McConnell defends Iraq invasion at Armed Forces Dinner

'We will prevail,' senator contends

Saturday, May 21, 2005
By Michael A. Lindenberger
mlindenberger@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said last night that the lack of a second terrorist attack on the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, proves that President Bush was right to invade Iraq.

"If you remember, the prediction at the time was that we would be attacked again, and soon," McConnell told a gathering of active duty and retired military personnel at the annual Armed Forces Dinner in Louisville. "Well, that hasn't happened yet."

"Pre-emption, after 9/11, makes a lot of sense," McConnell said in a speech sponsored by the Louisville Armed Forces Committee, a group formed in 1919 to show support for returning veterans of World War I.

>snip

President Bush's decision to invade has left the world transformed, and America safer, McConnell said.

more:http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050521/NEWS0104/505210406

--------------------------------

If you repeat a lie long enough ......

.

though not in this case, be legal.

we need to make sure we challenge these thugs on their incorrect terms and frame the debate in REALITY or they will continue to win.

peace

Senator McConnell is married to United States Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. Previously, Secretary Chao served as president of the United Way of America and director of the Peace Corps. He is the father of three daughters: Elly, Claire, and Porter.
http://mcconnell.senate.gov/biography.htm

He--- like Cheney--- had other priorities

I'd pay his airfare over he wants to serve now.

all around the world and many other countries are willing to help us protect and rebuild Iraq. What? Did I say something wrong?

No attacks, well it is not because of their brilliance. One little Cessna had the entire Hill running to the streets. Course Bush "would" have known better than this was no big deal so they didn't bother to tell him his wife was hiding from the Cessna.

in the coming-soon-to-a-whatever-near-you MIHOP. :SIGH:

This is not just reckless disregard; this is the Regime looking for "9/11 Part II" before election day. They wanna dip into that psycho-patriotism narcotic again.

I can feel it. No one believes this shit except the most brain-dead sheep. And, there aren't enough of them to keep sustaining the GOP.

McConnell and the Bushies are fools. We are pissing away our resources, destroying our economy, ruining our foreign relations, and inflicting untold physical and political damage across the world.

No terrorist attack could be so effective at destroying this country.

If anything, an attack here would galvanize the US public and elicit solidarity from our allies. The Bushies have badly wasted the goodwill we had after 9/11.

I keep thinking about the events that predicated the collapse of the Soviet Union. They had been mired in Afghanistan for years. It was such a drain economically and politically that the Union just crumbled.

Is it possible that BushCo is ignorant of this? If so, and likewise, if not, what does it mWhat terrorist attack could do that ? ean in context of the United States?

-- his presidential nomination aspirations become more realizable -- not guaranteed, but more realizable. He'll resign at some point in 2007 to run full-throttle. McConnell is my guess to be majority leader when that happens.

If THE CAT BUTCHER loses the nuclear showdown, there will be some pressure to dump him as majority leader, and McConnell will be a name we'll see sooner rather than later for majority leader.

No matter how it turns out, it's all bad news for people who wish to live in a constitutional republic.

He may have the religious right on his side but I do hope and believe that most of America doesn't agree. Can you see him running against Dean, Clark, Hilary, Boxer, etc.? Let the games begin - - - after we get the voting machines thrown out.

I think our team beats their team generally next time, but McCain's crossover appeal is a concern.

THE CAT BUTCHER really is a pukey excuse for a president. I hope Republican Senators realize that they can bolt from leadership on the filibuster and significantly hobble Frist's path to power.

The prople that are fighting back in Afghanistan and Iraq aren't going away. These people have shown that fighting has no time limits. They could go on for tens of years with up and down rates of attacks. For the U.S. to "prevail", they would never be able to leave.

knew how to take money from tobacco companies.

....no doubt to due to the Bush administration.

b_b

world countries.

Corporate Executives may be safer, but your young sons and daughters may have to pay the price for these irrelevant invasions.

