TURKEY, MISSILES, AND BUSH'S BLUEBALLS

Turkey's parliament votes . . .um . . . NO! on letting US troops use Turkey as an Iraq staging ground.

The vote was 264 in favor of letting US troops in, 250 against, and 19 abstentions. A true majority was required, so the 264 "yes" votes were shy by 4.

This is all happening just as Iraq has begun to destroy its banned missiles. Gotta love that 2nd paragraph:

But the United States dismissed the step as insufficient and deceptive. "Resolution 1441 called for complete, total and immediate disarmament. It did not call for pieces of disarmament," Merci Viana, a Bush spokeswoman, said. "The president has always predicted that Iraq would destroy its Al Samoud missiles as part of its game of deception."

This quote, especially the 2nd part, has to be the most revealing thing I've heard so far pertaining to what Bush thinks of inspections and disarmament vis-a-vis Iraq. If Iraq was truly disarming, wouldn't destroying those missiles be a part of that? I'd say so. So what Bush said (through a spokesperson) has nothing to do with anything, other than to paint a picture of non-cooperation and deception. He has no respect for the inspections process. The administration has done nothing but attempt to undermine the process at every step.

Also, Russia is threatening a veto of the American/British UN resolution. Boy, we're starting to compile a long list of countries Bush will have to "punish" economically, hahaha!