More Painful Everytime He Talks

I have just returned from Hell.

I have just returned from Iraq and the lie being foisted upon you the American people. I have ridden first hand day by day either as gunner or driver in my Humvee for a year long tour of hell in Iraq where everyday you have to play Russian Roulette with your life. Imagine having someone place a 357 magnum pistol next to your head everyday and praying that it won’t go off. Then you start to get a feel for what some of us soldiers feel who go out of the wire everyday in Iraq.

Of course you always hear that we volunteered to defend our country and place our lives on the line well that it is true but what we did not volunteer for was to be slaughtered like sheep.

You see anybody who drives down the roads of Iraq through its cities and villages will pass by whole stretches of road where slaughter markets for sheep rebound. The stench from these slaughtered sheep is so strong sometimes that it is all one can do not to vomit when passing them. The passerby will see these poor sheep writhing and twisting in pain as their throats are cut and it is truly a pitiful sight as they slowly die with no way to defend themselves as their blood drain out in the street.

Well, the reason I had to bring up that whole example is to dismiss the criticism that we soldiers should die like sheep. But that’s not the way it’s going to be told to you the American people. What I have just told you is only the tip of the iceberg if you knew everything you would even redouble your efforts to get my poor fellow soldiers out of this grand lie foisted on us by grand liars.

I am not going to stand by as an American citizen and let this happen I will not be that citizen who says he was just following orders as the Nazi war criminals stated at Nuremburg. I am for fighting the War on Terror and not hijacking it to enrich my personal corporate donor friends and lackeys.
Our country is under attack from terrorist without and tyrants within.
Abraham Lincoln was right in his 1838 speech when he stated that the greatest danger that this country could face wouldn’t be from our enemies outside of our country but from domestic tyrants inside it.

I will be officially running for the U.S. Senate as of March 29, 2006 and I will not officially campaign for it until that date. As of now I am not a candidate but will be in 33 days.
my views do not represent the U.S. government nor the Department of Defense

Leonard Clark
Kindergarten teacher
and damned liberal
(always the damned liberal)

===Looks like Americans are handling port security, the same as before.

Which is still being shortchanged by this administration just as it shortchanged nuclear non-profliferation programs.

===Looks like American union workers are handling the port work on the docks, the same as before.

But if you are looking to smuggle in people, drugs, or weapons, does management of a port help you?

UAE is notorious for trafficking in humans–meaning slaves for sex and for camel racing of all bizarre things. Now, given we have problems with human trafficking for prostitution in the US–why is it that this doesn’t raise flags with you?

The state owned company we are talking about was part of the system that allowed UAE to ship nuclear components to Iran and North Korea.

The banking system is the modern Switzerland and helped fund the 9-11 operations as well as having two hijackers being from UAE

=Looks like all Dems and some Republicans are quick to judge people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character.

The content of their character? Freedom House rates UAE as 6 out of 7 on a scale of repression. You call that character? WTF? They take part in the trafficking of human beings. They are a key conduit for weapons of mass destruction to rogue nations. It looks like you are an idiot to suggest the UAE Government has some sort of character other than evil.

===And speaking of sucking up to dictators, Jimmy Carter and now Al Gore in Saudi take the prize.

Except I don’t defend them doing so, but I’m consistent, I don’t like the Preznit holding hands with Islamist Dictators and telling them how good of friends we are–and he is the Preznit.

==And unlike the UAE, who is arresting terrorists, the Saudis WERE the terrorists.

LOL–2 of the hijackers on 9-11 were from the UAE. For a nation of 2.6 million that’s not that a bad representation since 15 were from Saudi with a population of about 26 million.

===Talk about hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

Yes, you are a great example of both. What is it about Bush that makes you think whatever lie he tells you is the truth?

Don’t take it personally, I meant Carter and Gore. I don’t want to engage in ad hominem attacks.

But if you use idiot and WTF in your posts I am going to start to feel like I’m your mom.

–But if you use idiot and WTF in your posts I am going to start to feel like I’m your mom.

My Mom isn’t an idiot, you are. You are horribly ignorant of the country you are trying to defend and you called me a racist so fuck you. No one forced you to comment.

I thought Dems weren’t concerned about WMD, that it didn’t exist.