Bygones.

President Lyndon Johnson dramatically announced that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked U.S. destroyers without provocation in international waters. In response, Congress passed a resolution giving Johnson authority to wage war in Vietnam by executive fiat. We learned only years later that the president knowingly lied about what had happened in the Gulf of Tonkin and why. In the meantime, the American people were told repeatedly that the U.S. would stay the course in Vietnam, that victory was slowly but surely being achieved, that we would prevail. Long after the war ended in American defeat and 58,000 American dead, we learned that as early as March 1965, when there were still fewer than 300 American soldiers dead in Vietnam, Johnson was telling Senator Mike Mansfield that we could not win the war in Vietnam. Only in 1995 did former Defense Secretary Robert Mc- Namara finally admit that "we were wrong, terribly wrong" in Vietnam, though we now know he had reservations about the wisdom of the war as early as 1966, the year I enlisted in the Marine Corps believing my government would neither lie to me nor ask for my life if it was not absolutely necessary.

In Vietnam, however, I found a military dictatorship rife with corruption, venality and repression, and devoid of popular support. I found the forced removal of thousands of people from their ancestral homelands to poverty-stricken misery-laden shantytowns. I witnessed and participated in the reckless and sometimes deliberate destruction of men, women, children, crops, livestock, homes, and whole villages. I saw the terrible consequences of sending tens of thousands of young Americans, armed to the teeth, scared to death, and trusting no one but each other, into the midst of an alien world we had no chance of ever understanding or winning over. I found that the people we were supposedly defending hated us because we burned their fields and destroyed their forests and called them gooks, chinks, slopes and zipperheads, turning their sons into shoeshine boys and their daughters into whores. What any of this had to do with preserving freedom, ours or the Vietnamese, was exactly nothing.

...

- W.D. Ehrhart

Powerful description. Thank gawd I was against that situation at the time even tho I didn't know about the Gulf of Tonkin. Dominoes? Hate that young people like you had to bow to the leaders, right or wrong. That is what the protests were about. Some knew. I voted for Kennedy and hated Johnson as I felt he was competing with a dead man. You don't go to war ever unless you are threatened, duh.

Tool.

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a
charm.
Lisa: That's spacious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, dear.
Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?

Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.


http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F20.html

In the GOP's case, if it belongs in the trash they send it to Congress.

and i hope they fucking burn.

Or does that not count as a terrorist attack?

and just plain ing morons use.

2003 number of terrorist attacks, a RECORD number.

2004 number of terrorist attacks a NEW RECORD number.

Violence has incr...

Oh f*ck it. Just f*ck it, Lynn.

Those of us (most on this board) who know this is pure idiotic bullshit & a lie already know it.

Those who don't know it don't give a flying, and would NEVER bother with FACT and REALITY when fact & reality is AGAINST BUSH!

So just f*ck it.

the problem is most of us here don't have a friend/close connection/ or contribute in large enough sums to get the kind of govt. we need. So all we can do is rant, write our congressmen, papers, etc.. At least I believe I feel better being able to do at Least this. A few years ago our options were even worse. This internet may help turn the tide.

non-repub sites. :eyes:

I realize the IQ levels for Senators has lowered in recent years, but I didn't realize they'd fallen down into the gutter.

No 2nd terrorist attacks on the US because bush invaded Iraq; a nation that had never had anything to do with terrorists or 911.

Know why we don't have 10,000 dead US troops in Iraq yet? Because I have a lucky stuffed frog. It works and I can prove it; we don't have 10,000 dead US troops in Iraq. Yet.

And I do believe that's what's known as SPACIOUS REASONING.

At least Senator McConnell is adept at that.

Regards,

An American citizen who simply is in awe at the amazing depth of utter stupidity in this country the past few years.

We're effin surrounded by "them", deep in the heart of their territory. The deep south seems to have more moxy going on than in this strip of land from the Mexican border to the Canadian.

