Nuclear Weapons - REPORTEDLY - found in Iraq

[46Driver]

Yes. That's why we built a Navy in the first place back in the 1780's to go after the Barbary pirates. As for the Middle East specifically, back in 1943, FDR recognized that Middle Eastern crude oil was in "the vital national interest of the United States."

 

[Lonestar155]

okay was I the only person to hear this or what, but supposdly the Bush administration was warned about possible attacks on US soil involving? If Bush cared he would have prevented 9/11.
Who Knew? The unanswered questions of 9/11
September 3, 2003

"CBS reporter David Martin revealed that weeks before the attacks, the CIA had warned Bush personally of Osama Bin Laden’s intent to use hijacked planes as missiles. That followed the damaging exposure by The Associated Press’s John Solomon of a pre-9/11 FBI memo from an officer in Phoenix warning of suspicious Middle Eastern men training at flight schools—a warning that went unheeded."


U.S. Clamps Secrecy on Warnings Before 9/11
August 7, 2003

"The committee managed, 'inadvertently,' it says, to get some contents of a key briefing Bush received in August 2001. It included 'FBI judgments about patterns of activity consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks; as well as information acquired in May 2001 that indicated a group of Bin Ladin (sic) supporters was planning attacks in the United States with explosives.'"
http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=340_0_1_0_C

Bush's 9-11 Secrets
July 31, 2003

"The U.S. government had received repeated warnings of impending attacks—and attacks using planes directed at New York and Washington—for several years. The government never told us about what it knew was coming."
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0332/mondo4.php

 

[46Driver]

If you are quoting the "village voice".........

The government receives more information then it can deal with and must be able to separate what is a threat from what is not. However, up and until Sept 11th, terrorists organizations were not the primary security consideration for the US, nation-states were. As for using airliners as guided missiles, that was considered far-fetched and in the realm of fiction writers such as Tom Clancy.

 

[Banjo33]

It wasnt until AFTER we invaded Iraq and found NO wmd, that Bush suddenly decided to call for a plan to re-build the Middle East. If you do some quick research NEVER once in Colin Powell's speeches to the UN did they mention anything about re-building Iraq. This also cost the country some 80billion dollars. Correct me on that if im wrong here.

You are wrong. Bush was accused countless times before the invasion that he was going in merely for the oil. His reply was we were going to use Iraq's oil to help fund invasion and the cost of rebuilding the country. He promised countless times that we weren't going to just go in there over-throw Saddam and leave the Iraqi people to fend for themselves...we were going to stay and see it through.

 

[bunk22]

What fact or quote do you want? There are two people on here who have presented themselves and I asked for some proof. Such as what WMD's did we sell Iraq? So what country recently have we fought that has a history of aggression? North Korea? China? Iran? As far as I know, a country like NK hasn't invaded another country since 1950. They are contained but the moment they come across the border, the fight begins. We didn't take the threat of air attack by hijacked airliners seriously but we are not to take the threat of WMD seriously, esepecially after 9/11? Even if based on poor intel at the time, that was unknown. I sat in on a few intel briefs prior to the war (E-2 squadron since COD squadrons don't hear ****) and the way it was presented was interesting to say the least.

So I have yet question anyone's opinion, simply countering, including yours. I'm willing to bet that 80 billion that bothers you so much has effected me or others actually in the military more so than you. Let me know if you want an example. Economic wise, I just don't know enough as to how it's going to effect the economy in general. If you know, let me know. I do know my personal income and way of life (economically) hasn't been effected at all.

 

[bch]

you've got to love college and HS guys telling guys who have been in for over 5-10 yrs that they do not know what they are talking about.

 

[Punk]

you've got to love college and HS guys telling guys who have been in for over 5-10 yrs that they do not know what they are talking about.

I'm sorry, I didn't know we weren't allowed to have opinions and have a somewhat reasonable debate online.

I must've missed that AOM where they passed pictures out of Saddam's WMD's.

How does this have anything to do with being in the military for 10 years exactly?

 

[bch]

oh for god's sake man. I was not talking about you or anyone else in uniform... ARE YOU STILL IN COLLEGE OR HIGH SCHOOL????

 

[TANGO 1]

you've got to love college and HS guys telling guys who have been in for over 5-10 yrs that they do not know what they are talking about.

I see that you have chosen this time to publicly humilate yourself. What is the problem with highschool and college guys weighing in on an issue. Evidently you do not have anything to bring to the table, and if that is the case, why don't you just keep quiet. You don't always have to show how smart you are and why you think you right. O.k, so you have been in for XX years, who gives a fu*k.

 

[Fly Navy]

In fact, the only buildings secured right away were related to the Ministry of Oil. Even on the eve of war, Bush made a speech where he said he was talking directly to the Iraqi people. What did he ask them to do? It wasn't lay down your arms, or revolt yourselves, no. It was "don't blow up oil wells."

Are you that dense? What did Saddam and his military forces do to the oil system of Iraq when we put them on the retreat? *Jeopardy music* That's right folks, he caused a major ecological disaster to try to criple our fighting ability! Not only do we want to prevent that problem, but that oil rightfully belongs to the Iraqi people. It is what brings money into that sandbox. I don't think we wanted to see that destroyed.

