I take great objection to that. I do not in any way agree with any attitude of "what's done is done, let's just move on" because it gives tacit approval for the next time something comes up like this for them to do the same. It will become an operating principle that there is no need for prior justification nor review for censure of any action of the President or Prime Minister, as if that's not the case already.
I WANT this to cost our governments. If there is anything we as citizens can do to prevent an abuse of power it is to make the costs of committing that abuse too high to even consider. The costs of conducting the war took away from our own domestic budgets for programs and services which benefitted our own people. If the war was so damned important to spend money on, I have no qualms in spending a little more to make sure of that. It just goes towards the costs of the war. So what about the poor people of Iraq? It's a red-herring argument. Our government here is structured such that all these people that are investigating the intelligence and such are not people who would be helping in the reconstruction anyway. The people that are rebuilding are still going to be doing that, despite whether there is an investigation or not. The people doing the investigation will either be chewing this bone or another, and will be pulling a paycheck regardless. I personally think this is a big enough bone that it really needs to be chewed on with great and furious deliberation. Even if the outcome is that the intelligence completely justified the actions, then it will restore confidence in the intelligence community and the decision makers who used that intelligence. If it doesn't justify it, then I think there needs to be extreme censure of the people involved to send a message that we won't be lied to and manipulated. -Kevin > -----Original Message----- > From: Philip Arnold [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 10:16 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: RE: Tony Blair, Internet surfer > > > > TONY Blair's first dossier on the justification for war > against Iraq > > was almost entirely put together from information freely > available on > > the internet, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. > > > > The crucial document purported to contain 55 pages of high-grade > > intelligence on the threat posed by Saddam, but was in fact largely > > based on unclassified CIA documents, Pentagon press > releases and the > > published reports of American think-tanks. > > > > Scotland on Sunday understands the Prime Minister may have been > > 'palmed off' with the old and publicly-available information by MI6 > > officers desperate to protect the sources of their latest > > intelligence. > > > > The revelation is hugely embarrassing for the Prime > Minister, who is > > fighting a rearguard action against critics of his case for > supporting > > President George Bush's invasion of Iraq. > > Here's something Tony and George should do... > > Stand up in front of their respective governments and say: > "The war is over, whether we went in with or without the > proper knowledge, it's happened - either we sit here and > discuss it and spend millions on trying to find out if it was > right or not, or we use that time and money to HELP the > people of Iraq and ourselves" > > See how many people object to that <g> > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. http://www.cfhosting.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