Um, unless I missed a memo, they didn’t exist.

Archpundit referenced UAE’s earlier role in transit for WMD materials.

But here’s more, the Saddam tapes on ABC with more to come.

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20&artnum=1&issue=20060224

I guess you guys will only believe it exists when a dirty bomb or worse shows up in one of our cities.

Then you can swear with good reason.

Wow, so you quote an editorial and a conservative Blog…that’s pretty credible.

Get a grip. The tapes prove that Saddam Hussein predicted the US and Britain might one day be hit by terrorists. By your rationale, Gary Hart and Warren Rudman are then also terrorists, because they told Bush and Co. the same thing.

You can continue to believe the nonsense you’re being spoon-fed…and in the company of Dittohead troglodites, you’re probably considered a genius. But where people can think and read for themselves, you’re simply a fool.

===I thought Dems weren’t concerned about WMD, that it didn’t exist.

Iraq didn’t have WMD’s by 2003 so it’s a bit bizarre that you seem to be inferring they did.

However Democrats are very concerned about them–if you go back to George Bush’s first budget, he had to be shamed by Gephardt to maintain funding for non-proliferation programs that worked to employ Russian nuclear scientists and dispose of former Soviet bombs and material.

Anyone who has followed non-proliferation efforts would know that Nunn-Lugar was the basic initiative to stop proliferation and was a remarkable bi-partisan effort.

===I’m glad to hear that you are concerned about it. And I thought Dems didn’t like unilateral US military intervention. The UN, dominated by dictators, certainly wouldn’t have supported intervention in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

LOL–this is the most bizarre non sequitur I’ve read in a while. I’m not suggesting we go around an invade every totalitarian regime. In fact, that would be a really bad idea, but if we do want to promote freedom and democracy, the first step is to not make friends with despots when avoidable and to certainly not subsidize their reign through supporting state run enterprises. Most people are able to figure out that there is quite a range of actions one may take to promote democracy besides invasion.

I am suggesting that claiming to be promoting freedom and then making de*ls with despots like the Saudi and the Emirs and the Uzbeks and Turkmenistan government is a contradiction.

And the UN isn’t dominated by dicators given that with around 200 countries 122 are democracies. For the clueless, the UN is an instrument of power by the allies from World War II and generally serves that purpose quite well.

===And when we did intervene, in Afghanistan and Iraq, where there were direct threats to our security all we got was grief from the left.

Really? What significant group on the left opposed Afghanistan? Seriously, what significant group opposed invading Afghanistan?

And given Iraq didn’t have WMDs how were they a direct threat to our security?

===That is why there is genocide continuing in Sudan. We have to pick our battles, we can’t do it all alone

Did you not learn anything from Afghanistan? A failed state is incredibly dangerous to the United States because such a state is exactly the kind that can harbor groups like Al Qaeda. In contrast to Iraq that had no significant relationship with Al Qaeda with the only group in the Kurdish protected zone, a failed state in Sudan would provide an excellent place for Al Qaeda to base itself just as it did in Afghanistan.

Further, intervening in The Sudan doesn’t take a huge American force as much as American support. Supporting African Union troops with the appropriate mandate, air cover and technology would go along way towards stopping the slaughter. Instead, Mr. Freedom has avoided the situation in favor of a war in Iraq which is also on the verge of being a failed state thanks to gross incompetence by this administration.

===I guess you guys will only believe it exists when a dirty bomb or worse shows up in one of our cities.

So weird–no one doubts the danger of WMDs, but there is no evidence of WMDs in Iraq after 2000 at least. The argument about the biological weapons in the article is sleight of hand given the biological agents he had the technology for had an 18 month shelf life. IOW, the bio weapons he produced before the first Gulf War would be useless.

Citing an editorial and claiming it proves anything is a bit bizarre in itself. More so given its treatment of Hussein talking about WMDs and the United States where he was talking about how it was easy, not that he would do it. Specifically he thought his type of state was security against such sorts of terrorism

And, of course, we get the Spetnaz conspiracy theory that the Pentagon has disavowed and the guy who started them is a war profiteer who was freelancing on his trips to Iraq to help contractors. Not much in the credibility factor since Rumsfeld even denied it and denied it strongly. But good conspiracy theories never die if you just wish hard enough….