RUN AWAY!!!

RUN AWAY!!!


:D

He had a friend who always said, "May your house be safe from tigers" whenever he was leaving after a visit (this was in New York). Finally, King asked him what this meant.

His friend replied, "Well, seen any tigers here lately?"

This Krugman article is such an eloquent and forceful statement re how the war is destroying this country's ability to respond to real threats.

If you're looking to convince people that this war was a rotten idea, this article would be a great one to e-mail to them. Or make copies, with apropriate portions underlined, and hand the article out at the mall or the grocery store, post it at your school, etc...

Don't let Mitch McConnell's completely idiotic statements be the only ones that people hear!


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/opinion/16krugman.html?incamp=article_popular

Staying What Course?
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By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 16, 2005

<snip>


Why did the administration want to invade Iraq, when, as the memo noted, "the case was thin" and Saddam's "W.M.D. capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran"? Iraq was perceived as a soft target; a quick victory there, its domestic political advantages aside, could serve as a demonstration of American military might, one that would shock and awe the world.

But the Iraq war has, instead, demonstrated the limits of American power, and emboldened our potential enemies. Why should Kim Jong Il fear us, when we can't even secure the road from Baghdad to the airport?

At this point, the echoes of Vietnam are unmistakable. Reports from the recent offensive near the Syrian border sound just like those from a 1960's search-and-destroy mission, body count and all. Stories filed by reporters actually with the troops suggest that the insurgents, forewarned, mostly melted away, accepting battle only where and when they chose.

Meanwhile, America's strategic position is steadily deteriorating.
Next year, reports Jane's Defense Industry, the United States will spend as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. Yet the Pentagon now admits that our military is having severe trouble attracting recruits, and would have difficulty dealing with potential foes - those that, unlike Saddam's Iraq, might pose a real threat.

In other words, the people who got us into Iraq have done exactly what they falsely accused Bill Clinton of doing: they have stripped America of its capacity to respond to real threats.

<snip>

We have this massive military of irrelevant weapons such as guided missile submarines and supersonic interceptors.

My take on this war is in Krugman's essay, but let me state it more starkly: The war was used to divide the Democratic electorate between the well-read (like you), and those who could be convinced by an integrated government/media propaganda campaign that Iraq was a threat. The war was used to eke out GOP victories in 2002 and 2004 and henceforth take over the government. Daschle and Cleland are now history due to this GOP misdirection play.

Now we have this war-party Senate about to push the button on the nuclear option and take over the judicial branch of the government.

Invading Iraq stopped terrorists. WHAT? Going to war to bring peace, that is like f**king for virginity. DAMN! What convoluted logic these damn folks have. I guess the all knowing, all seeing George Bush was wrong in attacking Afghanistan's Taliban, but right in attacking Iraq? McConnell is cute by half.

So let me revisit history... February 1993 the WTC is bombed by terrorists...Manhunt begun. Most if not all either were killed or stood trial and now in prison. Now dismiss the American who blew up the building in OKlahoma City, we're dealing with what we all believe to be terrorists.ie Bin Laden...Now if you say that an American Embassy is soverign then you count those as an attack on America which occured in August 1998. So that would make it what, 6 years and 6 months before we had an attack on American, though it was an Embassy. Now come forward to Bush and September 2001...to today... that is 3 years and 8 months with no attack on America, nor an Embassy. A lil side bar here: It's been 1342 days since Bush said he'd catch Osama bin Laden 'Dead or Alive!'

Is an American soldier as much a part of America as an Embassy. You damn skippy they are..... The first soldier killed in Afghanistan was in January 2002. For Bush or anyone like McConnell to say we have not been attacked since 9-11 is a crock... Bush and Republicans overlook our soldiers and their sacrifice, but the Dems are the ones trying to make sure they have all the equipment they need. The medical they need. But it is the damn Republicans that get the credit for it...

