Considering that Tenet is scheduled to appear of CBS' "The Early Show" (Tuesday 7:00 am EST), I almost wonder if that might be more of a 'hot button' for waiting to put the Iraqi Bill on his Bush's desk than the "fouth anniversary" that the media is spending so much time talking about. Guess we'll have to see what sound bits Tenet drops and if there is anything he mentions that morning that he -DIDN'T- put in the book. Should make interesting telly for FratBoy before he heads to the Oval Office. Be Seeing You

So,if the war is illegal, the troops shouldn't have to fight. Would not it be an unlawful order to make them fight an illegal war? So unlawful that it can and will cause death to our American troops? A troop can disobey an unlawful order legally. I wonder what would happen if the troops stopped and said no. What if the troops that are in Iraq said no? What if they said we will no longer spill the blood of the Iraqis, we want out of harms way and we demand to be sent home to our own families? What if their families joined a lawsuit and sued Bush, Cheney and whomever else sent them to their deaths with this sham intelligence? What if Bush was actuallly held accountable for each and every death be it American, British, Romainian, Iraqi, etc...? Will justice actually be upheld here? Why is it the world now knows the truth but no one is moving to convict the guilty? Why is it that money, the root of all evil, is the one reason no one has made any moves other than a great talk fest to end this massacre? Why is everyone that has the power to do something about this is so deep in the money side of this that they can't really do anything about it without losing or being found out? Why can't justice be for all? How long will America last like this regardless which party takes the helm? No one party is right. Just like the youth of America are dying younger, the young country America is slowing but surely dying. It is not what it once was and the way it's looking is it will never be again. How sad the best years of such a young country are over and now it is heading to it's own end.

Joe Biden made the obvious into a plan which just might work. What to do with three diverse ethnic groups who cannot get along and are down right mean to each other? First separate them, and then form a federation so they can managing their community wealth. You go Joe! Finally a real plan for Iraq which takes into consideration the Iraq people. Am I in the right hole for this one?

Bidens plan is do able but first bush has to come to his senses instead of staying the course.

Dear Keith, After the Democratic debates the main stream media is treating former Mike Gravel as if he were a joke. I do not feel he should be treated that way. After all, he is a former senator who was voted into office by his constituents. Seeing that he singlehandedly ended the draft in 1971 which in essense led to the end of the Viet Nam war, many of our senators could learn what leadership is like. I have to say that I agreed with him concerning our nuclear policy as well as military spending. In fact, I took time to write my thoughts in a column for my blog. For any that are interested, please go to my blog address which is http://www.marymacelveen.com Thank you, Mary MacElveen

Won't work Gerald. I had thought of this but was reminded, and correctly so, the Turks would never tolerate the Kurds having so much independence in policy and wealth. They would feel threatened by the Kurds if such a federation were to be established because the Kurds would quickly seek an independent state (both sides have already stated their feelings and intentions on this) and we would quickly be in the middle of a conflcit between Turkey and the Kurds. The Shiite and Sunni would continue to attack and kill one another because theirs is a religious confrontation that has little to do with the equalization of wealth, and a conflict that would not recognize borders of separation. Their attempts to eliminate one another would widen from a neigborhood to neghborhood war to a federated state to federated state war, and would continue until one came out on top. But even the winner would have to put up with years and years of insurgent attacks by the loser as Isreal does with Hamas and the Palestinians. Iran would continue to support the Shiite in their struggle with the Sunni and would purposely attempt to influence the destruction of a working federation. Throw in the costs of relocating and housing people and the time it would take to do it, as well as a thousand other strategic hurdles that would have to be crossed that would require our service personnel to remain in harms way, and the federation idea goes up in smoke. At this point our best plan for the Iraqis is no plan, except to redeploy our troops out of harms way and let the Iraqis work this out (if necessary fight this out) while we protect the borders of our allies Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and to make sure not to let others as Iran bring in any major military muscle to take advantage. And because we created this mess we would also be responsible for providng refuge to any Iraqi who wished to escape this ensuinng civil war about to take place and sought to enter one of the protected border areas "on foot" (no damn vehicles allowed) and we initially limit such refuge to all women, girls, male children under the age of 15 and anyone over 70. We sell or provide arms and munitions to both the Shiite and Sunni so the hard core on both sides and the terrorist involved in the civil war kill each other off. The end result would be the take over by another firm handed dictator or a religious leader as that in Iran. When all is done and those who sought refuge could return home we boogey out of the border refugee protection areas but maintain military presence and airfields in Kuwait, Saudi Arbia and Turkey. We mantain a no fly zone over Iraq for a while longer and hammer any terrorist camps or enclaves that may grow out of this conflict, and we maintain a presence to let Iran and Syria know we are still around and will not tolerate any major moves into Iraq, and that we still do not intend to allow Iran, or Syria, to construct nuclear warheads. That is the only plan for America that might work besides that of just folding up our tents and bringing all Americans home tomorrow. It may sound cold and calculated but do we have any other options that will not include further injury to or death of young American military personnel? It is a damn shame we have to even bang our heads against the wall to come up with a way of getting our people home while attempting to limit the number of Iraqi deaths and delivering some semblance of stability to the region. But I for one do not want to expend one more American life to do so. Redeploying and the plan above is most likley our only option.

