Meanwhile in Iraq

The head of Iraq's Governing Council says the country's U.S.-led occupiers must do more to provide security following bomb attacks that killed at least 171 people at Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines. ...General John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in the region, said he had information linking Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to the attacks, and suggesting Zarqawi also had developed links with the spy network of the ousted Iraqi government. U.S. forces have put a $10 million price on Zarqawi's head.

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Hmmmm... $10 million? What would it have cost and how many lives would have been spared if we had gone after Zarqawi when we knew about him in 2002?

With Tuesday’s attacks, Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with ties to al-Qaida, is now blamed for more than 700 terrorist killings in Iraq. But NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger. In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide. The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council. “Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn’t do it,” said Michael O’Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution. Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe. The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq. “People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists,” according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey. In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq. The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it. Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

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"...but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam."

Tell me again...why are these people still in office?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.