funny how the word 'mistake' gets misused, as in, 'the war was a mistake'

[mopaul]

like when a murderer is on trial and he says, 'i made some mistakes', or when an enron guy goes down, 'mistakes were made'.

now we often here that bush's shitty little war was some kind of a mistake, like when you put on two different color shoes.

the bush nazis have bastardized a lot of words, and utterly changed or ignored their meanings. the word 'terrorist' means any living person in Iraq. conservatism now means dangerous cult. liberalism is the new word for 'the terrorists'.

at no time did any of the bushco maniacs make any mistakes in this war. incorrect decisions? yes. dangerous miscalculations? yes. but no, they can't deflect the chaos and the horror of what they've done by calling it all a mistake.

we all make mistakes, real ones, all day long, every day, but what bush and rummy and dick and condi and karl did caused so many people to die needlessly, and for the worst possible reasons, and they cloak it all with words like liberty, freedom, democracy, security, lofty words and empty platitudes.

all those dead soldiers, and all the crippled ones. all those dead iraqis, men, women and children who never attacked america at all. all those tortured people, all those horrors. mistake my ass.

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Hear, hear! Very well said, mopaul.

:yourock:

[unblock]

2. it's so difficult to convinced con victims they were conned.

but they will believe their investment just didn't work out....

[NMMNG]

3. That war was no mistake. It was a crime against humanity.

And the whole Bush cabal should be prosecuted for war crimes.

[Missy M]

4. Cheney and friends were planning the invasion of Iraq for years,...

that is no mistake. The mistake they made was the opposition to their war by the Iraqi people, they never expected it.

[oblivious]

5. They only mean 'mistake' in the sense that they wish it had gone better.

I'm sure most of the politicians who now say they made a mistake voting for the war mean they didn't know they were voting for a war they would lose. If the war had gone like Desert Storm, they would still be supporting it, despite its illegality and immorality.

I didn't put that very well but I guess you know what I mean.

[regnaD kciN]

6. And you know what makes it a "mistake?" It didn't work!

That's the sole thing that has everyone doing the "I Was Deluded" Dance. If a new government of our choosing ruled over a peaceful Iraq, and no insurgents struck against our troops, we'd be happily building permanent bases there, Bush would be hailed as one of our greatest commanders-in-chief, now-fading yellow ribbons would still be proudly affixed to SUVs everywhere, commentators would be hailing the war as "the moment when America finally stepped forward to assume the responsibility of global dominance"...and the likes of Edwards, Kerry, Dicks, and Murtha would probably still be hurling barbs at the "peaceniks" who "would have left the Iraqi people to suffer under the tyranny of Saddam."

That's it. Not that the war was immoral, unjustified, never even remotely a last resort, or a breach of the very international law we all rely on. Just that "it didn't work."

I hope that this time the lesson has sunk in -- the lesson that, when you march off to war without any reasonable just cause, but merely because you can, sometimes you don't come back victorious. I hope that the "Vietnam Syndrome" so hated by military fantasists like the WHIG is making a comeback, refined into a "Vietnam-Iraq Syndrome" that mandates that, before the decision is made to fire the first missles, we are truly certain that it is both necessary and just.

I hope that is the case.

But, you know what? I doubt it. :-(

[karynnj]

11. Can you give me even one4 link where Kerry said

anything close to thst about protesters - he didn't to my knowledge. The only thing I remember reading was positive (understanding the motivation) - and he has repeatedly said protest is patriotism. Before Bush invaded, he spoke against going to war. When Bush invaded he himself said it was time for Regime change here. There were plenty of other comments in 2003 - when Bush could still have pulled it out. How many times did he say, "misled us into war" or "Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time". In Kerry's case, your comment is beyond stupid and based only are your dislike of the man rather than anything he ever said.

I have no quotes from Edwards, but I absolutely don't remember a comment of that type. As I protested in DC and NYC before the war, I would have remembered if I heard this. Again, you are likely to just be Edwards bashing.

Why this is considered reasonable on a Democratic board is beyond me.

[No Exit]

14. "Treason doth never prosper; what's the reason? For if it prosper

none dare call it treason."

Yes, to some it was a "mistake" only because it didn't work.

But then there are those of us who were against it from the start. To me, for example, it would've been considered a mistake no matter what happened, b/c it's not right to attack a country that is not a threat to our own security. (Actually, "mistake" isn't strong enough for me. I would rather say "travesty".)

So, I agree with the point you are making.

I think those who supported this travesty are now saying "mistake" just so they can save a bit of face. (I would prefer that they be more honorable, and make like the Japanese--taking a knife and ripping their guts out to save face.)

[xchrom]

7. if you intend war -- where's the mistake

when you make war?

[mopaul]

8. all they've left out is the 'OOPS'!--& the frustrated grimace

[xchrom]

9. lol -- mopaul you're a bad boy!

:spank:

and right on the money!

[flordehinojos]

10. mopaul, they can't call it a "mistake" because ..

it was not a mistake. IT WAS A LIE. And they are not about to confess that they LIED...that would be like OJ SIMPSON confessing that he killed NICOLE.

[ktowntennesseedem]

12. Excellent points, mopaul! You hit a home run with that one!

Nominated.

:kick:

[rock]

13. So, this usage is a 'mistake'

meaning, as you put it, "carefully calculated".