CT-04: Shays: We Should Have Invaded Iraq "Sooner," And "Not For WMD"
GOP Rep. Chris Shays is gonna take plenty of heat for this one. At a debate this morning at the Stamford Marriott with antiwar Dem challenger Diane Farrell, Shays opined that we should have invaded Iraq "sooner" -- and not for WMDs. According to a transcript supplied by the Farrell campaign, Shays said:
Now let me just tell you something about the reality. We're there. And if we made mistakes we're still there. In my judgment we should have gone in sooner but not for weapons of mass destruction.
View Shays' remark below:
Shays didn't elaborate on this view. His remark came amid a long diatribe which included a scorching attack on Bush's handling of the war. View a fuller transcript after the jump.
Here are Shays' remarks on Iraq, according to a transcript from the Farrell campaign:
Now let me just tell you something about the reality. We're there. And if we made mistakes we're still there. In my judgment we should have gone in sooner but not for weapons of mass destruction. But we should never have fought it the way we did. I have huge disagreements with this White House and how they fought the war. And when my opponent says the President doesn't agree with me on timelines, so what? He's the President, that's his opinion, I have my opinion, it's different. She now blames me for disagreeing with the president. I don't get her, I honestly don't get her. So I'm supposed to agree with the president, because he doesn't think we should have timelines?
Shays has had a great deal of diffulty during this campaign explaining his ardent support for the war. Back in the spring, he said that withdrawal timetables were a bad idea because they would help terrorists. Then, in August, he came out and embraced the idea of a timeline. And then after that, he claimed that he hadn't changed his position.
To our knowledge, however, Shays has always supported the idea of the invasion. And today, he went considerably further, making it clear that he doesn't just think the invasion was a good idea. He thinks it should have been done sooner -- and not even for WMDs.
By saying "we should have gone in sooner" could Shays have trying to flip yet another card in the Republicans' favorite game to play when they haave been cornered by their serial incompetence, it's all Bill Clinton's fault, this time for not invading Iraq during his presidency?
Sheesh.
October 18, 2006 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Making the case for invading Iran. A country doesn't need WMD for us to invade. If they defy our boy king and do not bow before our "ally" isreal they must be crushed sooner rather than later.
October 18, 2006 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another closet neocon. BFD.
I am so effing fed up with these feckless wallowbacks who, if we let them, will continue to chirp these ponderous selfdistortions until bodies stack up so high in Baghdad they blot out the sun, and at that EXACT moment they'll start to sell a wagon load of reeking boarcaca that what they were really trying to do all along was come up with a carefully controlled experiment they hoped might be useful to stave off global warming.
Why don't these numbchucks just go back into their closets, dig up their suits of bloody armor and admitt to the last three people who still can't see what is going on here is that THEY are merely continuing the unfinished business of the previous and last Crusade???
October 18, 2006 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another example of GOP hypocrisy--Shays had conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060616/16shays.htm
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0915/p03s03-usmb.html
Shays has commented about the incongruity of this by saying that his views changed after 9/11. (It doesn't explain why he hasn't encouraged his daughter to enlist, though.)
October 18, 2006 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to change the subject too much, but turncoat Lieberman in the debate this afternoon with all 5 candidates said it was time for "regime change" in Iran.
(off of Firedrake.com) Seems like the fiesty Mr. Sch. (R), tore Joe apart again and got Ned to agree. Something like, Alan: "If a person was a failure after 18 yrs on the job, what do you think should happen?" Ned: "It's time to go"
October 18, 2006 9:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
These cowards make me sick! They wrap themselves up in patriotism and let others die because we got a bloody nose from some terrorists. I always thought that America was stronger than that... but they want to make us into sniveling cowards too and give up everything that America stands for. I am sick and tired of this. 9/11 was terrible, but my God people, a bit of perspective please!
AEI and PNAC sold this nation on a war for political profit and the "Friends of Bush" are raking in the money. Keep people terrified of the rat in the corner and, by God, you can rule this nation of sniveling little whining cowards.
It is time for Americans to stand up and say that they are not going to live in fear and they are not going to let the threat of physical violence make them sell their soul.
I need a shower to get the slime off of me.
October 19, 2006 7:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shays is but yet another classic example of an alligator mouth getting him in more trouble than his hummingbird ass can get him out of.
October 19, 2006 7:56 AM | Reply | Permalink