Well, darn.
I just spent two hours plus excerpting quotes from the 9/11 Commission refuting blogic's assertions and just after highlighting one last word to bold it, the whole freakin' thing went "poof" and disappeared when I hit the Bold button. Man, does that hurt or what.
I'll get back here & post the quotes again if I can, but anyone can read the report and find the documentation to support what I'm about to say:
1. We know Saddam had and had used WMD's. Whether later shown to flawed, there was also current intelligence suggesting that Saddam was actively seeking to reconstitute and expand his WMD capability. Even Kerry and Edwards believed that, based on the same intelligence.
2. No one, not President Bush or anyone in his administration, ever claimed there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11, so to say that "no connection" was proven is a specious argument.
3. There is well-documented evidence of connections between Saddam and Al-Qaeda and well-documented evidence of mutual interest, to the point of Saddam offering Al-Qaeda safe haven in Iraq. So, again, to say that no "coordination" was proven is specious, as "coordination" in the sense implied was never alleged.
These are the facts as laid out by the 9/11 Commission, blogic. The "conclusions," as you call them, are yours, not the Commission's.
What I see in reading the Commission Report is a President, in the midst of a chaotic and unprecedented set of circumstances, severely hampered by institutional obstacles put in place long before he arrived in office, sifting through the best evidence available given those obstacles, correctly identifying priorities, then making the difficult decisions to act on them forcefully and proactively to reduce the risk of any further 9/11's. In other words, doing his job. Eliminating Iraq as a potential safe haven for Al Qaeda (not to mention a potential source of aid, comfort and hardware) was, and remains, a legitimate part of that effort.
I'll do my best to get back with those quotes, but given the effort that went into the first time, that may not happen and maybe the best thing is to just suggest you read the full report yourself. You should anyway. And I'm now spent.
Cheers,
Daiwa
