By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan
1 hour, 13 minutes ago


President George W. Bush's nominee to be top military adviser said on Tuesday the United States will be in Iraq for "years not months" and a Pentagon official said the war was costing even more than expected.

Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, picked as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned U.S. lawmakers unhappy with the conflict against seeking a rapid pullout from Iraq, saying it could turn the country into a "caldron."

While prudence dictated planning for an eventual pullout, Mullen said that under one scenario it could take three to four years just to halve the 160,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq. Many Democrats want to pull out combat troops by April.

"I do think we will be there for years, not months," Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing. "But I don't see it (Iraq) as a permanent -- you know, on a permanent base at this point."

Mullen, 60, now chief of naval operations, was nominated last month after the Bush administration decided against seeking a second two-year term in the job for Marine Gen. Peter Pace. Defense Secretary Robert Gates concluded that Pace's role in the unpopular Iraq war would have led to overly contentious hearings to reconfirm him.

Based on the warm reception Mullen drew, he appeared headed for approval.

In separate testimony to the House Budget Committee, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said next year's war tab will exceed the administration's existing request for $141.7 billion. That is on top of more than $600 billion in war checks already written for Iraq and Afghanistan, with 70 percent going to Iraq.

Besides needing more money to build and deliver mine-resistant vehicles to repel insurgent attacks, England said Bush's request did not include next year's costs for the extra 30,000 U.S. troops sent into combat this year.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, the South Carolina Democrat who must juggle war funding, pay for skyrocketing health and retirement benefits for the elderly and also make the budget deficit vanish, complained, "We're actually spending more and more each year" on the war.

Spratt called it an "ominous indication the costs are continuing to increase."

Mullen said Bush's troop buildup had brought more stability to Iraq but that there did not appear to be much political progress.

"Based on the ... lack of political reconciliation at the government level, obviously ... I would be concerned about whether we'd be winning or not," he said.

Ultimately "no amount of troops" could solve Iraqi political problems, Mullen acknowledged, but he said strategic decisions should wait until U.S. Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus report on progress in September.

Mullen expressed concern about the "increasingly hostile" role played by Iran. He said Tehran supported the Taliban in Afghanistan and was trying to drive the United States out of Iraq but he hoped the issue could be solved diplomatically.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office provided an analysis for long-term war costs. It estimated that if troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were reduced to 75,000 over the next five years and stayed at that level through 2017, it would cost the U.S. Treasury $845 billion over the 10-year period.

"We don't have that sort of assumption," England said of the 75,000 troop estimate. He did not give any estimate of how large a U.S. force would be over the next 10 years.

Whatever the costs, England recently returned from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan saying he saw significant progress.

"Lives are starting to return to normal" in Baghdad and other regions, England said, noting that businesses were "coming to life" and religious leaders were spurning al Qaeda in Iraq. But he also acknowledged continuing "problems."

I ask a question tonight, whether or not the United States of America is becoming a colony. A colony is made up of people from one country owing allegiance to their home country, not the country that they're in. And a colony serves the purpose of supporting the home country and exploits the new land. And has this happened to the United States? Have people illegally entered the United States with the purpose of colonizing this country for the benefit of another nation?

And the effects of the colonization of our land means that the money that these illegals make does not stay in this Nation. Like colonies in the past, the money is returned to their home country. Many statistics report that over $22 billion a year is sent back to Mexico in the form of money sent from this Nation, from Mexican citizens in this Nation returning their money to their home country. They are feeding the Mexican economy at the expense of the American economy.

Since many of them deal in a cash economy, they don't pay taxes the way legals do and American citizens. In fact, there is an organized system in this Nation where money is shipped back to Mexico through a complicit alliance of the banking industry in this country. And many of them do not contribute to the social programs provided for Americans and legal immigrants. They don't pay into the health care system, the education, and many of them don't pay into Social Security, but they receive those benefits at a drain to the American economy. It sounds like colonization of this Nation; they reap the benefits without the responsibility of being American. And the American taxpayer is stuck with the bill.

