K–There was no working relationship between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government.
S–This was already known. Saddam Hussein however was hiring terrosist to patrol and probe the Iran/Iraq border. Those terrorists had active ties to Al Qai’ida
K–Both Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice lied about Iraq’s nuclear threat
S–I can’t get to that article so I can’t argue it based on what’s presented there.
K–The meeting between Mohammed Atta and the Iraqi Secret Service never took place, because Atta was in the US at the time.
S–And? I don’t remember that being used as any primary reason for removing Saddam from power. He was intentionally harboring 4 of the most wanted terrorist we had already established were responsible for previous attacks on the US and other countries.
K–Dick Cheney is still being paid by Halliburton, the largest recipient of no-bid contracts in Iraq
S–Contracts which were awarded by the Clinton administration. Also, Halliburton is THE ONLY oile and energy services company in the world that has experience dealing with and putting out oil fires on the scale required. Which is why they were awarded the contracts by the Clinton administration. I don’t see any evidence of collusion or corruption based on the information that has beeen presented so far.
K–Iraq had no programs for creating them past the theoretical phase (there were a couple dozen countries closer to having both nuclear and biological weapons than Iraq).
S–Iraq also didn’t keep alot of documentation. Of the officials that have been interrogated the vast majority of them stated that Saddam had plans to resume the growth of WMD programs as the UN wasn’t breathing down it’s neck. However, it has yet to be determined where the WMDs we inventoried before leaving ended up since 1991.
K–Iraq was far less of a threat to our national security than North Korea or Iran.
S– North Korea and Iran will negotiate and communicate with us. North Korea and Iran are not under disarmament sanctions. North Korea and Iran do not yet warrant military actions since they have not used WMDs in the past and cannot yet be proven to having possession of WMDs.
K–George W. Bush has presided over the largest deficits in this country’s history by any measure, after coming into office with the largest budget surplus in history.
S– U.S. Constitution Section 8, Clause 2: [The Congress shall have Power] To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
The cost of September 11th alone would have created a deficit. Add to that the fact that we were experiencing a recession at the same time. What would you prefer? A record defecit. Or an extremely large tax increase to recover to the previous surplus?
K– That people far up the chain of command (ie: political appointees) were not held responsible by the President is unbelievable.
S– The instances are inexcusable. However, to hold someone accountable they need to have known that it was going on and done nothing to stop it. If you can point to this happening then I will concede this point.
K– Tom Ridge hold sizable amount of stock in companies with contracts with the Department of Homeland Security.
S– Did he hold them before or after Homeland Security was established? Did he specifically pick those companies? Where those contracts awarded by him or were they already standing contracts? Do those companies offer services that no other company competes for?
K– George W. Bush has spent 27% of his first time on vacation.
S– The president is never “on vacation”. He was at his ranch primarily for security concerns about half of that time anyways.
K–The Administration refused to listen to the advice of experts at the Pentagon about the aftermath of the war
S–I couldn’t find that in the timeline linked above so I don’t know how many experts at the Pentagon he “refused to listen to”.