Surprise, surprise: Halliburton overcharged the government in a kickback scheme. (Miami.com; see also BBC story.)

The BBC reports that " US Secretary of State Colin Powell has conceded that Iraq may not have possessed any stocks of weapons of mass destruction before the war last year." (BBC)

Dick Cheney came out of his cave, saw his shadow, and before declaring that we'd have six more weeks of winter, contradicted the rest of the Bush Administration by trying to revive disavowed claims that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Queda, and that the so-called 'mobile weapons labs' which were already declared innocent really mean something. (latimes.com - login required) He makes these claims despite all the information that has come out since the last time he surfaced (all quotes from the same latimes article):

Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is in custody, has told American interrogators that Al Qaeda rejected the idea of any working relationship with Iraq, which was seen by the terrorist network as a corrupt, secular regime. When Hussein was captured last month, he was found with a document warning his supporters to be wary of working with foreign fighters....

[On the "mobile weapons labs":] In a BBC interview that aired Thursday night on public television in the United States, Kay said that is still the case. He said it was "premature and embarrassing" for the CIA to conclude shortly after the vehicles were discovered last year that they were weapons labs. "I wish that news hadn't come out," Kay said, calling the release of the information a "fiasco."

Cheney went a bit deeper while encouraging allies to join the so-called War on Terror, by saying "Direct threats require decisive action" (BBC), which is funny, considering that Iraq had not threatened the United States. (Perhaps no one has told him about what's currently going on in Iraq? Or his cave doesn't have cable TV?)

Who would have thought: General Peter Schoomaker says that wars are useful - to help "focus" and justify the military! (BBC) Because violence justifies violence! Here's how:

General Schoomaker said the attacks on America in September 2001 and subsequent events had given the US army a rare opportunity to change.

"There is a huge silver lining in this cloud," he said. "War is a tremendous focus... Now we have this focusing opportunity, and we have the fact that [terrorists] have actually attacked our homeland, which gives it some oomph."

He said it was no use having an army that did nothing but train. "There's got to be a certain appetite for what the hell we exist for," he said.

First off, I think we'd all be better off with a lower the level of 'oomph' in the world which he takes as a blessing. (It's interesting that a devastating attack on our homeland is supposed to justify and motivate the people who defend us, but couldn't/didn't. He avoids that topic entirely.) His scenario also requires reciprocal violence: if the military can't function in peace, than we need to make enemies who threaten our peace. As if soldiers don't want peace and to live in safety with their families!

Saying that war is useful is like arguing that fires are great, because they motivate the fire department. Or that cancer is great, because it focuses medical researchers. Or that car accidents are great, because they lead to advances in tow trucks... War is a plague, and celebrating the fact that it leads to employment and the justification of retribution is ethically misguided.

Same old, same old

The death toll of American soldiers reached 500 this past weekend (Washington Post), during yet another insurgent bomb attack near US headquarters. (Related W. Post graphic.) Nearly 2,500 have been injured. (Post's figures: others are much higher, such as NPR's estimate of 9,000 wounded.)

Bush's former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill claims Bush planned to attack Iraq from the beginning of his administration. (BBC) "O'Neill also revealed that Bush knew his tax cuts were mostly for the wealthy; that he and Vice President Dick Cheney were utterly indifferent to ballooning deficits; and that, in general, the president pays remarkably little attention to policy." (truthout.org) (discussion at thismodernworld.com)

The Bush Administration has lost credibility around the world over its inaccurate WMD claims. (Washington Post)

Bush, when asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer why he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when intelligence pointed more to the possibility Hussein would obtain such weapons, dismissed the question: "So, what's the difference?"

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace issued a widely publicized report called "WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications. stating that the Bush Administration "systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's WMD and ballistic missile programs."

Saddam Hussein documentation warning his followers to avoid foreign fighters undermines the Bush Administration position of a pan-national Al Queda conspiracy against the US in Iraq. (NY Times)

There is significant Iraqi opposition to the indirect elections proposed by the Bush Administration, which appear to be designed to prevent the majority groups from electing a government hostile to the United States or to secularism. (Washington Post)

The US plans to rotate more forces than it did at any time during "World War II" to swap tens of thousands of reservists into Iraq, though the reservists have been expressing serious morale problems. (Washington Post)

"“I have not seen smoking gun, concrete evidence about the connection, but I do believe the connections existed.” --Colin Powell (msnbc)

(Discussion with link to a contrary representation made by Powell prior to the war at thismodernworld.com.)

All this, and people with blogs are making fun of the Bush Administration. (Pendagon.net)

Well, I had to put in SOME good news.