THE CARLYLE GROUP .

There's a prime example of why Bush went to war.Watch the video, Exposed:The Carlyle Group.

THE CARLYLE GROUP.

What a waste of lives and treasure!

Go Warmongers, we will be back, Like we really leave after invading others. Iran has it's days coming in Iraq and Obama only did this so he can get more votes. Gambling with peoples lives so he can gain more blood trophies for his up and coming. Kind of like the billion he spent on having his basket ball party. OH yes let people suffer so he can get his Kingdom back just before he destroys his own peoples values and living standards..go Obama Drama that has turn to trauma in our streets of drugs, gangs and lack of anything good. Then his terror trophies when we know today America is the biggest terror out their with all their weapons of mass destruction. Tossing it in peoples faces with his basket ball games on war machines, only costing the tax payers billions again..If he does get re elected in this jokers paradise, could we please not teach him how to count above 900 trillion dollars. We see that one coming now at 3 trillion a year for his expenses and parties on the people

Why did Bush start the Second Gulf War?

Here's my theory.

Bush senior was a genuine war hero and not bad as a President. (And this coming from an Obama supporter.) Consider these comparisons:

Bush Senior: Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941, at the age of 18, Bush senior postponed going to college and became the youngest aviator in the US Navy at the time. In 1944, his attack aircraft was hit by antiaircraft fire but Bush Senior finished his attack run anyway and managed to ditch in the ocean.

Bush Junior: Used family influence to get a cushy assignment in the National Guard while others were dying in VietNam, then went AWOL to politic in Alabama.

Bush Senior: Moved to West Texas, entered the oil business and became a millionaire by the age of 40.

Bush Junior: Handed family money, he decided to buy a baseball team.

Bush Senior: Graduated from Yale in an accelerated program that allowed him to graduate in two and a half years, rather than four.

Bush Junior: Indifferent student. Known as a party boy and a boozer by his own admission, he was on the cheerleader squad.

My theory is that Bush Junior suffered from a massive (and well deserved) inferiority complex and we owe the debacle in Iraq to that mental defect. He tried, and failed, to do what daddy wouldn't do.

His legacy is a stain on America.

phlood ...

Written like a true mentally defective wordsmith.

(with reference to post #524.1)

When we allowed Saddam Hussein to be executed we effectively took the linchpin out of Iraq. We've now got three separate groups of people over there who will shortly be in a civil war. It's the warmongering Right Wing Republicans with McCain as their spokesman who backed Bush/Cheney in getting us in there in the first place and who now share the responsibility for the bloodbath that's yet to come!!

Same old hate and filth from the left I see.

Except of course for giving Obama "credit" for something that Bush signed before Obama was ever elected.

On that part they are, as usual, licking his shoes like he personally "took charge" of the Iraq war, when all he did was follow the treaty between Iraq and the U.S. that was signed by Bush.

A war that should have never happened. There will be no democracy in Iraq. Iran has much influence in the Middle-Eastern region.

As commander in chief, the President is always in "charge" of whatever wars are going on while he is in office. Anyone who got a passing grade in a high school civics class would know that. If McCain had won instead of Obama, I have no doubt that the Iraq War would still be going on at full strength, and, of course, conservatives would be blaming the economy on Clinton.

When will we ever admit that the country was far better off with Saddam?

Other religions were protected- which I guess is 1 of the things that made him a tyrant since in the Middle East, Freedom to kill infidels is infringed by Saddam

There were education - which I guess was also tyranical since you dont really need education when you can bomb infidels for virgins.

This war was never justified and the cost is unjust. 4,500 of our best people so that little bush and prove to his daddy he did it is not a good price. I just wish we could send little bush over there and leave him there to experience the "improved" Iraq he created. Hell, if it was so good, he shouldnt mind living there permanently. The only concern he might have is that he might get a lot of shoes thrown at him.

What a total waste of American lives and money. Muslims are not worth dying for and we should not be obliged to allow them immigration into the US. These people are savages. Like the adage if you sleep with dogs you get fleas ... whether it's the Palestinians, Afghanis or Iraquis. The only thing we should do is isolate them and never allow them access into the West.

If McCain's nasty daughter was in the service and in Iraq McCain would have shut this war down a decade ago.

Congress and the Executive branch should, by law, send their children to war before other American children are sent!

The ironic thing is that the reason why Saddam Hussein refused to allow UN weapons inspectors into his country, despite the fact that he had no weapons of mass destruction, was because he did not want to appear weak in the eyes of neighbouring Iran, or so he told his FBI interrogators. The oil-rich country of Iran does not need a so-called peaceful nuclear energy program. Not to worry,U.S. military personnel are still located in neigbouring Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar, and are on standby to protect Iraq from any possible Iranian aggression. The U.S. gets about 10% of it's oil from the Persian Gulf nations of Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, with the rest coming from the U.S.A. itself, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Angola, Gabon, Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, the North Sea nations of the United Kingdom and Norway, Russia, and Azerbaijan.

The real reason the the USA went to Iraq, is because Sadam tried to kill his father and he was trying to be a COWBOY by getting back at him by going into Iraq under false pretences.WAY TO GO GEORGE. I pray for all the dead and wounded soldiers.

Is Israel any safer?

The whole Iraq war was a criminal scandal to begin with.

I hope the Iraqi people can forgive the crimes committed by American troops on Iraqis.

because if I were to flip the scenario around... I don't think American people would have it in them to forgive an invading Iraqi army that destroys their country.

I hope someone told the enimies we created that the war is over. They are still there and are mad as hell. We won nothing.

Every quote below is part of a bigger story you aren't being told. To get a possible reason for going into Iraq especially notice the first quote of 1999 speech Dick Cheney while still with Hal and then the next quote from 2001 by the National Energy Sec.

I believe we went into Iraq to free up oil in anticipation of offsetting a global oil crunch expected to materialize between year's 2010 to 2020. Such a a crunch will/would have a devastating impact on world economies. If that shortfall predicted by the US Military (see quote below) materializes there will be no economic recovery. Instead there will be economic hardships.

Dick Cheney, CEO Halliburton, speech to the London Petroleum Institute 1999

From the standpoint of the oil industry obviously and I’ll talk a little later on about gas, but obviously for over a hundred years we as an industry have had to deal with the pesky problem that once you find oil and pump it out of the ground you’ve got to turn around and find more or go out of business. Producing oil is obviously a self-depleting activity. Every year you’ve got to find and develop reserves equal to your output just to stand still, just to stay even. This is true for companies as well in the broader economic sense as it is for the world. A new merged company like Exxon-Mobil will have to secure over a billion and a half barrels of new oil equivalent reserves every year just to replace existing production. It’s like making one hundred per cent interest discovery in another major field of some five hundred million barrels equivalent every four months or finding two Hibernias a year.

For the world as a whole, oil companies are expected to keep finding and developing enough oil to offset our seventy one million plus barrel a day of oil depletion, but also to meet new demand. By some estimates there will be an average of two per cent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead along with conservatively a three per cent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from?

Governments and the national oil companies are obviously controlling about ninety per cent of the assets. Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow.

Who are the world's largest oil and gas companies? Exxon ranks 17th. The 16 larger companies are nationalized oil companies who control 90% of the reserves:

2001 National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), VP Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force

“America faces a major energy supply crisis over the next two decades,” Secretary of EnergySpencer Abraham told a National Energy Summit on March 19, 2001. “The failure to meet this challenge will threaten our nation’s economic prosperity, compromise our national security, and literally alter the way we lead our lives.” The Energy Task Force was developed to decrease American dependency on foreign petroleum, which the National Energy Policy deemed would have a negative effect on the US economy, standards of living and national security.^[6]

The Task Force was composed of Vice President Dick Cheney and the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation and Energy, as well as other cabinet and senior administration-level officials. According to the GAO, these members held ten meetings over the course of three and a half months with petroleum, coal, nuclear, natural gas, and electricity industry representatives and lobbyists. None of the meetings were open to the public and no non-federal participants were involved.

United States Joint Forces Command:
U.S. JOINT OPERATING ENVIRONMENT REPORT 2010

(JOE Report 2010)

“A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India. At best, it would lead to periods of harsh economic adjustment. To what extent conservation measures, investments in alternative energy production, and efforts to expand petroleum production from tar sands and shale would mitigate such a period of adjustment is difficult to predict. One should not forget that the Great Depression spawned a number of totalitarian regimes that sought economic prosperity for their nations by ruthless conquest...By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day...The implications for future conflict are ominous, if energy supplies cannot keep up with demand and should states see the need to militarily secure dwindling energy resources.”

Dept of Energy EIA:

US Daily Consumption of oil is 19 million barrels per day. 8.993 million barrels of that 19M is consumed as gasoline. IOW the JOE Report's 10 million barrel per day global shortfall by 2015 is the equivalent of having every gasoline pump across all 50 states having gone dry. Picture all US roads vacant of gasoline autos. That's what a 10 million barrels shortfall represents.

continued =>

sorry I forgot to add these:

2009

National Geographic Magazine:

"The Energy Information Administration, an arm of the U.S. government, forecast last year that, all things being equal, world energy consumption would increase 50 percent by 2030. That's a good round number, summing up the desire of people across the world for refrigerators, televisions, ice cubes, hamburgers, motorbikes, and maybe even a little air-conditioning in the tropics.”

“But it's not at all clear where that energy can come from, because we happen to be alive at the moment when the oil is starting to run out. In November 2008 the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated that production from the world's mature oil fields was declining 6.7 percent a year, a rate that is expected to get even worse over time. Offsetting this decline will require finding a new Kuwait's worth of output every year, or somehow squeezing that much more from existing fields. Many observers think we've already passed the peak of oil production. An optimist in this world is someone who thinks it might still be a matter of years. But there's little question where the future lies, which is why the cost of a barrel of oil spiked to $147 last year. It took the prospect of a Great Recession to bring it back down to $40. Curbing high gas prices with recurrent economic slumps is probably not the smartest of remedies."

2010

United States Joint Forces Command:

U.S. JOINT OPERATING ENVIRONMENT REPORT 2010 (JOE Report 2010)

“A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India. At best, it would lead to periods of harsh economic adjustment. To what extent conservation measures, investments in alternative energy production, and efforts to expand petroleum production from tar sands and shale would mitigate such a period of adjustment is difficult to predict. One should not forget that the Great Depression spawned a number of totalitarian regimes that sought economic prosperity for their nations by ruthless conquest...By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day...The implications for future conflict are ominous, if energy supplies cannot keep up with demand and should states see the need to militarily secure dwindling energy resources.”

Dept of Energy EIA:

US Daily Consumption of oil is 19 million barrels per day. 8.993 million barrels of that 19M is consumed as gasoline. IOW the JOE Report's 10 million barrel per day global shortfall by 2015 is the equivalent of having every gasoline pump across all 50 states having gone dry. Picture all US roads vacant of gasoline autos. That's what a 10 million barrels shortfall represents.

2011

German Military: Armed Forces, Capabilities and Technologies in the 21st Century

Environmental Dimensions of Security

5. Conclusion

Gaining an illustrative picture of a subject is very much a matter of habit. When

considering the consequences of peak oil, no everyday experiences and only few historical

parallels are at hand. It is therefore difficult to imagine how significant the effects of being

gradually deprived of one of our civilisation’s most important energy sources will be.

Psychological barriers cause indisputable facts to be blanked out and lead to almost

instinctively refusing to look into this difficult subject in detail.

Peak oil, however, is unavoidable. This study shows the existence of a very serious risk

that a global transformation of economic and social structures, triggered by a long-term

end quotes

bottom line to take away from all of that.....your economic lifestyle is ending and nobody is willing to tell Joe Q public about it.

It seems to me that the motive to invade Iraq was to avert an energy crisis that they expected to develop over a 20 year period. At 2011 we are halfway into those 20 years the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) projected in 2001. How's the economy and the price of oil progress since 2001?

This is not trying to end the war, actually we try to end the Iraq "INVASION" because we're broke and the Military Industry could not squeeze anymore money from the tax payer.

Truly a sad time to live in. Years ago Abraham Lincoln once said "A house divided against itself cannot stand". That saying did not cease to be applicable with the end of the civil war. If the United States wants to continue existing then I believe that this two party s#!tstorm has to stop. The radicals of both parties need to swallow their pride and come together. This...confrontation in Iraq now highlights just how deeply divided we as a nation have become. It is not going to be easy, as a lot needs to be accepted. For instance:

1. Republicans need to accept that Bush shouldn't be thanked for anything related to this "war" (unless, of course, you are an attending member of Westboro Baptist Church).

2. This "war" resulted in a failure in all branches of the government. Here's why: Bush waged war on Iraq, which Congress hadn't officially declared war on. Congress' didn't impeach Bush for it. Congress passed resolutions that extended the power of the president that basically allowed him to attack. The power to declare wars, which is in essence what that is, is strictly a power reserved for Congress. the Supreme Court, whose job it is to carch these things (Our "checks and Balances" system) failed to step in and lay down the law here.

3. That Bush lied about the WMD's and used it as an excuse to get iraq's oil is only a theory, not fact. Unless you can produce concrete evidence that he purposely committed this act (records from his diary, his thoughts recorded onto tape, etc.) you cannot call him a liar. It is equally plausible that he misinterpreted the data at hand (because there is apparently evidence that Clinton wanted to declare war on Iraq on the grounds of WMD's) and overreacted. A third possibility is that he himself was lied to and given deliberately false data.

4. Obama did break his campaign promise to bring the troops home in the first year of his presidency. Some have argued that Bush's timetable for withdrawal excuses him of this however the withdrawal date set by Bush was an end limit, not a beginning. In other words, they had to be out by a certain date. Obama could have still pulled them out in his first year but for whatever reason he chose not to. I don't believe he deserves to be thanked for "ending the war", as so many liberals have done so far, because the Iraqi government had basically given a harsh ultimatum about future treatment of our troops. At most he should be thanked for making the better of the two decisions and pulling out before our troops became targets of the Iraqi justice system.

The list could go on, actually, but these points seem to be the most widely talked about on this vine and I just wanted to keep relevant. So please, when commenting, use reason and logic. Take a few deep breaths and let cooler heads prevail. If you disagree with somebody explain why and don't just resort to childish name calling. We need to mend the rifts we are causing.

Welcome home soldiers!

I wish you all the best!!

bush is a political retard. what the fuc, did we expect something decent to happen?

A sincere THANK YOU to all those troops and families of the brave men and women who served our nation to the best of their ability!!! They should all be welcomed home as heros!!

Whether we support the politicans who sent them to Iraq or not OUR TROOPS must be welcomed, supported by all and intergrated back in to society without hestitation just as they served for all of us.

As for the politicans who started and directed this conflict..... hopefully we will all have learned a valued lesson and think twice and twice more again before rushing into another war (see Iran). War, What is it Good For!

Our soliders are there to defend our nation, our land, homes and children and thank god for those who serve!! But for politicans with questionable agendas influenced by those with self serving interest, leave our soliders Home not out in the cold while you sit at home in comforts!