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Republicans Criticize Bush 'Mistakes' on Iraq

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leading members of President Bush's Republican Party on Sunday criticized mistakes and "incompetence" in his Iraq policy and called for an urgent ground offensive to retake insurgent sanctuaries........

After the CIA report was disclosed on Thursday, Kerry accused the president of living in a "fantasy world of spin" about Iraq and of not telling the truth about the growing chaos.

McCain said Bush had been "perhaps not as straight as maybe we'd like to see."

Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, speaking on ABC, accused the administration of delaying an offensive out of concern it would hurt Bush's bid to win reelection on Nov. 2.

"The only thing I can figure as to why they're not doing it with a sense of urgency is that they don't want to do it before the election and they want to make it seem like everything is status quo," Biden said.

Kerry and other Democrats have said Bush plans to call up more part-time National Guard and Reserve troops after the November election to compensate for thinning ranks in the full-time military due to Iraq. The Bush campaign denied this.

Biden said disappointment with Bush's policies was bipartisan. "Dick Lugar, Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, John McCain -- we are all on the same page. It is us and the administration. This has been incompetence so far," he said. (additional reporting by Sue Pleming)





And yet for close to a year, we've been fed rosy b.s., (yes, the fact that it was all b.s. should be irrefutable by now) about how things are great (just ignore those inconvenient coffins coming in from dover and the thousands of amputee G.I.'s returning almost invisibly back home). And these doom and gloom assements aern't coming from "liberals' this is based on the CIA' and the President's own reports. Trusting fools.

Well, yet another news report concluded -- get this -- that United Nations sanctions work. They effectively ended Saddam Hussein's weapons program, ensuring that he was no threat to America. Now, that's not the conclusion of some fuzzy-headed liberal. It's the conclusion of the Bush administration's 1,500 page report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

You see, because of U.N. sanctions, there were no chemical weapons. Because of U.N. sanctions, there were no biological weapons. Because of U.N. sanctions, there was no nuclear program. There was no threat. And yet President Bush had contempt for U.N. sanctions, removed U.N. inspectors, and invaded. And he continues to mislead us today.

Since there were no weapons, he talks about Iraq's desire and capability. Apparently, Mr. Bush has neither the desire nor the capability to simply tell the truth to the American people.

CNN has also learned that the White House was, in fact, briefed on a deeply pessimistic national intelligence estimate of Iraq back in July, and yet the president continues to say that things are going well over there. Well, they're not going so well for the Americans who were kidnapped there last week nor for the eight people killed in a car bombing there on Friday. But in Bush world, things are great in Iraq.

Freedom is on the march, the former Andover cheerleader cheereder said in a speech last week. Well, the historian Francis Fukuyama, one of the intellectual godfathers of the neoconservative movement, a former Reagan and Bush administration official who currently serves on a commission appointed by George W. Bush, says this

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"I think that anybody that thinks you can hold elections in the Sunni Triangle by the end of January is really smoking something." - Francis Fukuyama



General James Helmly, who is the head of the Reserves, says we're running out of Reservists. General James Conway, who, until a few weeks ago, was running our war in the western part of Iraq, he says we have botched the deal in Fallujah. Why doesn't the president level with us the same way his generals have?

The president simply continues his cheerleader routine, saying, rah, rah, we're making progress. Well, let me post a quote from someone who has looked at the same situation in Iraq. And here is what he says:

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"We've got to be honest with ourselves. The worst thing we can do is hold ourselves hostage to some grand illusion that we're winning. Right now, we're not winning. Things are getting worse."



Who do you suppose said that? Do you think maybe it was John Kerry, Howard Dean, Michael Moore?

No, it was Chuck Hagel, the conservative Republican senator from Nebraska, the No. 2 senator on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Do you think that Chuck Hagel is right that we're losing or that George Bush is right that things are just great over there?


U.S. Intelligence Offers Gloomy Outlook for Iraq


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...Because they just figured we'll win the war and then they'll have freedom. And we know how wonderful freedom is. We'll just sprinkle that freedom dust over the Iraqis and then it will be over, which is so silly.....

Now, what did those three countries (Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran) that actually helped do the deed all have in common? They're all theocracies. Because this is really all about religion. It's so ironic that George Bush, who's so religious doesn't get it that they [don't simply]'hate us for our freedom'.. if we just give them freedom.. -- religion is more important to them than freedom. It's much more important to them that their sister never walked down the street in a miniskirt than it is all the freedom in the world. Their freedom is in the next life. - Bill Maher