reborn-
I apologize if I wrongly insinuated you were somehow a member of a "pro-Bush" camp.
no problem....it just gets a little old, and its not just you.......theres a good number of people on the "antiwar" side that have a habit of lumping anyone prowar into the "worshipers of bush" camp.
What I stated was extremely relevant to this discussion.
i suppose in the context of what simon was trying to accomplish with this thread, you are right....as he was trying to imply motives outside of wmd for the war, and your post did indeed talk about other motives, so maybe "bait and switch" was a little off as a description.
you addressed me about a statement i made though, concerning what the u.s. did or didnt claim to have known about wmd factories in iraq, and i was simply wanting to stick to that subject rather than veer off and argue about oil and vendettas....as these things have been argued to death already, and i honestly dont have anything new to add. even in your post you said: "Not to veer off topic (which is exactly what I did)..."
i did respond to what i felt was relevant to my comments, which was this:
Colin Powell marched in front of the United Nations and provided so-called evidence that they were certain beyond any doubt whatsoever that the Iraqi government was developing Weapons of Mass Destruction. If the United States intelligence was so effective so as to take satellite imagery of locations believed to be factories for production, even going as far to provide detailed photographs demonstrating how they changed from day to day... yet now that the United States has TOTAL DOMINANCE of the sovereign state of Iraq, and can go as they please throughout the country, and in a matter of weeks is UNABLE to FIND ANYTHING.. when prior to the war they justified the very conflict by stating they KNEW the Iraqis have weapons, and they had the intelligence to provide evidence... who really is being duped here?
i have shown, through links, that the only thing powell marched in front of the u.n. with, evidence wise, was a stack of photos showing factories that had already been bulldozed and moved.
i also ask, how do we monitor changes in photographs, and truck movements at this point? there is no more movement or change because the regime is no longer in control.....so now we have to search through the rubble to find whats left, and i believe thats what were doing. as the article in my last post showed, theres plenty more sites to be searched, and more are popping up all the time as the iraqis continue to help.
one of us will be proven correct, so its really just a matter of time now. if no wmd are found, ive already stated that i would have to seriously re-think my stance on the entire premise for war.......are you willing to do the same if wmd are found? or will you simply look for a copout (they were planted, etc.)? if we find trucks like the ones powell described and showed photos/diagrams of, will some of you start stepping forward and admitting some credibility to the u.s. reports of wmd? or will they simply be trucks the u.s. designed and flew over to iraq?
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