Molly Ivins: Did you sign up for THIS?

[Dudley_DUright]

Another record. We have already lost more American soldiers (488) in Iraq in 239 days of this year than we did in 287 days last year (482) -- when there was a "war" on, and before our mission was "accomplished."

The grind of the numbers is so relentless. Price of gasoline -- pressing $50 a barrel. Poverty rate -- increased again, third year in a row. Number of Americans without insurance -- increased again, third year. Part of the "vibrant economy" Bush touts daily now. And the news from Iraq just keeps getting worse and worse.

Then, to liven things up, someone from Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith's office is accused of passing classified information to the Israelis via the lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Be interesting to see whether Laurence A. Franklin, the alleged spy, gets as much publicity as did Clinton's former NSC adviser Sandy Berger for allegedly taking notes on classified documents for his 9-11 Commission testimony. The Justice Department has announced no charges will be filed against Berger, and the matter is closed.

At least this gives us an opportunity to revisit one of my all-time favorite statements by Feith, a key member of the neo-con inner circle that dominates foreign policy in this administration. On May 4 this year, Feith observed in a speech, "No one can properly assert that the failure, so far, to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction stockpiles undermines the reasons for the war."

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17568

[nosmokes]

1. this is the one that gets me-

"Uhhh. What a bunch of clear thinkers they are. An enterprising student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Devon Largio, has done an honors thesis delineating 27 separate rationales advanced by the administration for the war in Iraq. The only one left, of course, is "Saddam was a bad guy" -- in other words, the human rights argument, the only one specifically rejected by the administration before the war. "

i love molly. thanks dudley.