[Shaun @ Tru6]

Neocons, here's how a real American takes responsibility for his mistakes.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Graham, I want to clean something up, from The Greenville News, February 24, 2003, this is Lindsey Graham talking. "[Lindsey Graham] cited `direct, substantial and unequivocal evidence that (Saddam) is supporting the al-Qaida murderers who plotted the September 11 attacks ... Saddam is an imminent threat.'"

Do you still stand by both of those comments? That Saddam supported the al-Qaeda murderers who plotted September 11th, and, two, he was an imminent threat?

SEN. GRAHAM: I think the evidence that shows about the aluminum tubes, I authored a resolution before I went to the Senate, in the House, saying that he was an imminent threat. And one of the pieces of evidence that was presented to me was the aluminum tubing. And I can tell you about it now, we went to a secure room in the Capitol and they made the case, this could only be used for a nuclear centrifuge, to make a nuclear weapon. I...

MR. RUSSERT: But the State Department and the Department of Energy dissented.

SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah. I was wrong. I think it's OK to say that you were wrong, as long as you-- something good comes out of it. I think it's wrong to assume that the sanctions were working. I think the U.N.'s effort to control Saddam Hussein was a joke. I think they were being bought off. I think he was going to get stronger over time. And if we've learned nothing, let's don't turn our national security over to the U.N. until it's reformed.

MR. RUSSERT: But you no longer believed he was an imminent threat?

SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah, in terms of the weapons of mass destruction, they seem not to be available. But here's what I do believe. I believe within that dictatorship, that he thought he had them. We've had generals tell us that they assumed the general across the way had the weapons, even though they didn't have it. He wanted us to believe that he had these weapons of mass destruction. And he probably believed it himself.

MR. RUSSERT: But he was not an imminent threat to the U.S. at the time we went to war.

SEN. GRAHAM: In the sense of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, that appears to be wrong.

MR. RUSSERT: What about his support of the al-Qaeda murderers who plotted against September 11th?

SEN. GRAHAM: That...

MR. RUSSERT: Do you--is there a linkage between September 11th and Saddam Hussein?

SEN. GRAHAM: That seems to have fallen apart, Tim. It really does. And in that regard, I'm glad he's in jail. I'm glad he's on trial. The world's better off without him. It would be a huge event in the Mideast if this could become a functioning democracy, where a woman would have a say about her children based on a constitutional right, that you could enforce in a courtroom with a fair judge. That's where the consensus ought to be.

Did we make mistakes? Yes. Did we poorly plan the fall of Baghdad? You'd better believe it. Shinseki was right. We should have had more troops. We need more troops now, in my opinion. This idea that it's a bunch of dead-enders is totally wrong. The insurgency's got to be larger than 1/10th of 1 percent because Zarqawi's been able to survive this long. So, yeah, we've made tons of mistakes.