===You, Archpundit, brought up the Uzbeks and Turkmen

Yes, and in reply to your complaints about Gore and Carter–never mind that Bush is closer to the Saudis than either of them, but hey, who wants to let that get in the way of consistency.

===On WMD, yes, the Dems were concerned about WMD before they weren’t (Under Clinton, yes, remember the Sudan “aspirin” factory, but under Bush no) Nunn-Lugar was a good idea and admirable. Gephardt was one of the last honorable Dems and look where it got him in the party. Only Joe Lieberman is left.

This is not actually a response nor it is coherent. Care to try again?

Again, Gephardt had to shame Bush into restoring funding–funding that was there under Clinton so your rant is a bit hard to understand. If you are trying to say opposition to Iraq was based on not caring about WMDs, the primary argument was that Iraq didn’t have WMDs. And Iraq didn’t.

==The article, and others, also say they have been cooperating with us in tracking down terrorist money.

Again, you appear to have a reading comprehension problem–corruption is still quite common and it is still a haven for illegal activities. It’s a little bizarre to say they are strong against terrorism while admitting they let narcotrafficking and other illegal activities often used by terrorists to continue through their ports and their banks.

===The ports are the last line of defense, the first line is going after nukes in the hands of rogue states, then screening cargo overseas, which they are doing in Dubai. We probably need to spend more money overseas than here. And Maybe shift some $$$ from Missouri to Texas and NY ports

None of which explains why we must allow a company run by a foreign government that is corrupt buy large terminals in our ports. I don’t disagree with screening overseas, but that isn’t somehow mutually exclusive to having strong port security here. It’s as if you can’t respond to specifics and your talking points hit a wall.

==If you treat Chinese operation of US ports differently than Dubai port operation, that is Islamophobia, and it is bigoted, it is profiling without justification.

I’m suggesting we treat them the same actually and not allow companies owned by foreign governments to run terminals and I’d probably expand that to most companies based in countries that don’t have strong police and judicial systems.

==Technology can’t easily now penetrate for nukes through containers in our ports. We can’t screen everything physically. We need to be able to track potential terrorists by eavesdropping, a far more effective way to prioritize our resources

That’s pure crap. Radiation detectors are quite effective at identifying potential radiological threats and they are relatively cheap. In addition, we already have teams with such equipment, it would only take ramping up production.

===You can make WMD out of ag chemicals, most can be made of dual use materials. Iraq imported more than it would ever need for normal purposes.

And most of that was well before the embargo was in place. There is no evidence he had any significant WMDs by this decade. Repeating it ad naseum doesn’t change that fact.

==In the end, it was the nexus of oil money,

Actually, it was limited in its funds given the embargo. Even with problems with the embargo, he was still severely limited in funding his operations.

— terrorists,

Not really. He didn’t allow terrorists on his own soil in any significant fashion and quite brutally killed them in many cases. Here’s a hint though–we aren’t at worth with a tactic. We are at war with Al Qaeda and now all sorts of Iraqi nationalists since we invaded. Al Qaeda was far stronger in countries we considered allied with us in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, and Pakistan than it was in Iraq where it’s only outpost was in Kurdish controlled territory.

===WMD development

There is no evidence that by 2000 Iraq was producing significant amounts of WMD. He told people he was—to keep them in line, but we have found none that don’t date from pre-Gulf War I and most of that was useless by now.

===and hatred of the US.

Not much more than in other countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia or Pakistan where hating America is far more prevalent than it was in Iraq before we invaded.

Repeating these arguments don’t make them accurate. That someone is so deluded as to believe there were significant stockpiles of WMD that suddenly vanished demonstrates the Jim Jones like cult that has risen around this President. Facts no longer matter, instead making excuses for one fo the greatest incompetents to hold the office is the sport of the day.

===And that you couldn’t take the word of a man who didn’t bat an eye at using chemical weapons on his own people or his neighbors, who shot mothers in front of their children, and tortured children in front of their parents.

Who is suggesting taking his word? Most people suggested an aggressive inspection routine which turned out to be accurate in finding there were no signficant stockpile of WMDs.

===I would say Saddam outranked Stalin and Hitler in cruelty, tho not in the number of people killed.

Yeah, because the genocidal nature of the other two was far more humane.