All right, last night I couldn't or didn't want to say anything about the post immediately below. This morning, upon further review, I'll bark a bit.

First, TalkingPointsMemo asserts this is a turf battle, with at least one party leaking information in the hopes that it will help restore a security clearance. OK, fine. It still doesn't detract from the central point, which is that we could have gotten a LOT of what we wanted, WITHOUT losing any lives in an invasion/occupation.

Second, the article claims that Iraq even offered to hold elections in two years. Yeah, and I'd believe Saddam Hussein would hold a free election soon after pigs grew wings and took to the sky. But that isn't the point. The point is that Hussein was desperate--desperate to the point of offering a LOT of things, including free reign for weapons inspectors, full support for US peace initiatives between Arabs and Israelis, oil concessions, and so on.
There was even an offer to turn over an individual in Iraqi custody who was wanted here for alleged involvement in the 1993 WTC bombing.

That said, our government has a right to be skeptical. This was a back channel, unofficial communication, and who knows how any of this would have ultimately been handled. I'm not so naiive as to think that Hussein was totally sincere in his various offers; however, I AM SAYING that IT IS FOOLISH for our leaders to shoot first and bargain later.

Any sane, normal, person would know that it's stupid to go to war if you don't have to. As Sun Tzu noted, the best general is NOT the one who wins the most battles, but the one who obtains the objective without resorting to battle. The chickenhawks in control apparently don't understand this simple concept. Maybe it's because, having never seen the horror of war (click on Pictures link or use drop down arrow for the same), their mind set is like that of children playing war games. Or, maybe they just don't give a damn. The fact is, they could have at least talked it over via this back channel one more time before launching an invasion that is backfiring as I write this.

In the end, it's the person at the top who will take the credit or the blame, Mr. Cheney. And that idiot kid you hired to run the place while you went into hiding isn't doing all that good of a job either....