It's morning, man...

So I am ready to read your defense of Bush's policies prior to and immediately after the invasion of Iraq.

However, let's be absolutely clear on where I stand first, okay? I'll try to make it simple and brief.

I am a firm believer that if we DON'T finish the job in either Iraq or Afghanistan, then we will simply be dooming ourselves (and roughly 32 million Iraqis and Afghanis) to repeat the need to go back sometime in the next 25 years and do it all again (and probably much sooner than that). As Collin Powell was quoted as having said in 2004... "We broke it, we own it."

Much of what I (or we) may be arguing is going to be summed up as "What if?" This is an unavoidable, but unsupportable question and it has no answer that we can proffer with absolute certainty. I realize this as well as anyone, but it doesn't negate the questions... some things we just have to wonder "what if" about, and weigh the chances that things could have gone differently.

I am going to say this only ONCE, and I'm not going to defend the position each and every post from now on: the world is a better, safer place with Saddam gone.

Having said that, I am now going to say this, and will probably repeat myself here time and time again: I DO NOT believe that the reasons the Administration gave for removing Saddam from power were accurate, justified or entirely without prejudice and ulterior motives.

We did not remove Saddam from power because he was a bad man. We removed him because he was supposed to have presented a clear and measurable threat to the US and her interests, more so than any other nation on the face of the earth at the time. We were assured of the reality of this threat nearly every single day from March 2002 until March 2003, from nearly every member of the Cabinet.

We were shown the evidence of this threat during SotU addresses from 2001, 2002, and 2003. The UN Security Council was shown this evidence by the Sec. of State and the DCI of the United States. Our allies were shown this evidence time and time again, and offered much evidence themselves... almost none of which supported our own.

Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, this White House has mis-managed the conduct of that war from beginning to end, and only when it STOPPED running the war from the Situation Room did military efforts begin to show fruits we could live with. The conduct and efforts of senior Cabinet members called into question in very real and measurable terms by this documentary, and I am looking for justification of these efforts from anyone who has supported the policies and strategies of the Administration.

Now, there is no doubt that I am 110% behind the effort to WIN in both Iraq and Afghanistan... we must help establish a secure and free-elected representative government in both these nations. What I want to discuss is the reasone de guerre behind the effort, how that effort was managed, and the people responsible for the practices and policies that are so much a part of the "debate" raging around the current President and his legacy.