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Originally Posted by willravel
He was with the President, and he served in public office. That's in the line of duty enjough for my opinion. Does he deserve pity? I suppose that's up to you, but telling you that the joke was in bad taste does not make me the 'humor police', it just means that I have a different sense of humor. Judging by others responses, I am ot (sic) alone in my sense of humor.
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So, if a person is in public office like Congress (and is "press secretary" a public office?) and gets killed in a car wreck on the way to work, he's died "in the line of duty"? That's certainly an interesting definition, and one which is not founded in reality. He had my pity when he was "recovering". Once he was turned into a trained seal, he (and his handlers) has earned nothing but scorn from me.
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You mean like the $120 billion in Iraq? Besides, if you are as well versed in economics as you come off, you know full well that the econemy was falling before Sept. 11, 2001. It started on it's downward spiraql right after Clinton left the Whitehouse. Kicking the hell out of places for no reason (referring to the weapons of mass destruction BS)is what makes terrorists, not what beats them.
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Actually, it started before Clinton left office, but why pick nits? Saddam probably didn't have much to do with the 9/11 attacks. He did come pretty close to trying to take credit for them, though. For example, here's a mural found in Iraq:
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/3r...saddam-911.jpg
Now, Saddam
INDISPUTABLY shelter other terrorists. Tariq Aziz, while still working for Saddam, spoke to Dan Rather about it:
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It's been widely reported that international terrorist Abu Nidal was shot to death in a Baghdad apartment. Is this true, can you confirm that and what else can you tell me about it?
Aziz:: Abu Nidal, Abu Nidal committed suicide.
Rather: Period?
Aziz: Yes.
Rather: Any idea why he committed suicide?
Aziz: Well tomorrow, well tomorrow I hope an Iraqi official who knows all the details about this matter will appear in front of the press and tell the press what he knows about this matter.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/...in519583.shtml
It turns out that Saddam had been sheltering him, but had him killed when he started plotting against Saddam, instead of just us.
Saddam did pay money to the families of SUCESSFUL suicide bombers, $25,000 per bombing. Randi Rhodes even admits this is true.
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Powell also never brought up Abu Nidal living in Baghdad—most likely because Nidal, who hadn’t been associated with any terrorist attacks in years, was already dead. (He was shot under mysterious circumstances in 2002.) And while Powell made a brief mention of Iraq funneling money to the families of suicide bombers, this was never a prominent part of the Bush administration’s case for war—in large part because a number of other nations, most notably Saudi Arabia, have for years provided similar financial support to the families of Palestinian “martyrs.”
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http://forum.therandirhodesshow.com/...T&f=86&t=27648
On top of this, you have Saddam's periodic taking of shots at US aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones throughout the 90's, all of which qualify as an act of war.
Then we get to the WMD issue. You say none were found. Well, how 'bout this one?
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In September 2003, a senior official at the Al Nu'man cluster bomb production facility gave ISG a 3.5 liter CW submunitions he claimed had been held by a factory worker in his private residence to keep it from being looted."
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Source:
http://www.foia.cia.gov/duelfer/Iraqs_WMD_Vol3.pdf (page 34 of 248) Or, how 'bout these?
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Since May 2004, ISG has recovered dozens (emphasis mine) of chemical munitions, including artillery rounds, rockets, and a binary sarin artillery shell.
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ibid, further down the page, left hand column. They found FIFTY THREE WMDs (see figure 5, page 30, same link). Saddam was required to get rid of ALL WMDs, and he didn't. True, they weren't new production, but they still were WMDs.