As of today, May 21, 2001 at 4:40 p.m. 1631 Americans have died in Iraq. Whatever your beliefs, take a moment to remember those brave men and woman.

To use the words spoken by then Senate majority leader Lott, when Clinton was going into Bosnia, " I cannot support the President, but I can support the troops." Back at ya, there.

understand why the U.S. is the most hated nation on this earth.

How anyone in their right fucking mind could ever vote for this political hack is beyond my comprehension. Is it what the Kentuckians drink?

"If you remember, the prediction at the time was that we would be attacked again, and soon," McConnell told a gathering of active duty and retired military personnel at the annual Armed Forces Dinner in Louisville. "Well, that hasn't happened yet."

The key word here is "yet". Seems to me that between 1993 (the first time they tried to blow up the towers) and 2001, 8 years had past, so we have a window of 4 years for the terrorist to either prove this guy wrong or right. Unlike the US military which can flatten a new town each week in Iraq, it appears that Al Queda actually take time in planning their attacks.

Boy, this admin parades out one colossal jackass after another, don't they?

"...the lack of a second terrorist attack on the United States since Sept. 11, 2001...."
*Unless, maybe, he thinks only striking "the left" isn't really a bad thing?

"Letters containing anthrax bacteria were mailed to five news media offices and two US Senators, killing five people. The crime remains unsolved."
2001 anthrax attacks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks

U.S. Anthrax attacks 2001
http://www.gwu.edu/~cih/anthraxinfo/public/publicthreat_attacks.htm

"The 2001 anthrax attack was a series of events that took place over several weeks in September and October 2001. Cases of anthrax due to bioterrorism broke out at various locations."
2001 anthrax attack
http://www.public-domain-content.com/September_11_2001/2001_anthrax_attack.shtml

part of the plan?

aka "it does not follow". This is a false causation, something Dr. Carl Sagan warned about in "The Demon-Haunted World".

McConnell will be right up there saying "See, this proves that we were right to invade Iraq".

Moran..

onenote

Dear Senator McConnell:

I always wonder why US Senators do not have a 'general topic' entitled WAR.

In any case, you're being picked up by www.democraticunderground.com re: this matter:

Saturday, May 21, 2005
By Michael A. Lindenberger
mlindenberger@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said last night that the lack of a second terrorist attack on the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, proves that President Bush was right to invade Iraq.

"If you remember, the prediction at the time was that we would be attacked again, and soon," McConnell told a gathering of active duty and retired military personnel at the annual Armed Forces Dinner in Louisville. "Well, that hasn't happened yet."

#1. IN CASE YOU DO NOT KNOW, SENATOR, PRE-EMPTIVE WAR IS ILLEGAL.

#2. WHEN THE PRESIDENT TOOK HIS OATH, HE SWORE NOT TO LIE AND HE DID LIE RE: THE REASONS FOR GOING TO WAR AND HE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED.

#3. DEPLETED URANIUM IS KILLING AND IS GOING TO KILL OUR SERVICE-PEOPLE:

Former Army Colonel & expert in nuclear medicine, Dr. Asaf Duracovic says the V.A. told him to lie about the effects of DU?

* Dr. Durakcovic also says we have "committed war crimes by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law."

* The Uranium Medical Research Centre says we have "poisoned a significant portion of the civilian population" in many areas of Afghanistan?

* In one returning unit, 40%, or eight out of twenty U.S. soldiers have cancer?

He says that no new 911 proves that Bush was right to invade Iraq. The only way this makes sense is if he is claiming Saddam caused 911.

His argument, by implication:

cause (Saddam)--------------------------> effect (first 911)
cause removed (Saddam)--------||--------> no effect (no 2nd 911)

But Bush himself has said Saddam had nothing to do with 911, when pressed to actually answer a straight question. So, this liar is purposely misleading everyone, or he has a very poor ability to reason. Either way, he shouldn't be a senator.