"Bush campaign ads using team"

[Occhidiangela]

But you forget that I come from a country where there is real freedom like there should be. No freedom to own guns, but freedom to drink a beer when you are 17 years old for example. Another nice feature is that unlike other countries we have quite a good independent media. And the relative amount of propaganda is a lot lower. We also don't vote for somebody just becasue he is the president at the moment.

If I recall, you are from Germany. As to your last, you're kidding, right? Your tongue was in your cheek, right? Maybe you don't vote thuswiise, good for you niehter do I, but Helmut Kohl served as Chancellor for HOW LONG? Was it 17 years?

As to the right to bear arms, if you and your fellow citizens are willing to trust the cohesiveness of society and the general good nature of those fellow citizens, and the various immigrants who arrive as gastarbiter, to respect peaceable social norms, that is all to the good. Americans are by nature suspicious of government, since government of the people is made up of people, people like us . . . yeah, best keep a wary eye out. Not everyone buys into the same norms. Last I heard, such diversity was being lauded as good. It comes with a price.

In the US 52 % of the people still believe Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks

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Curious as to where you found that alleged fact. It is known that Osama Bin Laden was behind the attack, it has not been shown that Bin Laden had any support from Saddam (it also has not been shown that he did not, but proving a negative is even harder than otherwise and beside the point) and it is known that Saddam supported terror orgainzations who induced young folks to perform as suicide bombers in Israel. He paid money to the families of some of those folks.

Now, is that sufficient "state sponsorship" of terror, by itself, to go after Saddam? Nope. If that were the case, we'd have been in Iran in about 1983, after the Beirut bombing, and would have done more than bomb Lybia in 1986. Not to mention after the Locherbie terror bombing . . .

But it contributed to the decision.

I am still not sure "why now" though I have offered opinions on that previously in this forum. I would advise you to consider that to some people, the combination of factors were a strong argument for getting him out off the world stage. Not strong enough for some, though, to include Putin, Schroeder, and Chirac, among others. Too bad a better case was not made.

The comments that Kandrathe and Assur make about poor preparation for the Phase IV, which has devolved in parts of Iraq into a counterinsurgency, suggest that some of the policy makers misunderstood just how big a power vacuum would be created when Saddam and his network were forcibly removed. All they had to do was look at Bosnia for A BLOODY CLUE!!!! *grinds teeth*

Over here, I refer to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Phase Four, as Phase "Forever." I hope my little jest is wrong.

Oh crap, we are STILL in Bosnia . . . crap crap crap.

Occhi