It’s About Aggressive Dictators

Greenspan on Iraq war, oil link - 17 Sep 2007 at 8:27am - Clarifying a controversial comment in his new memoir, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he told the White House before the Iraq war that removing Saddam Hussein was ?essential? to secure world oil supplies, according to an interview published on Monday....U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday rejected the comment, which echoed long-held complaints of many critics that a key motivating force in the war was to maintain U.S. access to the rich oil supplies in Iraq.....“I think that it’s really about stability in the Gulf. It’s about rogue regimes trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. It’s about aggressive dictators,” Gates said.

Securing global oil supplies is not a legal or moral justification for war. Trying to promote stability in the Gulf is not a legal or moral justification for war. Punishing rogue regimes for trying to develop weapons of mass destruction that you cannot demonstrate they're trying to develop is not a legal or moral justification for war. Desiring to remove aggressive dictators from power is not a legal or moral justification for war.

Iraq pulls U.S. firm's license after fatal shooting - 17 Sep 2007 at 8:35am - The Iraqi government said Monday that it was pulling the license of an American security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy.

Bush to name retired judge Mukasey attorney general - 17 Sep 2007 at 8:59am - WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush Monday will name retired federal judge Michael Mukasey as his new attorney general, a senior administration official said.

Crocker blasts Iraqi refugee process
17 Sep 2007 at 1:00am
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq warned that it may take the U.S. government as long as two years to process and admit nearly 10,000 Iraqi refugees referred by the United Nations for resettlement to the United States, because of bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Empty wards in Baghdad hospital offer hope - 17 Sep 2007 at 9:09am - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A row of beds lies empty in the emergency ward of Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital. The morgue, which once overflowed with corpses, is barely a quarter full.

Thought for the day:
You get fifteen democrats in a room, and you get twenty opinions. -Senator Patrick Leahy (1940 - ), May 1990