Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release

"BBC NEWS | Politics | Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release
Justice Secretary Jack Straw has vetoed the publication of minutes of key Cabinet meetings held in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003. He said he would use a clause in the Freedom of Information Act to block the release of details of meetings in which the war's legality was discussed. Releasing the papers would do 'serious damage' to Cabinet government, he said, and outweighed public interest needs."

Presumably vetoed because he knows what a bunch of deceiving tykes it will reveal the Government to be.

"'There is a balance to be struck between openness and maintaining aspects of our structure of democratic government,' he [Straw] said."

There was no democracy involved in the decision to go to war - the Cabinet's decision was a complete travesty.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release

"Democrats condemn Bush over Iraq
Leading members of the US Democratic Party have criticised President George W Bush's speech in which he defended his Iraq policy. Mr Bush said a military retreat could trigger the kind of upheaval seen after US forces left Vietnam. The leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, dismissed the comparison and said the decision to invade Iraq was one of the worst blunders in US history."

Well, actually, Bush is nearly right. He's correct to compare with it Vietnam:
. its a quagmire with no easy way out
. thousands of innocents are loosing their lives
. the lives of hundreds of US military personnel are being wasted

Now, if he'd have just listen to those that were telling him this before the invasion...

Technorati tags: Bush Iraq Vietnam

"190,000 weapons 'missing in Iraq'
The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces, an official US report says. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq over the past three years."

As the old saying goes "to mislay one weapon is unfortunate - to mislay 190,000 is pretty chuffin stupid".

"Meanwhile, at the end of July, the US Defence Department admitted that the US-led coalition in Iraq had failed to deliver nearly two-thirds of the equipment it promised to Iraq's army. The Pentagon said only 14.5m of the nearly 40m items of equipment ordered by the Iraqi army had been provided."

I'll give you a hint guys - leave them in the cupboard.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | 190,000 weapons 'missing in Iraq'

Technorati tags: Iraq military Pentagon weapons