THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

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Former US secretary of state Colin Powell says he is "furious and angry" about being misinformed and has criticised George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld for their clumsy rhetoric in the lead-up to the war. ...

All that new I'm mad stuff of Powell's is irrelevant to my quote. We've all known for quite a while that the first part of Powell's speech to the UN (the WMD part) was false and that Powell was angry about it. He had every right to be angry, but that too is irrelevant to my quote (Saddam's alleged ready-to-use WMD never was my own primary reason for supporting the invasion of Iraq). The fact of his unhappiness over the WMD part of his speech was stated in Reference D long before your Powell quote in this post of yours. The only thing in the "sinister nexus" part that I use (that is not also supported by at least one other of my five references) is that Powell said that the US twice asked Saddam to extradite the leaders of the al Qaeda based in northern Iraq. Bringing this up in his UN speech constituted a third request (more than a month before our invasion of Iraq, 3/20/2003) to Saddam to extradite the leaders of the al Qaeda based in northern Iraq.

"Those helping to run this camp are Zarqawi lieutenants operating in northern Kurdish areas outside Saddam Hussein's controlled Iraq."

"Iraqi officials deny accusations of ties with al-Qaeda."

"Iraqi officials protest that they are not aware of the whereabouts of Zarqawi or of any of his associates."

"Iraqi denials of supporting terrorism take the place alongside the other Iraqi denials of weapons of mass destruction."

The only thing in the "sinister nexus" part that I use (that is not also supported by at least one other of my five references) is that Powell said that the US twice asked Saddam to extradite the leaders of the al Qaeda based in northern Iraq.

It was against regulations and would violate the privacy of family members of other slain soldiers.

Yeah, right. Any of those you've listed would be far superior to Bush in the presidency. Cycloptichorn

My point is simply that dressing this thing up as though everything is just peaches and cream fools nobody. Was it worth all the death and dying, wasn't it worth waiting just a little longer to see if there was another way and if failing that, at least to have planed it better?

The Baathist-al-Qaeda terrorist are murdering hundreds every week and our military is reporting these murders.

ican711nm wrote:

The only thing in the "sinister nexus" part that I use (that is not also supported by at least one other of my five references) is that Powell said that the US twice asked Saddam to extradite the leaders of the al Qaeda based in northern Iraq.

By the way, if that is all you're using, you can certainly point out where Powell said "that the US twice asked Saddam to extradite the leaders of the al Qaeda based in northern Iraq"?

Remarks to the United Nations Security Council
Secretary Colin L. Powell
New York City
February 5, 2003

http://www.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2003/17300.htm

…

Our concern is not just about these illicit weapons; it's the way that these illicit weapons can be connected to terrorists and terrorist organizations that have no compunction about using such devices against innocent people around the world.

...

But what I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network, a nexus that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder. Iraq today harbors a deadly terrorist network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi an associate and collaborator of Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida lieutenants.

...

When our coalition ousted the Taliban, the Zarqawi network helped establish another poison and explosive training center camp, and this camp is located in northeastern Iraq.

...

Those helping to run this camp are Zarqawi lieutenants operating in northern Kurdish areas outside Saddam Hussein's controlled Iraq.

...

After we swept al-Qaida from Afghanistan, some of those members accepted this safe haven.
...

Now let me add one other fact. We asked a friendly security service to approach Baghdad about extraditing Zarqawi and providing information about him and his close associates. This service contacted Iraqi officials twice and we passed details that should have made it easy to find Zarqawi. The network remains in Baghdad. Zarqawi still remains at large, to come and go.

...

My colleagues, we have an obligation to our citizens. We have an obligation to this body to see that our resolutions are complied with. We wrote 1441 not in order to go to war. We wrote 1441 to try to preserve the peace. We wrote 1441 to give Iraq one last chance.
Iraq is not, so far, taking that one last chance.

...

Released on February 5, 2003

revel wrote:

My point is simply that dressing this thing up as though everything is just peaches and cream fools nobody. Was it worth all the death and dying, wasn't it worth waiting just a little longer to see if there was another way and if failing that, at least to have planed it better?

No matter how long we waited some would have wanted us to wait longer in the vain hope that time and rationalization would make the terrorist problem disappear by itself.

I have not read anything that dresses "this thing up as though everything is just peaches and cream." The Baathist-al-Qaeda terrorist are murdering hundreds every week and our military is reporting these murders. Despite this on going horror, the Iraqis are making progress, albeit slow, in developing a democratic government of their own design. So the contrary of painting this thing as though everything were rotten peaches and paluted cream isn't reality either. We have no reason to believe that waiting would have reduced the death and dying. It's a horrific tradeoff: risking life to save life. Sometimes that pays off for the current generation. Generally however, if all ultimately goes well, it pays off for only the posterity of the current generation.

And I mean sources for "Baathist-al-Qaeda terrorist" as well as "murdering hundreds every week"...

I'm curious, ican.