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Republicans | Democrats | Military Leaders
| Scientists | Religious Leaders
Republicans on Bush's
Policies
"If he needs more authority, he just can’t unilaterally decide
that that 1978 law is out of date and he will be the guardian of
America and he will violate that law. He needs to come back, work
with us, work with the courts if he has to, and we will do what we
need to do to protect the civil liberties of this country and the
national security of this country." - Sen.
Chuck Hagel, January 29, 2006. [ABCNEWS.com]
"[A]ny time you hear the
United States government talking about wiretap ... a wiretap
requires a court order." - President Bush, April
20, 2004. [WhiteHouse.gov]
"If I knew
then what I know now about what kind of situation we would be in, I
would have opposed the war." - William F. Buckley,
preeminent conservative commentator and founder of the National
Review, on the Iraq war. [The
Hill]
"The situation with
the CIA and ghost soldiers is beginning to look like a bad movie." -
Sen. John McCain, September 10, 2004. [ABCNEWS.com]
"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively,
now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are
being revealed, that all things being considered, it was a mistake
to launch that military action, especially without a broad and
engaged international coalition." - Rep.
Doug Bereuter, Former vice chairman, House Intelligence
Committee, in an August 18, 2004 statement. [CNN]
"I truly am not that concerned about
him." - President George W. Bush, when asked about
Osama Bin Laden during a March 13, 2002 press conference
in which he said that he was "deeply concerned" about the
alleged Iraq WMD threat. [CNN]
"I would not have voted for [President Bush's] tax cut, based
on what I know. . . . There is no doubt that the people at the top
who need a tax break the least will get the most benefit. . . . Too
often presidents do things that don't end up helping the people they
should be helping, and their staffs won't tell them their actions
stink on ice." - Former North Carolina Senator Jesse
Helms. [Washington Post]
"He was saying how
Colin Powell was being a wuss because he was overly concerned with
the lives of the troops. And I said, ‘Look ..., he’s supposed
to think that way!’ And Perle didn’t agree with me on that. People
like that worry me.” - Author Tom Clancy,
describing how he "almost came to blows" with leading
neoconservative Richard Perle. In the same interview,
Clancy called the invasion of Iraq a "mistake," because it
lacked “casus belli,” or suitable provocation. [MSNBC]
"What the hell! What are these guys
thinking about? . . . Can't you get these guys back in the box?" -
Secretary of State Colin
Powell to General Hugh Shelton after Rumsfeld had
brought up the possibility of attacking Iraq in a September 16, 2001
National Security Council meeting. [Slate's
"Condensed Bob Woodward"; Woodward, "Plan of Attack,"
p.25]
"[How much Iraq has in the way of WMD's]
can be debated." - Former U.S. President George H. W.
Bush, in a speech given February 26, 2003, just weeks before the Iraq War began.
[London Times]
"Trying to eliminate Saddam,
extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have
violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream,
engaging in 'mission creep,' and would have incurred incalculable
human and political costs." - Former U.S. President
George H. W. Bush on why he didn't occupy Iraq
in 1991, in his 1998 book, "A World Transformed.''
[Bush, "A World
Transformed"]
"It is interesting to me that many
of those who want to rush this country into war and think it would
be so quick and easy don't know anything about war . . . They come
at it from an intellectual perspective versus having sat in jungles
or foxholes and watched their friends get their heads blown off." -
Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. [MSNBC]
"If we go after Saddam Hussein, we lose
our rightful place as the good guy." - Vice President
Cheney, September 16, 2001. [Woodward, p.25]
"Woodward meets Bush at a White House
Christmas party in 2002. Though it's months before the prez would
declare war on Iraq, Bush suggests that a sequel to Woodward's
previous best seller, Bush at War, should be in the
works.'Maybe it will be called More Bush at War,' Bush
says. Laura Bush responds, 'Let's hope not.'"
[Slate's "Condensed Bob Woodward"; Woodward, p.25]
"We see an unprecedented secrecy in
this White House that ... we find very troubling."
- Larry Klayman, executive director of
conservative legal watchdog Judicial Watch. "This is a case where left and right agree ... True
conservatives don't act this way." [USA Today]
"This is not a monarchy." -
House Government Reform Chairman Dan Burton, a
Republican from Indiana, after President Bush invoked executive
privilege to deny Congress access to prosecutorial documents, which
have routinely been turned over to Congress by past
administrations. [USA Today]
Republicans | Democrats | Military
Leaders | Scientists | Religious Leaders
Democrats on Bush's
Policies
"At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA’s domestic
surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping
virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United
States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.
A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of
our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had
established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they
recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in
our Constitution – our system of checks and balances – was designed
with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the
rule of law. As John Adams said: 'The executive shall never exercise
the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end
that it may be a government of laws and not of men.' ” -
Former Vice President Al Gore, January 16, 2006.
