Higher Standard and learning from your mistakes...

Time to lower the expectations, Bush takes on the press at 8:30pm tonight...as we all expect him to perform miserably, if he performs with the competancy of a trained monkey, he will succeed, and once again win at the game of lowered expectations...

I think that our President should be held to a higher standard...

I think that tough questions should be asked...and if they focus soley on 9/11, I'm going to bang my head against a wall...

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT HAS COME OUT OF THE 9/11 COMISSION IS THIS:

Many things could have been done to decrease the chances that 9/11 would occur, and we should all LEARN from that...BUT the Bush administration has done the EXACT OPPOSITE since...the 9/11 comission is NOT about Saddam Hussein, it is about Osama Bin Laden...9/11 has nothing to do with Saddam Hussein...our focus on Iraq has taken away from the "war on terrorism"...the Bush administration has failed because after 9/11 they didn't do what needed to be done...t

Seriously, that's what I get from the comission...who did what when is all fine and good...its what we have learned from our mistakes that is important...Bush has learned nothing, we have minimum troops in Afghanistan(around 8,000), and 135,000 in Iraq...you tell me where our priorities are...

I beg the press to garner up some courage...ASK THIS:how exactly does Bush make the US safer by invading Iraq, spending hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars there, pissing off most of the Arab world (and now even those in Iraq who supported us want us out because they see us as occupiers NOT liberators), and taking all the military away from Afghanistan (where, I might add, the Taliban and warlords are gaining back most of the country because we dont have sufficient prescence there)...HOW!!!

Agh, anyways...

With the behind the scenes tug-o-war that went on between the 9-11 commission and the Bush administration in order for Condoleezza Rice to testify in public. What occured (the testimony itself) was pretty much a rehashing of what had been repeated by Rice on every news show in the country. Some of the Democrats took an opportunity to gets a news clip out of there time, and Rice as always was determined to stick to her talking points and nothing else. What actually came out of significance? Two things:

1. The Bush administration will not apologize. If there was imcompotence, oh well...

2. The name of the August 6th memo was 'Bin Laden determined to attack the United States'...though Rice tried to suggest that it was a historical document, seems that with a title like that, it just...uhhh...may have been a warning...go figure...

One thing that wasn't reported today, that needs to be said. Besides Rice, Former President Clinton also testified (closed door because of classified information), all by himself without his vice-president there to hold his hand...and the commissioners all said that the 4 hours of testimony were very helpful and productive...
Former President Clinton Testifies to 9/11 Panel


Commission chairman Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, and vice chairman Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana described Clinton's responses during a four-hour meeting as "frank" and "constructive."

In a joint appearance on the PBS program "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," Hamilton said Clinton made "a lot of very constructive suggestions to us as to how to put the report together and what kinds of recommendations to make."

But Kean said it was unlikely that what Clinton told them would be made public. "A lot of it is classified, and it was discussing classified materials. So we took very careful notes and they'll be used to inform the report, but there probably will not be a release of the material," he said.

..snip..

A spokesman for the former president said Clinton was pleased to have the opportunity to address the panel. "The president answered all their questions and believed it was a very constructive meeting," said Clinton spokesman Jim Kennedy.

********************************************************************

So, why does the Bush adminitration want to stall this commission so much?
I didn't think that placing blame for 9-11 was worth it, I've said that for years...until all of a sudden, there was so much stalling, that I really am beginning to wonder if the Bush administration has something very significant to hide

Oh my gosh, what have we gotten into?!

I have nothing else to say today...

Scary Times

Something has changed in Iraq...our moment to "do it right" is just about over...
At this point, can the UN come in and bail us out? I'm not even sure if that is possible...
What other countries want to bail us out when it means that their people wll get killed also...

How do you win the hearts and minds when you shoot at people who don't agree with you?

Well, we are seeing that now...

Iraqis are "taking over" cities that have been under US control for a year...
To us in America, it is horrible because our guys are dying, these are kids that are over there...ugh...to those of us who didn't even want them there in the first place, it is NOT the time to say "I told you so"...its just a humble time to hope and pray that they get back safely...
To the Iraqis, they honestly feel that they are fighting for their freedom at this point (at least the ones who are fighting)...we were given a chance, but our arrogance, the lack of planning for the after-war contingencies, they have not gotten what they expected...we are the most powerful country in the world, they thought that we would do it right, we HAD to do it fast...we didnt, so now we are taking it into our own hands...

As for plans...we are giving control over to Iraq, come hell or high water on June 30th...why?
Because if they dont, Bush wont win the election in 2004...


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/06/iraq.main/index.html
Supporters of maverick Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr controlled government, religious and security buildings in the holy city of Najaf early Tuesday evening, according to a coalition source in southern Iraq.

The source said al-Sadr's followers controlled the governor's office, police stations and the Imam Ali mosque, one of Shia Muslim's holiest shrines.

Iraqi police were negotiating to regain their stations, the source said.

The source also said al-Sadr was busing followers into Najaf from Sadr City in Baghdad and that many members of his outlawed militia, Mehdi's Army, were from surrounding provinces.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20040406/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
U.S. troops battled guerrillas Tuesday on the edge of Fallujah in an operation to crush the insurgency there, as violence inspired by supporters of an anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric again spread to at least four cities, with 30 Iraqis killed.

Including casualties Monday and Tuesday, at least 18 American Marines and soldiers and 99 Iraqis have been killed since Sunday. In the same period, a Salvadoran soldier and one from Ukraine also were killed.


Heavy gunfire was exchanged with the insurgents, said Associated Press reporter Lourdes Navarro, who was with the Marines on the northeast edge of Fallujah. Loud explosions also could be heard from the center of the city, where the troops were believed to be engaging guerrillas.


After a weekend of countrywide violence sparked primarily by followers of the fiery Muqtada al-Sadr, fighting again was reported in Nasiriyah, Kut, Amarah and northern Baghdad. There were 15 Iraqis killed in Nasiriyah and another 15 dead in Amarah, coalition military officials said.

Too much to do, too little time...

Seems like months go by in minutes...I cant believe it's been so long...

Having two jobs is catching up with me...

In honor of the fact that I am "relaunching" this website, the web blog is being updated, and hopefully, will continue to update as I go...

Random thoughts:

First, this is a site that everyone should bookmark: http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx
This is the true price of freedom in Iraq...it goes up nearly every day, the question is, was it worth the cost...

My father originally thought that it was, but he always clarified that it had to be done right, and that meant that it had to be done quickly, now that its been over a year, Americans are still dying, and Iraqis are still without the services and security that they had a year and a half ago...it is clear that it is going wrong...

The latest news is that al-Sadr is holed up in a mosque, surrounded by his own armed militia...and declaring all out war...

This is scary, really scary...

Could it have been done right, I really dont know, but at every turn the Bush administration has gone the wrong way, and our soldiers and innocent Iraqis are paying the price...

You wanta see??

Check this out:
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
This is what it is really like in Iraq...and if you look closely, you'll see, its not the flowers and cheers that was so boldly predicted a year ago...

Will write more later, and certainly more often than once every six months, even if I am just writing to myself;)