Made America Safer

If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would be power today, not in prison. - Joe Lieberman

Stay strong, Democratic candidates. Quit sounding like a bunch of wusses. These bastards sent us to war on a lie, the killing will not stop, the Arab world hates us with a passion, and we will pay for this out of our pockets for years to come. Nothing that happened today (or in the past 9 months) has made us ONE BIT safer in our post-9/11 world. Saddam was never a threat to our national security. - Michael Moore

Nor, as the president also seemed to acknowledge yesterday, does Saddam’s capture move us toward defeating enemies who pose an even greater danger: al Qaeda and its terrorist allies. And, nor, it seems, does Saturday’s capture address the urgent need to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the risk that terrorists will acquire them. The capture of Saddam is a good thing which I hope very much will help keep our soldiers safer. But the capture of Saddam has not made America safer. Addressing these critical and interlocking threats terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will be America’s highest priority in my administration. To meet these and other important security challenges, including Iraq, I will bring to bear all the instruments of power that will keep our citizens secure and our nation strong. - Howard Dean

Nor, as the president also seemed to acknowledge yesterday, does Saddam’s capture move us toward defeating enemies who pose an even greater danger: al Qaeda and its terrorist allies. And, nor, it seems, does Saturday’s capture address the urgent need to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the risk that terrorists will acquire them. When I become president, addressing these critical and interlocking threats – terrorism and weapons of mass destruction — will be America’s highest priority. To meet these and other important security challenges, including Iraq, I will bring to bear all the instruments of power that will keep our citizens secure and our nation strong. - Howard Dean

As I type, Howard Dean is giving his foreign policy speech, carried live on the cable networks. “My position on the war in Iraq has not changed,” he declared, adding: “The capture of Saddam has not made America safer.” - Howard Kurtz

It seems that I am not the only wondering why-this oft cited sentence is missing from the weblog transcript.

That transcript isn’t accurate. It doesn’t have the most important, and ballsy, line of the speech: “Saddamn’s capture doesn’t make the American people any safer.” That line resonated deep with the analysts on MSNBC, and it should be included in that transcript. - Lou in NJ

Now returning to our regularly scheduled citations.

It is almost as if Dean is agreeing with Lieberman’s accusation, saying that he thinks Saddam should, indeed, still be in power and not under arrest. Now I’m sure that’s not what he thinks; I hope to God that’s not what he thinks. But by this illogic, he’s essentially saying that there was no self-interest in deposing and arresting Saddam and it makes no dofference to us whether he is in captivity. That is on its face absurd. - Jeff Jarvis

A few more flailingly stupid statements like that—as if hundreds of thousands of Iraqis weren’t scared to cooperate with American soldiers out of fear that the man in the hole might return to power—and the Dean campaign could succeed in frightening even Iowa Democratic caucus-goers. …And wasn’t today supposed to be Centrist Foreign Policy Respectability Day for Dean? - Mickey Kaus

This has been said in one way or another several times in this thread, and I think it misses the point. Whether or not Saddam was directly coordinating a resistance, his impact was very real as long as he was still a shadowy figure “out there” of which the general populace was still very much afraid. Taking Saddam and his sons out of the picture will have a bigger impact on the national attitude towards actually moving forward and rebuilding the nation, as well as their tolerance for the insurgency. - tirade

Saddam Hussein’s capture is already reaping dividends for the U.S. military, providing intelligence that allowed U.S. soldiers to capture several top regime figures and uncover rebel cells in the capital, a U.S. general said Monday. - Associated Press

Secret papers found in Saddam Hussein’s hiding place reveal that he had regular contact with the leader of the terrorists who oppose the U.S. presence in Iraq, military officials told The Post. The papers prove Saddam communicated with Izzat Ibrahim al Duri, his former deputy in the Ba’ath Party - the political organization behind his reign of terror. Details were sketchy, but the documents show Saddam was more deeply involved in the resistance than previously believed, the officials said. And the farm complex in Adwar where Saddam was found hiding in a “spider hole” Saturday may have been a terrorist meeting spot. - Niles Lathem

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Made America Safer

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