U.K. WMD Probe Problems Predict Our Own

[mburbank]

Blair Calls Iraq WMD Inquiry; Opponents Cry Foul
Reuters


By Mike Peacock and Katherine Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) - Tony Blair bowed to growing pressure Tuesday, calling an inquiry into the quality of British intelligence on banned Iraqi weapons but a key opposition party refused to take part.

The Liberal Democrats said the investigation should examine the political decisions taken to wage war, rather than focus exclusively on problems with information from spies.

Blair refused, sparking criticism that the probe would be too narrowly defined to be meaningful.

"I think it is right...that we have a look at the intelligence that we received and whether it was accurate or not," Blair told a parliamentary committee. "We do not in my view need an inquiry into the political decision to go to war."



In my opinion, this is exactly the problem we will face here in the states. W. is going to handpick the people on the investigation and define what the investigation will be about. If the investigation is ONLY about how intelligence went wrong and does not focus on how intelligence was picked and poitically used by the administration, it won't be utterly useless, but it won't solve the problem either.

I'm not familliar with the British situation, but here we had an undersecretary in the Pentagon reporting hand selected intelligence directly to the Vice Presidents office. That means it was not vetted at higher levels and that it was not the offical conslusions of the CIA. If this inquiry doesn't look at practices like that and the role the VP played in predetermining the focus of intelligence then it will not restore american credability.

[Dole]

The intelligence services will take all the blame...these enquiries are farcical at best. Blair will pay the fucking price come election time though, not just for the war but for all the sketchy shit done in labour's name.

[The One and Only...]

I wouldn't be so eager for this to come out if I were you. The strength of the Tories is growing.

[Dole]

The Tories were as gung ho about the war as labour, if not more so. The only reason they give a shit about this enquiry is political mileage, and considering what an inevitable whitewash it will be it will make little difference to them favourably. Their support from the voting public is still recovering from the decimation they got last time, and they still dont have any policies, which to their immense embarrassment was displayed very publicly in the recent student fees debate. They remain unelectable at present. People in my country don't have such short memories that they will forget how much the conservatives fucked us for 18 years.

[Zhukov]

I think we get to have one in Australia, too. As if anyone gives a shit.

She'll be right, boss.

[The One and Only...]

I wouldn't say that Thatcher fucked your country.

I didn't know you are an Englishman.

[Zhukov]

He reeks of Pom. Look, he said 'crisps'.

[Pub Lover]

Originally Posted by TOAO

I wouldn't say that Thatcher fucked your country.

& that, Sirrah, is why you're an idiot.

[Dole]

"I wouldn't say that Thatcher fucked your country."


- you didnt live through it. She did.

[mburbank]

He wouldn't say Reagan fucked our country either.

[The One and Only...]

I most definitely wouldn't say that. Reagan kicked ass.

[Dole]

I don't think there was a scarier image in the eighties than the sight of Thatcher and Reagan together....two senile old Nazis with the power to annhilate the entire world several times over.

[The One and Only...]

Somehow, I just don't see Reagan as a Nazi. Thatcher... possibly, but Reagan?

[mburbank]

Reagan vastly widened the envelope for Presidential bullshit. The Teflon President because nothing stuck. He didn't know native Americans were citizens, he constantly made up stories to 'prove' points, he frequently used annecdotes from movies not knowing they never happened, he tried to pass off ketchup as a vegetable and almost certainly kept a diagnosis of Alsheimers from the voting public.

I think one of the main reasons W. was ever able to run is Reagan having proved you can play President instead of being one.

He 'kicked ass'? Yours wasn't even in diapers. He was befuddled figurehead who presided over a group of mildly facistic ideologs, some of were convicted of serious crimes, some of whom currently work for W. and at least one who did both.

Nazi? No. Brain addled B Actor ? Yes.

[The One and Only...]

There was nothing fascist about him. I doubt you even realize what fascism implies.

I was talking about his policies. His economics were excellent.

[mburbank]

Supply side? The stuff W's dad called Voodoo Economics?

And don't doubt anything I know, kiddiepool. I chose the word speciffically. fascism being a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control. Oliver North, an unlected member of the Reagan administration, concieved and executed an illegal foreign policy. Regan called the man (and this was after he'd been exposed) a national hero. The rights of the citizens to make law through their duly elected representatives were countermanded by a small power elite who believed they had the right to ignore popular will in order to ensure security. Reagan approved. I think calling that mildly facistic is kind.

But then Reagan never could accept that he traded arms for hostages even though he supplied Iran with arms in return for which they freed the hostages. Not realizing that calling a man who highjacked a countries foreign policy a 'national hero' is bad... well, a fella like that could lay a wreath in a cemetary full of SS officers.

[The One and Only...]

With that sort of definition, Mao was fascist, Stalin was fascist, FDR was fascist...

[mburbank]

That sort of deffinition, word for word, can be found in the dictionary.

[Dole]

Stalin and Mao were 'fascists' in dictionary definition terms. Dont know enough about FDR to comment.

I don't know if its the same kind of people who get misty-eyed over Reagan in the US, but every person I have ever encountered who got misty-eyed over Thatcher was either in their 90s (and saw the Victorian era as Britain's 'Golden Age'), incredibly socially inadequate, or just plain old barking mad. Or all 3.

[Buffalo Tom]

Let's not forget that some of the money from the arms deals was used to support the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, something that had been made illegal by a previous Congressional edict. Two of Regan's National Security Advisors (Poindexter and, his successor, Macfarlane) were charged. Of course, George 'A Thounsand Points of Light' Bush pardoned everyone involved in the case. Fucker.

[Zhukov]

The dictionary also calls Stalin and Mao communists. Instead of them being both Fascist and a Communist, maybe the dictionary is just crap at politics.

Fascist actualy means something, you son't just throw it at someone you don't like.

[ShanghaiOrange]

Fascism and Communism aren't mutually exclusive.

[Zhukov]

Explain

[ziggytrix]

Fascist & communist at the same time: Pol Pot's Khamer Rouge?

[The One and Only...]

Fascism and communism are quite mutually exclusive.

Haven't you ever heard of the Roosevelt Dictatorship? FDR had a few programs knocked down by the Supreme Court because they were unconstitutional. Because he needed more left-wing judges, he even tried to pass a "Court Packing Plan" to ensure dominance over the Supreme Court justices. He made Reagan look like a toddler when it comes to autocratic control.