As it was presented earlier, our oil comes from a multitude of other places. Even if we DID go in to secure the oil for ourselves, that is a VITAL NATIONAL INTEREST. If you don't think so, then give up your car, anything plastic, your heating, and maybe even your electricity. Welcome to the real world, where economy and national security go hand in hand.

 

[Fly Navy]

I see that you have chosen this time to publicly humilate yourself. What is the problem with highschool and college guys weighing in on an issue. Evidently you do not have anything to bring to the table, and if that is the case, why don't you just keep quiet. You don't always have to show how smart you are and why you think you right. O.k, so you have been in for XX years, who gives a fu*k.

Bch and I may have b!tched each other out in the past, but I'm going to defend him on this one. What he means is a bunch of ivory tower academics. How much exposure, REAL exposure to the world do HS and College students REALLY get? You're in the military, you may be of that age group, but you have a more unique perspective seeing that things like this directly affect you. He wasn't talking about you. He was talking about the guys who are here who aren't even in college yet, or are pre-military. Some of them are sharp kids/guys and pay attention, no doubt. Some of them are just ridiculous. None of us here know everything, I certainly don't, but we have a more unique perspective. As far as the Fleet guys, well they're privy to information that we're not. They've also been around longer. Life experience is very important.

Case in point: A high school student is interviewed while protesting the Iraq War. She said a bunch of things related to pulling out, stop killing the Iraqi people, etc. THE WAR HADN'T EVEN STARTED YET. When this information was presented to her, she made a dumb face and was very very confused. I sh!t you not, this ACTUALLY happened.

 

[bch]

Tango if you can read, I was not trying to make myself look smarter than you (you do a pretty good job of showing everyone how smart they are by comparison). That comment was aimed at people who are not even in highschool, trying to tell guys in the fleet that they do not know what they are tlaking about in topics in history that they took part in.

I am not trying to imply that simply because someone is in the military or not makes a difference in the importance of their opinions, but when younger guys are trying to present their opinions with NO FACTS to back them up, it is pretty ludicrous.

I know myself and Fly Navy would think twice before telling someone who is currently an OIC of a sqd detachment that he does not know what he is talking about when it comes to certain military affairs.

 

[TANGO 1]

Is it just out of mere luck that the Vice President of United States has some affiliation with a company that is heading the reconstruction work in Iraq. Not too long ago, there were claims that this company in questions was charging th Federal government extensively for the reconstruction process.
When Saddam used to be the good guy, who was the person that Reagan sent to go negotiate with Saddam on how to deal with Iran, the same old Donald Rumesfeld. Does it not look like this guys are confused. You talking about what we gave Saddam, was it a just out of the ordinary that we found some cases with ammunition marked Made in the U.S when the war started initially, and this was even boradcasted life on CNN.
All the international relations we gradually started building after Vietnam is now in shambles. Americans are seen as baby killers all around the world. If that does not bother you, then i think when our train stations and malls get blown off then you will get the picture. Or do you just think that hatred starts all of a sudden. Well we see how far they are going to rebuild Iraq and then when they don't finish rebuilding, we will see how much more " Mr. I don't like Americans" is going to want to fly more plains into other buildings in the U.S.
You talking of when America ever dropped bombs in Afganistan and at the same time drop liflets and rations. Where are you, I was one day listening to the CNN and on the same broadcast, the broadcaster mentioned the fact that U.S was continuing bombing missions and at the same time talked about the Airforce dropping rations and leaflets "talking about Americans are here to help"
Who ever said the war was not for oil, did you ever think of how United States was repaid back for the first Golf War. How did the Kuwaitis say a big Thank you to the United States? I know we did not fight in vain, and it was not a charity affair.
How smart is this, the U.S is believeing intelegence gathering made by Russia. That makes some great sense, because we are now friends with Russia, everything is good. You expect them to just forget the fact that we supported the Afghans to drive the out of Afghanistan in the late 80's. It is funny, because some of this guys that were fighting in that war are now dead and will never remember what U.S did. You expect them to make peace with us overnight and then everything is back to holding hands. Standby.


Why don't you read this : http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

 

[bch]

One thing to think about (CNN is great at doing this) it is very easy to just say, "today the US continued to drop bombs, but they are also dropping rations." While they are not lying, they are not telling the entire truth. It is a BIG country, it is possible to drop bombs on the bad guys in one part of the country, while dropping aid material to civilians in another. It was not like we were bombing the civilians then turning around and dropping med supplies and rations on the injured.

As far as the rebuilding... What evidence is there to support the opinion that the United States is not going to stay the course until Iraq is stable enough to take care of itself? Why don't we look at past experiences... Japan WWII... It is largely a result of the US money and effort in post war Japan that the country became the center for commercial technology that it is today. Who aided (and in most part paid) for the state of the art factories and infastructure?? While at home we were still using factories set up in the 20's and 30's for the most part? How about West Germany after WWII??

Now I know someone is going to bring up Vietnam, yes we gooned that one up, but the lesson was learned.

 

[zab1001]

gUlf...the Persian Gulf...therefore the GULF War...not GOLF