't fit their plan of "manifest destiny".

[LeinesRed]

3. Oh but remember...there is a higher "father..."

according to Woodward's book,

[AnnitaR]

4. Of course this too will never be on the television news.

Honestly, why they don't relish throwing this shit in Chimpy's face I'll never understand. What's more fun for media whores than pitting father against son?

His father may have knew what we all knew but little Georgie only listens to one FATHER and that aint Georgie, Sr.

[dbt]

6. radfringe the seer puts it this way:

Like father, like son. One term and he's done. Guess Little Georgie sure showed Poppy, huh?

:evilgrin:
dbt

[GOPAgainstGW]

7. The Party is Over!

Everyone is turning their back on Bush-Cheney, even Papa Bush.

What the public doesn't understand is that the Bush clan has too in order to save their hide!

It all ties back to the Bush Family using Enron for a front operations, and the Federal investigators accidently founds some documents on this whole mess that has got all the Bush Cartel with their backs against the wall. - TAB

[Pachamama]

8. Really? There are docs tying Enron and the Bush Family?

Hadn't heard that...would love this to be true....

[Child_Of_Isis]

10. I believe

papa bush gave up on the boy shrub a good while back, and everything that shows the contrary is just for the republican populace to bathe in. I could be wrong though!:)

[maxsolomon]

22. could be? you ARE wrong

poppy likely TOLD him it was foolhardy, but to say he's given up on his son, the president of the united states? i see no evidence of that. he probably regularly sits in on cabinet meetings.

[Nambe]

11. "Not many people foresaw the postwar difficulties" WHAT!

Only the UN, France, Germany, half of America, and 2 or 3 billion other people around the world.
I was watching pre-war news footage for demonstation focus and I had forgotten the breadth of people warning of the instability in the region and the dedication of the Arab nations in seeking a settlement with Israel (to put it politely).

Not many people DIDN'T foresee the postwar difficulties!

[wellst0nev0ter]

12. Sometimes I'd Like To Kick The Media In The Teeth

First of all HOW LONG WAS POPPY BUSH'S WORDS AVAILABLE BEFORE THE WAR????!!!!

Second of all the State Department already put out a report on how to handle a post-war Iraq WHICH WAS COMPLETELY IGNORED BY THE BUSH NEOCONS.

I apologize for all the "yelling", but the selective amnesia the kneepad media exhibit really bugs me.

[FormerOstrich]

13. I know what you mean...this one really got to me

this morning.....Here is what I sent to Mr Gedda.


Mr Gedda,

I just read your article with the headline “Bush’s Father Foresaw Costs of Iraq War”.

Excuse me?? Not many people foresaw the postwar difficulties? I, as an underemployed Software Engineer, investing slack time into learning more of the world around me, was clearly able to foresee the postwar difficulties. It just wasn’t that difficult. Nor, was it difficult to determine the “justifications” were being manufactured. I personally, could debunk most of the claims with only minimal research.

My recollection is millions of people, worldwide, expressed themselves in opposition to a war. I wrote many letters to congress. I was physically ill as the momentum built. I hosted a candle light vigilant in Chandler Arizona as the attack was launched.

I have read many of your articles. I find it difficult to believe that with your knowledge of the Middle East that you were unable to foresee what was to unfold.

My question is….why were you not writing this article during the run up to war? Why has the media been so meek and cowed? Why were “Freedom Frys” of more importance than the impending death of thousands of people?

I certainly appreciate you bringing this sort of information forward. However, I still could hardly consider this a hard hitting analysis. Why? Certainly your opening sentence lends to excuse. Why?

You are an intelligent person. I believe you know the realities. I’ve read your columns where you have cited history of political maneuvering. Can you tell me honestly you are not complicit in current and future events by authoring such milque toast articles? Are you not even slightly disturbed at the direction we seem to be heading? Are your hands free of blood?

Thank you,

[Myrina]

14. So maybe ...

Poppy let Georgie go down this road (Iraq) because he despises his sniveling weenie of a son and knew that this is how it would turn out for him ???

:shrug:

This family's got some serious issues, and I wish they'd just get private counseling instead of playing out their dramas on the world stage.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. Dubya is a bad President

Bush the Frat Boy is such a bad president that he makes Bush the Preppy look a paragon of wisdom.

[Hidebo]

17. Two situations were completely different.

Saddam actually had tons of WMDs at the time of the first Gulf War. I think that Bush would have hesitated to invade Iraq if he knew in advance that Saddam had WMDs.

[karlrschneider]

19. That makes no sense...he INSISTED that Saddam had WMD.

or are you saying he was lying? That would make sense...

[noamnety]

18. And one was John Kerry

"If we go it alone without reason, we risk inflaming an entire region and breeding a new generation of terrorists, a new cadre of anti-American zealots - and we will be less secure, not more secure, at the end of the day, even with Saddam Hussein disarmed."

-- JK, Oct 9, 2002

[Gin]

20. shrub has accomplished what he wanted....his friends have been

reimbursed billions for looting our treasury.....they have starved the beast..bases are in Iraq and set for the next invasion....and even if he loses in Nov. he does not have to take responsibility for his actions....nothing has changed for him...life goes on as usual...only this time "we" pay his pension for the rest of his worthless life...daddy won't have to pick up the tab...we do.

May they all rot in their own hell.

[leesa]

21. Nonetheless, he made a bundle on it. This thug and his evil side-kick

James Baker will fry in hell.

[struggle4progress]

23. kick for mastering the obvious

:kick: