Bush ignored CIA warnings of potential Iraq quagmire. Generals say change course, Bush refuses. Pre-war lies substantiated by Tenet, Durbin.

"His strategy is failing and cannot be rescued."
- Ret. General William E. Odom, U.S. Army, former Director of the National Intelligence Agency, 4/28

In a radio address on Saturday, General Odom pointed out the grim reality:

"The war could never have served American interests. But it has served Iran's interest by revenging Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran in the 1980s and enhancing Iran's influence within Iraq. It has also served al Qaeda's interests, providing a much better training ground than did Afghanistan, allowing it to build its ranks far above the levels and competence that otherwise would have been possible. We cannot 'win' a war that serves our enemies interests and not our own. Thus continuing to pursue the illusion of victory in Iraq makes no sense. We can now see that it never did."

Read the entire statement, it bears a very strong recommendation to the President.

This all could've been prevented if Bush had listened to his own government warnings. Like the warnings of 9/11 that Bush ignored, George Tenet has revealed:

The CIA warned the Bush White House seven months before the 2003 Iraq invasion that the U.S. could face in Iraq: "anarchy and the territorial breakup". . . "a surge of global terrorism against U.S. interests fueled by deepening Islamic antipathy toward the United States". . . "regime-threatening instability in key Arab states" . . . "major oil supply disruptions and severe strains in the Atlantic alliance."

CIA analysts wrote these warnings at the start of August 2002 and inserted them into a briefing book distributed at an early September meeting of President Bush's national security team at Camp David. Tenet also elaborates on the pre 9/11 warnings that were ignored by Rice and the Bush administration.

Secretary of State Condi Rice lied to the American people Sunday morning (4/29) when she said on CNN:

"We all thought — including U.N. inspectors — that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. "

Senator Dick Durbin, who was on the Senate Intelligence Committee during the lead up to the war confirmed what George Tenet said and what the Downing Street Memos have shown:
Bush shrugged off any and all debate and evidence that was counter to his war justifications and invasion plans. Bush/Cheney misled the American people. Durbin and the rest of the committee members knew it, but were sworn to secrecy.

"The Intelligence Committee was meeting on a daily basis ... and the information we had in the Intelligence Committee was not the same information being given to the American people. I couldn't believe it! Members of this administration were in active heated debate whether aluminum tubes really meant that the Iraqis were developing nuclear weapons, some within the administration saying 'of course not' ... at the same time members of the administration were telling the American people to be fearful of mushroom clouds." - Sen. Dick Durbin [D - IL] 4/27

"worst-case scenarios are the most likely thing to happen."
Washington Post:

As fighting in Iraq enters its fifth year, an increasing number of experts in foreign policy and national strategy are arguing that the biggest difference may be that the Iraq war will inflict greater damage to U.S. interests than Vietnam did.

And it continues to go very badly. I wish it weren't so.