Rumsfeld said that he would have been pro invasion, even w/o WMD evidence

[sabra]

I was re-watching last weeks, 'THIS WEEK'. And noticed a very telling answer by Rummy....

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/21.html#a6001



(3:13 into clip)

Stephanopoulos: Would you have been for an invasion even if we would have known that (that the WMD intel was wrong)?

Rummy: The answer is ...... probably yes.

Isn't Rummy essentially saying that the WMD threat was just sugar coding to sell the war, and they really wanted to invade no matter what?

[The Magistrate]

1. Yes, It Is, Sir

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[DistressedAmerican]

2. They All Were. They Did Not Give A Shit About WMD. They Wanted Saddam.

Period. Nice to see them start to admit it publicly though!

[sabra]

9. Do you think it was a slip? Or Rummy really doesn't give

a shit anymore?

[The2ndWheel]

3. The answer is

"In the Persian Gulf region, the presence of American forces, along with British and French units, has become a semi-permanent fact of life. Though the immediate mission of those forces is to enforce the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, they represent the long-term commitment of the United States and its major allies to a region of vital importance. Indeed, the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."

Project for the New American Century, "Rebuilding America's Defenses"

[Liberal In Texas]

4. Well, HE might have been for it, but most of the rest of the country

wouldn't have supported it.

[sabra]

5. "Mushroom Cloud"

did it for most :-(

[Canuckistanian]

16. That's right, Congress wouldn't have given carte blanche

To invade,attack and take over a sovereign country. What would be the reason?

There would have been no urgency, no fear, no hysteria.

If people had asked why back then, they wouldn't have been asking why now.

[dkofos]

6. He is totally insane

Where is John Malvo when you really need him.

[sakabatou]

7. Because war is good, peace is evil

up is down, freedom is slavery.

[mmonk]

8. Of course. Because he knew.

Even some of those that are pretending to only have supported the invasion due to "faulty" intelligence are for it too. Don't be fooled. Do you hear many elected officials mentioning permanent bases and the Office of Special Plans? Do you really think they are ignorant of these things?

[damntexdem]

10. Oh, so he was pro-war even before ...

helping make up fake WMD evidence? Go figure!

[MasonJar]

11. Sadaam was getting ready to go with the Euro instead of the

almighty buck. He also was making big deals with Russia and France. Rummy and the neo-cons could not let either happen.

[Catrina]

12. I wonder when he said that?

Because this week he said that he had not 'pushed for this war'!!

I wish they'd keep their stories straight.

[sabra]

13. same interview, which makes it even weirder....

[Soup Bean]

14. Did anybody read Woodward's book leading to the invasion?

"Bush at War", I think....he interviewed Rumsfeld....Rumsfeld from the very beginning was concerned about just "pounding sand" in Afghanistan....there were "no targets of value" there....and that we should just go ahead an hit Iraq, because "we'll probably find out Sadaam had something to do with this (9/11) anyway".

That, plus the PNAC dissertations, pretty much show that he wanted war with Iraq from the get go, and so did the rest of them. I doubt any of them really wanted WMD's to be such a big case for Iraq, because they wanted that war anyway. Access to oil, beach head against China, Russia, etc. It was all justified in THEIR world view. The threat to American interests was therr in their minds.

Somebody in marketing decided the American people wouldn't go to war for such things as oil and empire, and so we were scared with WMDs. Not much threat to us, but since we sold them to Iraq, and we knew others had as well, we were sure they were there, and that we had a slam-dunk case (a la Tenet).

Whoops. The UN disarmament actually worked, that plus 10+ years of containment and bombing the hell out of them. So, no scary smoking gun in Iraq, just a big steaming, stinking pile of crap (that the Western World really helped to create), and a quagmire of a war that not much of anyone wants to fight anymore.

Oil is a huge liability for America and the Western World. I think we have to accept this and deal with it. HOW DO WE DEAL WITH OUR ENERGY PROBELMS, because ALL wars are resource wars.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Kind of blows away last week's arguments

Where he said that he "advised against" war. Of course we all snarfed our Pepsis over that one.