Delta Force Co-Founder Blasts Bush

More and more - and even more - veterans and military leaders are stepping up and standing up to the meek and gutless paper warriors in the White House.

In today's L.A. Daily News, Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military's elite covert counter-terrorist unit steps and speaks.

Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

Q: What is the cost to our country?

A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. ... And I say "we," because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they're going to have from now on.

[...]

I hear apologists for torture say, "Well, they do it to us." Which is a ludicrous argument. ... The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what's legal and what we believed in. Now we're going to throw it away.

Q: As someone who repeatedly put your life on the line, did some of the most hair-raising things to protect your country, and to see your country behave this way, that must be ...

A: It's pretty galling. But ultimately I believe in the good and the decency of the American people, and they're starting to see what's happening and the lies that have been told. We're seeing this current house of cards start to flutter away. The American people come around. They always do.

Too bad the rightards simply don't listen to experts or anyone with a brain. Only the sick and twisted drug-addled propagandists both in and out of the White House.

Thanks, Jer...

Comments

[rhoda]

What annoys me most is the criticism is now coming out now ... the critics smell blood in the water and feel safer voicing their opinion. Where were they when we needed them most of all to prevent bush's reelection?.

[mm]

I have the highest regard for Delta Force members and they certainly are some of the people Dubya should listen to. They and President Carter got a bad rap after the failure of the Iran hostage rescue mission. Another case of the Republican's non-support of the military. And the so-called liberal New Republic magazine had a cover with the famous 1918 "Inverted Jenny" airmail stamp, but with an inverted helicopter. The article was called "The Persian Excursion." And thank you Ted Koppel. We need a new "Nightline" but with an Iraq Debacle Day 1000 theme. I googled for Charlie Beckwith, one of the founders of Delta Force soon after 9/11 to see what he had to say about it. Unfortunately, he had died. His book "Delta Force" was fascinating. I bought it used on Amazon.

[RepubAnon]

Six days ago, W and his Bush League minions announced we were "a long way from civil war" in Iraq. Today, we're "helping Iraqi troops" assault armed militia strongholds: Many dead in Baghdad mosque raid
At least 16 people have been killed in a raid on a mosque in Baghdad where militants loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr were based, reports say.

Aides to Mr Sadr say US forces led the raid on a mosque, while the US says Iraqi troops ran it with US support.

"No mosques were entered or damaged during this operation," the US military said in a statement.

In a second raid, US troops arrested more than 40 Interior Ministry staff said to be guarding a secret prison.

Earlier on Sunday, Iraqi security forces found 30 bodies - many of them beheaded - near the town of Baquba.

'Unarmed'

In Baghdad, an aide to Mr Sadr accused the US of killing unarmed people at the mosque.

"The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers," Hazim al-Araji told Reuters news agency.

But the US military statement denied that any troops had entered the mosque and said the US special forces troops were on hand only as advisers to the Iraqi troops.

"Iraqi Special Operations Forces conducted a twilight raid in the Aadhamiya neighbourhood in northeast Baghdad to disrupt a terrorist cell responsible for conducting attacks on Iraqi security and Coalition Forces and kidnapping Iraqi civilians in the local area," the statement said.
(Source: BBC News, March 27, 2006 [emphasis in original])I sure hope somebody asks Scotty McClellan about this at the next White House Press Conference - I'd be interested to see what level of violence must be reached before this does qualify as a "civil war." Maybe he'll crack and channel both Yoda and Johnny Cochrane: "If there's no General Lee - civil war cannot be!"

[cali]

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says
In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

Although the United States and Britain aggressively sought a second United Nations resolution against Iraq — which they failed to obtain — the president said repeatedly that he did not believe he needed it for an invasion.

Stamped "extremely sensitive," the five-page memorandum, which was circulated among a handful of Mr. Blair's most senior aides, had not been made public. Several highlights were first published in January in the book "Lawless World," which was written by a British lawyer and international law professor, Philippe Sands. In early February, Channel 4 in London first broadcast several excerpts from the memo.

Since then, The New York Times has reviewed the five-page memo in its entirety. While the president's sentiments about invading Iraq were known at the time, the previously unreported material offers an unfiltered view of two leaders on the brink of war, yet supremely confident.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/international/europe/27memo.html?hp&ex=1143435600&en=b6593aee0e01d384&ei=5094&partner=homepage