A Billmon-style list of quotations for your perusal.
I'm assuming everybody here has seen this first one before, but....it's breathtaking when you think of how right it was....
Actual statements from actual government employees, followed by actual facts, in extended.
Powell told Walters he is unfazed by criticism that he put loyalty to the president over leadership. "Loyalty is a trait that I value, and yes, I am loyal. And there are some who say, 'Well, you shouldn't have supported it. You should have resigned.' But I'm glad that Saddam Hussein is gone. I'm glad that that regime is gone," he said.
When Walters pressed Powell about that support, given the "mess" that the invasion has yielded, Powell said, "Who knew what the whole mess was going to be like?"--
Colin "My Lai" Powell, 9/8/05
A briefing paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers eight months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq concluded that the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a "protracted and costly" postwar occupation of that country.
The eight-page memo, written in advance of a July 23, 2002, Downing Street meeting on Iraq, provides new insights into how senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable, and realized more clearly than their American counterparts the potential for the post-invasion instability that continues to plague Iraq.--
Pincus article in WaPo, from 6/12/05
*****
"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will."--
George "Nero" Bush, 9/1/05
Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.
But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years.--
CNN 9/5/05
If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water.--
Scientific American, October 2001
*****
I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.--
Condoleeza Rice, 5/16/02
The huge force of officers and equipment which has been assembled to deal with unrest has been spurred on by a warning that supporters of Saudi dissident
Osama bin Laden might attempt an air attack on some of the world leaders present.
Anti-aircraft missiles have been deployed at the airport, and naval vessels are patrolling the seas.--
BBC article on G8 summit, 7/18/01 (emphasis mine)
*****
Cheney told Republican supporters at a town hall meeting in Des Moines that they needed to make "the right choice" in the November 2 election.
"If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again -- that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney said.
"And then we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mindset, if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts and that we're not really at war. I think that would be a terrible mistake for us."--
Dick "Keyser Soze" Cheney, 9/7/04
When Cheney dies, there will be a waiting list to piss on his grave.