Bush claims that we are safer now that Saddam is behind bars.
There has yet to be shown any link between Saddam and terrorist attacks on Americans. {{This is not to say that he wasn't a bad dude, a thug who supported terrorism in the Middle East and in his backyard}}.
There are now attacks on Americans that were not occurring before, both in numbers, in locations, and in methods (the beheadings come to mind as a particularly gruesome example). I don't equate any of that with being safer.
There are places in the world where it used to be relatively safe for Americans to travel that are now dangerous. I don't equate that with being safer.
There are Americans coming home from Iraq dead or injured that would not be doing so without the continued war in Iraq. I don't equate that with being safer.
One could argue that the soldiers could as easily be killed in Afghanistan ... but that would be in pursuit of the real terrorists and killers of Americans, and getting them will -- when it happens -- make us safer, but it hasn't happened yet, and I don't equate that with being safer.
One can also justifiably say that the conflict in Iraq has raised the Arab anti-American sentiment to new heights of hate and willingness to kill. I don't equate that with being safer.
The credibility of our leaders has been diminished not just from the wanton invasion of Iraq but by the undeniable evidence that our intelligence people do not have a lock on what is happening in the real world, and this will affect what our leaders can accomplish in the world with other leaders. I don't equate that with feeling safer.
Personally I don't think there is a thing this administration can do with credibility anymore. They have lied, they have misrepresented, they have mismanaged, they have missed opportunities, and they are unrepentant and unwilling to make any changes to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
Show me Waxman lying with evidence similar to that of Bush's blatant lie about Kerry's comments.
Show me Waxman lying with evidence similar to the pictures that show Cheney sitting next to each other at a table that prove that Cheney was lying when he said he never met Edwards before the debate.
Powell has admitted that the evidence that he presented was not credible.
Rumsfeld has admitted that the link between Iraq and Al Queda is tenuous at best.
This administration cannot be trusted. For anything.
Personally I think it is venal that the republican party is not trying Bush for impeachment with the same fervor that they prosecuted Clinton's blue dress, or do they forget that their standard was that he was lying to the American people? The blue dress did not cause soldiers to die.
Enjoy.
™ Version 4.2