Chris Matthews is starting to get on my nerves. So is Brian Williams.

Let's seriously develop hydrogen and make oil worthless, taking away these people's ability to finance war. We can make heroin worthless, with decriminalization, and then these arabs will soon be back to chasing each other around on camels!

Um... Does it take anyone as being just a bit funny that the US "captures" a high-ranking Al-Qaida operative the "DAY AFTER" the Democratic debate? Just a bit TOO convenient if you ask me. Is this like raising the terror alert level the day after the last convention? LET THEM HAVE IT > AGAIN < Keith!

When Kucinich pulled out a copy of the constitution it actually struck me as probably one of the best moments in the history of America! I'm sorry so many commentators just ignored these two candidates and the impact they had. They certainly resounded with me I can tell you that! What Gravel said reminded me of the Newsweek article in '03 "THE ARROGANT EMPIRE" which talked about how little 'ol America was spending more on defense than the entire world combined and USING IT. HOW DARE WE be the cause of and allow the slaughter of three-hundred thousand plus Iraqis. The HEART, FIRE, AND OUTRAGE of Kucinich and Gravel is what IS demanded of this time. How many times have I watched Harry Reid on the senate floor with barely a raised voice against the shredding of our constitution? I would have torn down the FREEKEN podium! After learning quietly how the democrats have now pulled the vital language prohibiting our trigger-happy president from attacking Iran because some were afraid it might upset Israel, I’m beginning to think the dems weren’t just SPINELESS in voting for the war in Iraq AND the patriot act but were actually IN ON IT! Intelligence reports were available to all and it was FRANCE that had control of Nigerian yellow-cake, not the Nigerian government.

Chris Eldridge, Reference AlQaida operative capture. Boy what a relief, I'm not alone in my skepticism. Too much of a co hinky dinky!

Keith, In "Changing Tenets" you were outrageously unfair to Senator Durbin. He did everything he could legally do to oppose the Iraq resolution and prevent the war. He was one of the few heros of the Senate, and because of his honesty, you took a cheap shot suggesting that he should have realized the full consequences of the war and risk prison in a futile effort to expose the administration's lies. You uncharacteristically ignored the national sentiment, the prevailing false assumptions about Iraq among the leadership, and the ability of the administration and the Republican congress to shout down and crucify anyone who stood up. By juxtaposing Durbin and Tenet, you created an equivalency that doesn't exist and wrongly attacks one of the most decent courageous men in the Senate. A fair target of your criticism might be the Democrats that voted against the Levin amendment and for the Iraq resolution, i.e. Clinton, Feinstein, Biden, etc.; NOT Senator Durbin.

It is : THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. Just being picky Meka, I LIKE MONEY. I so agree with all that you said, I too wish our soldiers could just say no more.

I was so disappionted that you assumed Sen. Durbin said nothing about the intellegance before the war. If you had taken the time to go back and look at his floor speeches he repeatedly complained that the national intellegance commitee never completed the most basic documentation on Iraq. He asked for public hearings on the intellegance. No one listened to him then. In feb of 04 after the war started on the Lehrer news hour he demanded Tenent reconcile the things he had said with what the administration had said publicly. Saying someone had to be held accountable. No one listened to him then. I'm certain there are many more examples but these were the easiest to google. Dick Durbin and Sen. Graham from florida have both complained many times, before and after the war started that the intellegance they saw did not mesh with what the administration was peddling. This is not a new story. While many senators chose to say nothing and should absolutly be held accountable, my senator spoke out. But apparently you were not listening that is your failure not his. While many in the senate don't deserve thier positions there are a handful of senators who do the right thing even when no one is looking. I am proud to count my senator among them. Before you say he didn't do the right thing you need to look at what he did do and then ask yourself if you did enough and apologize.