[American Constitution Society]
"General
Pace, if you were shown a video of a United States Marine or an
American citizen in the control of a foreign power, in a cell block,
naked with a bag over their head, squatting with their arms uplifted
for 45 minutes, would you describe that as a good interrogation
technique or a violation of the Geneva Convention?" - Democratic
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island. "I would
describe it as a violation, sir," Pace replied. [CNN]
“$200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we
can’t afford after-school programs for our children; $200 billion in
Iraq, but they tell us we can’t afford health care for our veterans;
$200 billion for Iraq, but they tell us we can’t afford to keep the
100,000 police officers we put on the street.” - Sen. John
Kerry, Democratic Presidential Candidate [MSNBC]
“That’s why we have these treaties. So when
Americans are captured, they are not tortured. That’s the reason, in
case anybody forgets it.” - Sen. Joseph
Biden, Democrat from Delaware. [MSNBC]
"Congress, by and large, has been
left to learn about major war-related decisions through newspaper
articles . . . Is it any wonder that members of Congress are
beginning to question whether the administration is deliberately
leaving Congress in the dark — or whether the administration is
making major policy decisions on the fly, without taking time for
due consideration or consultation?" - Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert
Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia. [New York Times]
Republicans | Democrats | Military Leaders
| Scientists | Religious Leaders
Military Leaders on Bush's
Policies
"The invasion of Iraq, I
believe, will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S.
history." - Retired Lt. General William Odom,
former head of the National Security Agency. [AP]
"To my knowledge, I have
not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two." -
Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld discussing the alleged al Qaeda-Iraq
link, on October 4, 2004. [CNN] According to the article,
in June, Vice President Cheney said: "There clearly was a
relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is
overwhelming."
"We all believe that current administration
policies have failed in the primary responsibilities of preserving
national security and providing world leadership . . . We need a
change." - Diplomats and Military Commanders
for Change, a group of 27 former U.S. diplomats and
military officials. [Diplomats and Military Commanders for
Change]
"Retired
Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, former U.S. commander in the
Middle East, charges in a book to be published today that 'everybody
in the military knew' that the Bush administration's plan for Iraq
consisted of only half the troops that were needed, and says that
country is now 'a powder keg' that could break apart into warring
regions." [Washington
Post]
Republicans | Democrats | Military Leaders
| Scientists | Religious Leaders
Scientists on Bush's
Policies
"Across a broad range of
issues—from childhood lead poisoning and mercury emissions
to climate change, reproductive health, and nuclear weapons—the
administration is distorting and censoring scientific findings that
contradict its policies; manipulating the underlying science to
align results with predetermined political decisions; and
undermining the independence of science advisory panels by
subjecting panel nominees to political litmus tests that have little
or no bearing on their expertise; nominating non-experts or
underqualified individuals from outside the scientific mainstream or
with industry ties; as well as disbanding science advisory
committees altogether." - Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that
includes 20 Nobel Prize laureates and 19 National Medal of Science
honorees, in its statement "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking." [Union of Concerned Scientists]
"The administration plan
would hurt public health and help big polluters by weakening,
delaying and diluting cuts in power plants’ sulfur, nitrogen and
mercury pollution compared to timely enforcement of current law. The
administration plan would roll back the current law’s public health
safeguards to protect local air quality, curb pollution from upwind
states, and protect our national parks. Tens of millions of people
would be denied clean air, even as late as 2020 and beyond."
- The American
Lung Association, in its "State of the Air 2004" report [American Lung
Association]
Republicans | Democrats | Military Leaders
| Scientists | Religious Leaders
Religious Leaders on
Bush's Policies
"I warned him about this war. I had deep
misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say,
Mr. President, you better prepare the American people for
casualties," Pat Robertson told CNN's Paula
Zahn. But Bush said, " 'Oh, no, we're not going to have any
casualties,' " Robertson related. [Newsday]
"[The conflict in the Holy Land is
a] senseless spiral of blind violence" - The
Pope, Christmas Day, 2002. In the same
article, the BBC also reported that: "The Vatican has made clear its
opposition to what US officials refer to as a preventive war against
Iraq, saying it would not qualify as a just war." [BBC]
"In a spirit of shared faith and respect, we
feel called to express grave moral concern about your 'Clear Skies'
initiative - which we believe is The Administration's continuous
effort to weaken critical environmental standards to protect God's
creation." - The National Council of Churches,
which represents 50 million American Christians [CNN]
"Christian and Muslim, Hindu and Jew, Buddhist
and Shinto, Baha'i and Sikh -- all our faith traditions celebrate
the sacredness of human life. All charge us to build a just,
peaceful, and equitable world. In their essence all these traditions
celebrate the power of love to vanquish hate and the power of mercy
to overcome vengeance. Therefore, in the name of God, the
Ultimate, we say 'No' to war against Iraq." - Statement of
Conscience on the Iraq War, dated October 2002, from the
Progressive Religious Partnership, a coalition
of leaders from a wide variety of faiths. [Progressive Religious Partnership]
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