[Dog]

The "Adlai Stevenson moment" has become Washington shorthand for the US presentation of its intelligence case. Stevenson was the US ambassador to the UN at the time of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, who dramatically confronted the Soviet envoy with vivid aerial photographs of nuclear missiles being unloaded in Cuba.

[Russell Scott]

I wonder how many European politicos are in the pocket of Arab oil money? They sure didn't scream about that useless Kosovo war.

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Two to three weeks. Four weeks max.

Then it's "Boom, Boom, Out Go the Lights!"

The politics of the whole thing is going to be very interesting and dynamic during that time.

I just hope the President can make a very strong case, so all of our flacid "allies" can find cover by saying - "We didn't know it was -that- bad."

Remember when our UN Ambassador Jean Kirpatrick played the intercepted voice transmissions of the Soviet pilot as he shot down Korean Flight 007?

Now that was a "Great Moment" in UN history!

[Stefan Stackhouse]

The UNSC is Saddam's ace in the hole. What it is going to take to get him out is for the US to do the Stevenson thing, have the vote, get vetoed, and then Bush anounce that we are proceeding anyway, alone if need be. As soon as Bush makes that announcement, Saddam will be in exile no more than 36 hours later, because he will then know for sure that if he doesn't go into exile, he will be dead within 72 hours.

[Steve Eisenberg]

No one who knows this would talk to such a rag as the Guardian.

Bush and Blair will each keep his options open, until actually launching any invasion, because keeping options open is what a good leader does. The Guardian may have found some blabbermouth nobodies willing to tell them waht they want to hear, but that does not make this a legitimate news story.

To judge what Bush will do, read his speeches, and ignore the far-left Guardian.

[Irwin Corey PhD]

The US secretary of state, Donald Rumsfeld, wants Mr Bush to set a clear and imminent deadline. But Mr Powell, is resisting, asking for a little more time for diplomatic coalition-building.

So the Guardian thinks Rumsfeld is Secretary of State? I'd say the author is ....well...uninformed.

[aculeus]

.

[Michael.SF.]

Political Science:
by Randy Newman

No one likes us
I don't know why.
We may not be perfect
But heaven knows we try.
But all around even our old friends put us down.
Let's drop the big one and see what happens.

We give them money
But are they grateful?
No they're spiteful
And they're hateful.
Now Asia's crowded
And Europe's too old.
And Canada's too cold.
And South America stole our name.
Let's drop the big one; there'll be no one left to blame us.

Bridge:

We'll save Australia;
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo.
We'll build an all-American amusement park there;
They've got surfing, too.

Well, boom goes London,
And boom Paris.
More room for you
And more room for me.
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town.
Oh, how peaceful it'll be;
We'll set everybody free;
You'll have Japanese kimonos, baby,
There'll be Italian shoes for me.
They all hate us anyhow,
So let's drop the big one now.
Let's drop the big one now.

####################################

Randy Newman, sage or prophet?

[rwfromkansas]

bump

[goodnesswins]

DAY of SUPPORT…Tues, 1/28/03....FLY your flags (U.S., British, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Spanish, Quatar, Kuwaiti, Australian and Japanese one, too if you have them)....and put up your BUSH/CHENEY signs, (and the BIG W's on your SUV's) for the STATE of the UNION next Tuesday, Jan 28th, if you support the President, our MILITARY and the United States of America. PSST....pass it on.

[Nick Danger]

• the Bush administration's sudden haste in moving towards a climax
• the US administration remains divided along old fault lines... Donald Rumsfeld wants Mr Bush to set a clear and imminent deadline. But Mr Powell is resisting, asking for a little more time for diplomatic coalition-building.
• The impatience within the White House for action against Iraq
• the speech, a year after the president coined the phrase, "axis of evil", will stop short of being a declaration of war. That will await...

"Hurry up and wait" is not a game that Americans play very well. I'm becoming convinced that the reason Bush appears to be rapidly losing support in the polls -- not just on this but on everything -- is that the clock ran out on screwing around with this a month or two ago. Every day that goes by now, Bush increases the perception that he is not what he appeared to be. He is coming off as vacillating, indecisive, and weak. A year after the "axis of evil" speech, in which we were told we were threatened with death, our leaders are still listening to UN gasbags talk about delays and postponements.

There was a time to act, and Bush did not take it. If he waits much longer, support for his leadership will be fading fast, just as he tries to move. No matter what he does, it will be too little, too late.

You cannot tell people that they are threatened with death, that action must be taken; tell them that you will take such action... and then a year later be explaining that it's coming Real Soon Now.

It is time, as they say, to sh*t or get off the pot.

[niteowl77]

Since I don't know how many mines GWB had to locate and defuse before we started to march, I am a lousy judge of when the right time is/was. I suspect it will be done as soon as it is practicable, and I also suspect it will be well planned. Given the people who declared war on us, we ALL depend on getting it done right, from the overseas soldier to the stateside newborn.

Am I tired of waiting? Yeah, I am. Rightly or wrongly, Afghanistan is off to the side of the screen, and I am as restless as anyone else in the audience. I want to see the USA absolutely humiliate Saddam and his enablers, and I want it yesterday. We can't hold our breath forever, but I get the sneaking suspicion that we were very deliberately provoked to do something fast, and going off half-cocked was precisely what the doctor did not order.

The media is doing its absolute level best to demoralize and disillusion this country 24/7, and that ploy will always work, given enough time. Cronkite was just the warm-up act for the pros of today.

[Southern Federalist]

Note these two bits:

The chief White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, yesterday brushed off mounting anti-war feeling across Europe, led by France. It was "entirely possible that France won't be on the line", he said, adding that Britain, Australia, Italy, Spain and "virtually all of the eastern European countries" would provide support.

The German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, revealed the extent of European anger over the US position when he told Washington to "cool down".

Apart from the obvious point that for someone who's a former hanger-on of terrorists himself, Joschka Fischer sure is a condescending SOB, notice how the reporter sails right by Ari Fleischer's point and continues the journalistic practice of identifying France and Germany with "Europe."

This surely deserves to be entered on the "left-wing bigotry" list, if anyone is keeping it. I guess that German and French intellectuals wrote the trendy tomes journalists and other atmospheric leftists pretend they read in college, so they know Germany and France must be "important"; and besides that, there's something tacky about people being "post-Communist," isn't there? I suppose in some circles it must be almost as big a faux pas as being anti-Communist.

[El Gato]

The US secretary of state, Donald Rumsfeld

I'm sure this is news to Rummy, as well as General Powell, not to mention "W". :)

[El Gato]

'It's war within weeks'

I suspect "days" would be a more appropriate unit of measure. Small integer values plus a fractional part is so confusing with "weeks". 1.2857142857142857142857142857143 weeks for example, when 9 days is so much more meaningful. :)

[Ditter]

I laugh out loud when ever I read that Germany & Russia are telling the US not to start a war!

[Man of the Right]

Bush is done taking his lumps. He's going to be tough beyond belief in the State of the Union and the aftermath. He's going to be magnificent. The decadent Europeans will think Mt. Etna blew.

[John Lenin]

Cowboys and Arabs

[Poohbah]

To quote David Bowie:

"LET'S DANCE!

"Under the moonlight, the serious moonlight!"

[stevem]

I realize there are myriad preparations to be made for this, but, in all fainess, if it's time, then let's get in on and stop talking about it. The longer they talk about it the more they deaden the senses of a few more Americans.