To CA from Al ... Please read your history before making such a brash statement about what will and will not work. Before the current state of affairs which was started a long time ago the region that is now called Iraq was in fact three separate countries roughly matching where the three groups now are in the majority. From what I read the region was then a much better place to live than it is now!

How come no more links to videos? I haven't seen WPITW in a week. It doesn't show up when I search.

Won't work Gerald. Don't need to read my history.

AMERICA IS IN TROUBLE DAMN IT! WHEN WILL ANYONE STAND UP TO THIS EVIL CABAL??????? IMPEACH ALL OF THEM AND END THIS ILLEGAL WAR!!!!! SORRY,I JUST WANT TO SCREAM,AT WHOEVER IS LISTENING CUZ WASHINGTON ISN'T. I WRITE THEM AND CALL AND NOTHING-I AM SICK OF THIS SHSHT!!!!!!

It's becoming mighty hard to get fully behind the democrats as an alternative, a 'workable solution' if you will - as much as we all need relief from the rar-reaching destruction of the current psychopathic regime. Just a damn shame that Harry Reid is the senate majority leader - but there you have it. What the democrats actually have to offer, besides being the alternative, is pretty mysterious - other than having a history of more benign governance. Cruising along in the years ahead and failing to transcend politics as usual just won't cut it. Before you know it, the maniacs will be in charge again - leading us to 'the end times' without delay. It's been said here and elsewhere that without question the threat of nuclear catastrophe is the primary global threat confronting us now. This is clearly not just a threat to the USA, as the neocons & war apologists would have us believe. We have a global community after all. Russia and the USA have such vast hoards of nuclear and biological weapons how can such an arsenal be perpetually protected? This is as real as it gets, and we know there are plenty of crazys out there that would do it in a minute given the opportunity (or threaten to do it for a shot at world dominance). Are the democrats really up to this challenge? Sucking up to Israel under all circumstances in really not smart. They are after all survivalists and will play those politics and employ that mode of operation 100% of the time. Back here in the meantime, right wing end-of-the worlders are just plain scary as hell. Global interests do supercede Israeli interests in the big scheme of things. Will democrats acknowledge this and develop international policies accordingly? I fear we'll have Guiliani as president and a democratic congress this next time around, and years of doing nothing but treading water. Now we need new and creative policies of genius more than ever ('genius politican' seems too much like an oxymoron to me). Common sense rises to the level of genius when it actually solves a problem. We have more than a few and who will lead us through the minefield? That said, I'll have to pull the handle under D this time around - but with a very shaky confidence in my choice.

So, Mr. O we have a choice of a "politics of fear" Republican candidate (Giuliani) who acts like we are in a war (oh, that's right we ARE in a war) or a set of 8 Democratic candidates who all take the position that it is a mistake to be fighting and that by saying we will not fight just take it on faith that no one will attack us. Well Pearl Harbor and 9/11 are stark examples that others will attack us whether we are attacking them or not. Now perhaps in this sound-bite world which you in the media have created (along with an audience that has the attention span of a gnat) Mr. Guiliani has grossly oversimplified the situation, but it is a mark of how weak the Democrats are on defense that they are a poor second choice to a current President that has mishandled the war and a candidate in Mr. Guiliani who can establish his superiority by simply keeping his tail from between his legs. Sorry, but cringing and whining does not a Commander-in-Chief make.

Tenet is a s--- bag pure and simple. He was in a position to counter what the Bush administration was pushing but did nothing. For this he was awarded a metal for Gods sake. He now will make multi millions on his book. Looks like he is a person of low moral character and will sell his soul to the highest bidder.

Remember, TENET was also CLINTON'S OFFICIAL.....

Regarding Senator Durbin's floor statement: Why is this not getting more coverage? I think it's a pretty big mea culpa from Durbin: I knew the evidence was weak, but I couldn't say so publicly. Of the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee at the time, Senators Levin, Wyden, Durbin, and Mikulski voted against the Iraq war resolution; Senators Rockefeller, Feinstein, Bayh, Edwards, and Daschle voted for it. Have any of these other senators commented on Durbin's statement? (Edwards in particular)

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