How many of the illegals did this government agree to take in to fuel the Mexican economy? And how much illegal drugs did they agree to let through the border and reach the primary buyers, which would also boost the Mexican economy?
Is this really happening? You better believe it!

Where did Globalization come from? The "New International Economic Order" was the coinage of the Trilateral Commission starting in 1973. This purpose was stated repeatedly in its papers, journals and conferences. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush, a member of the Trilateral Commission, began to openly talk about the New World Order, which expanded the concept to include governance as well as economic unity.

Saturday , July 28, 2007

Good morning. This is Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Three years ago this week, the bipartisan and independent 9/11 Commission released its report, outlining urgent and achievable recommendations for securing our nation. This was done under the outstanding leadership of Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chair Lee Hamilton.

In assuming power, Democrats promised a New Direction for America. Nowhere was this more critical than in ensuring the safety of the American people. That is why on the very first day of the new Congress, our first legislative act was to pass House Resolution 1, the 9/11 Commission recommendations.

I am proud to say that this week, under Democratic leadership, the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, have passed the final version of this bipartisan bill. We are sending it to the President for his signature with all expectations that he will sign it.

We will have done in six months what previous Congresses failed to do for almost six years.

We could not have accomplished this without the courage and determination of those who lost loved ones on September 11. The families of 9/11 turned their grief into strength, and our entire nation is safer for it.

In the coming days, as the 9/11 Commission recommendations become our nations law, we are keeping our promise to those families, we are honoring the work of the Commission, and we are making the American people more secure.

Implementing the recommendations will fundamentally change the way the President and the Congress deal with matters related to terrorism - making us more unified and more effective. That is because this bill closes loopholes and weaknesses that terrorists seek to exploit and that leave Americans vulnerable.

Under this legislation, federal funding for homeland security will now be focused on the parts of our country that are at greatest risk.

By securing loose nuclear material abroad, this bill will help prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

Our bill requires that 100 percent of shipping containers be scanned and sealed abroad, before they ever reach our shores, and move through our waterways and across our country.

It also requires screening of 100 percent of cargo on passenger aircraft.

We know that lives were lost on 9/11 because our first responders were unable to communicate with each other. This bill makes a $1.6 billion investment in the equipment our firefighters, police, and other emergency personnel need to protect us and each other every day.

As we learned in the National Intelligence Estimate released last week, the threat of terrorist violence against the United States is growing. Al Qaeda is gaining strength, and Osama bin Laden continues to elude capture. There is not a moment to spare to take the steps necessary to keep the American people safe.

With this legislation, we are honoring our solemn responsibility to protect and defend the American people.

We urge the President to promptly sign this bill into law.

This is the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Thank you for listening.

There is something that all of us should be aware of, and that is the fact that all the portions of our constitution that has been destroyed by this administration will carry over to the next selected president/dictator.

It is of the utmost importance that the citizens now insist that congress impeach this entire Bush machine.if we wait until someone else takes their place in the Whitehouse, I fear it will be to late to restore our rights as voters with a real voice in our government.

Consider that we were a free nation for over two hundred years,and it has only taken those criminals in this administration a little over six years to destroy the entire foundation that our freedoms were built upon!

We have very rapidly became the most hated and feared nation on earth, and many other nations now consider the United States of Amrerica a terrorist nation, the only difference between us and the other terrorist states is that we can deliver our bombs and destruction worldwide with maximum effectiveness, and minimal resistance.

We must stop this insanity, remove this gigantic blemish that has been placed on us by the criminal in Washington, and restore our self respect, we cannot depend on the next administration to show anymore integrity than this one!

This nation saw sons, and daughters die to keep it's liberty in tact, we cannot give it away now to traitors, criminals, and vultures!

The strength of this nation lies within the people, we are the people, so lets take our nation back,NOW!