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Iraq a shocking waste of money.

God

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: 9-11 was preventable, probe chairman says: "The chairman of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said he believes the strikes could have been prevented, a claim President Bush's spokesman rejected yesterday.

In an interview with CBS on Wednesday night, Tom Kean, a Republican and a former governor of New Jersey, said the attacks could have been avoided: 'I do not believe it had to happen.'

Asked if people should have been fired, he replied: 'There were people certainly, if I was doing the job, who would certainly not be in the position that they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed.'
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the administration has not changed its view. 'As we have previously said, there is nothing that we have seen that leads us to believe that September 11th could have been prevented,' he said. 'That still stands.' "

How attacks on Dean may impact race | csmonitor.com: "When an independent Democratic group ran a TV ad last week featuring Osama bin Laden's face and an anti-Dean message, the Democratic presidential front-runner appealed to his supporters. The result: $552,000 in Internet donations over three days."

sacbee.com -- 24-Hour News: Top Stories -- Scores killed in Philippine landslides: "Mud and floodwaters swept away villages across the eastern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least 83 people and blocking rescue workers from reaching victims - including entire families buried alive."

Yahoo! News - Budget Deficit a Concern, Says White House's Mankiw: "A top White House economic adviser said on Wednesday the United States would likely run a budget deficit of between 4 and 4-1/2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in fiscal 2004 -- or roughly $440 billion to $495 billion.

White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Gregory Mankiw said growing shortfalls were a concern. "

Rumsfeld Visited Baghdad in 1984 to Reassure Iraqis, Documents Show (washingtonpost.com): "Donald H. Rumsfeld went to Baghdad in March 1984 with instructions to deliver a private message about weapons of mass destruction: that the United States' public criticism of Iraq for using chemical weapons would not derail Washington's attempts to forge a better relationship, according to newly declassified documents. "

Senators were told Iraqi weapons could hit U.S.

sunspot.net - postwar iraq: " The trials of Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi leaders could produce embarrassing reminders of past American support for his government and of the West's failure to punish him despite mounting evidence of Iraqi atrocities."

Salon.com | Joe Conason's Journal: "Tall tales and legends have fascinated American conservatives for more than a decade now, although their attention has turned from Arkansas cocaine smuggling to far graver matters such as the responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks. Blaming Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton (not necessarily in that order) is the objective -- and the acceptable methods apparently include outright fabrication. "

FT.com / World: "Japan will on Friday announce its decision to develop a missile defence system jointly with the US, marking a significant shift in the country's defence policy, government officials and diplomats said."

Dean vs. Bush: Would it be close? | csmonitor.com: "Ever since Howard Dean started gaining traction as a presidential candidate last spring, the biggest question to dog him is whether he is electable. "

TOMPAINE.com - It's Not Over: "It is no small irony that Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad, the monster under your bed lo these last 12 years, was paid probably ten thousand times more during his time as an American employee than the soldiers who caught him on Saturday night. The boys in the Reagan White House were generous with your tax dollars, and Hussein was a recipient of their largesse for the better part of a decade. "