HOLDING BUSH TO THE SAME STANDARDS AS CBS
We now have the "revelation" that no, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So the U.S. is officially abandoning the search for WMD's in Iraq because our military invasion and occupation has so destablized the country and created so much anarchy and chaos that, simply put, it's now unsafe for weapons inspectors to continue the search.
Meanwhile, the national media and right wing pundits have had so much fun with CBS and Dan Rather this week on "Memogate" (and since when is it a "gate" when a news organization accurately reports that the President of the United States got preferential treatment to get into the Texas Air National Guard, then later skipped a physical and mandatory drug test, was decertified from flying, missed all of his drills for a solid year, never reported to his assigned transfer unit in Alabama, and effectively was AWOL from the National Guard- but one of the supporting documents turns out to have been a fake?) The blogosphere has correctly noted that CBS is being held to a far higher standard than is the President and other public officials, and has reminded those paying attention by compiling and reproducing many of the Bush Administration's Iraq WMD lies and gross distortions. Here are some links plus my own modest contribution from a year ago.
[NOTE: this essay was originally published 2/13/04 in the Albany (Georgia) Journal. It's also been online at ANYONEELSE.ORG for about 10 months at: http://www.anyoneelse.org/wmd.html
for some recent links with comprehensive lists of WMD misleading quotes, go to THIS MODERN WORLD at http://www.thismodernworld.com/ (January 15, 2005 post)
DAILY KOS at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/13/02658/9300 (January 12, 2005 post) and
BILLMON (Lunaville) at: http://lunaville.org/WMD/billmon.aspx (undated]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
QUOTES FROM BUSH ADMINISTRATION 2001-2004
(note to stalwart Republicans: to paraphrase Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men", if you can't handle the truth, don't read this column.)
********
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." George W. Bush.
********
”He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell during a visit to Cairo, Egypt, February 24, 2001
"The sanctions, as they are called, have succeeded over the last 10 years.... The Iraqi regime militarily remains fairly weak. ... It has been contained."
Colin Powell testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 15, 2001
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
Vice President Dick Cheney Speech to VFW National Convention, August 26, 2002
"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."
President George W. Bush Speech to UN General Assembly, September 12, 2002
"No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, September 19, 2002
"The Iraqi regime ... possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons." --
George W. Bush on the campaign trail, Oct. 7, 2002.
"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his ‘nuclear mujahideen' -- his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past."--
George W. Bush, campaigning for Republicans in Congress, Oct. 7, 2002
"We know for a fact there are weapons there." --
George W. Bush's Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, White House, Jan. 9, 2003
"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of Sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." --
George W. Bush, Jan. 28, 2003
"My second purpose today is to provide you with additional information, to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iraq's involvement in terrorism..."
"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." --
Colin Powell, Speech to United Nations Security Council, Feb. 5, 2003
"This is about imminent threat."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, February 10, 2003
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." --
George W. Bush, White House televised speech to America, March 17, 2003, two days before America launches missile attack on Baghdad and Gulf War II commences.
"Absolutely." Answer to question whether Iraq was an "imminent threat,"
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, May 7, 2003
"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003
"It was a surprise to me then — it remains a surprise to me now — that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there."
Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Press Interview, May 30, 2003
"What was it? One hundred tons, 500 tons or zero tons? Was it so many liters of anthrax, 10 times that amount or nothing?"
Secretary of State Colin Powell, TBLISI, Georgia,, January 24, 2004
"I don't think they existed..."
David Kay, leader of the U.S. hunt for weapons of mass destruction, who resigned on January 23, 2004
*******
If Rush Limbaugh or his ilk argue that it makes no difference that we found no WMD's, and that the war was worth it because we freed the people of Iraq, then ask them one question: which is worse: that the highest officials in this country deliberately lied to us and took us to war, or that they are so incompetent that they mistakenly took us to war on the erroneous premise that Iraq posed a grave, imminent, military threat to America?
Meanwhile, the national media and right wing pundits have had so much fun with CBS and Dan Rather this week on "Memogate" (and since when is it a "gate" when a news organization accurately reports that the President of the United States got preferential treatment to get into the Texas Air National Guard, then later skipped a physical and mandatory drug test, was decertified from flying, missed all of his drills for a solid year, never reported to his assigned transfer unit in Alabama, and effectively was AWOL from the National Guard- but one of the supporting documents turns out to have been a fake?) The blogosphere has correctly noted that CBS is being held to a far higher standard than is the President and other public officials, and has reminded those paying attention by compiling and reproducing many of the Bush Administration's Iraq WMD lies and gross distortions. Here are some links plus my own modest contribution from a year ago.
[NOTE: this essay was originally published 2/13/04 in the Albany (Georgia) Journal. It's also been online at ANYONEELSE.ORG for about 10 months at: http://www.anyoneelse.org/wmd.html
for some recent links with comprehensive lists of WMD misleading quotes, go to THIS MODERN WORLD at http://www.thismodernworld.com/ (January 15, 2005 post)
DAILY KOS at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/13/02658/9300 (January 12, 2005 post) and
BILLMON (Lunaville) at: http://lunaville.org/WMD/billmon.aspx (undated]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
QUOTES FROM BUSH ADMINISTRATION 2001-2004
(note to stalwart Republicans: to paraphrase Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men", if you can't handle the truth, don't read this column.)
********
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." George W. Bush.
********
”He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”
Secretary of State Colin Powell during a visit to Cairo, Egypt, February 24, 2001
"The sanctions, as they are called, have succeeded over the last 10 years.... The Iraqi regime militarily remains fairly weak. ... It has been contained."
Colin Powell testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, May 15, 2001
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
Vice President Dick Cheney Speech to VFW National Convention, August 26, 2002
"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."
President George W. Bush Speech to UN General Assembly, September 12, 2002
"No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, September 19, 2002
"The Iraqi regime ... possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons." --
George W. Bush on the campaign trail, Oct. 7, 2002.
"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his ‘nuclear mujahideen' -- his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past."--
George W. Bush, campaigning for Republicans in Congress, Oct. 7, 2002
"We know for a fact there are weapons there." --
George W. Bush's Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, White House, Jan. 9, 2003
"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of Sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." --
George W. Bush, Jan. 28, 2003
"My second purpose today is to provide you with additional information, to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iraq's involvement in terrorism..."
"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." --
Colin Powell, Speech to United Nations Security Council, Feb. 5, 2003
"This is about imminent threat."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, February 10, 2003
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." --
George W. Bush, White House televised speech to America, March 17, 2003, two days before America launches missile attack on Baghdad and Gulf War II commences.
"Absolutely." Answer to question whether Iraq was an "imminent threat,"
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, May 7, 2003
"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003
"It was a surprise to me then — it remains a surprise to me now — that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there."
Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Press Interview, May 30, 2003
"What was it? One hundred tons, 500 tons or zero tons? Was it so many liters of anthrax, 10 times that amount or nothing?"
Secretary of State Colin Powell, TBLISI, Georgia,, January 24, 2004
"I don't think they existed..."
David Kay, leader of the U.S. hunt for weapons of mass destruction, who resigned on January 23, 2004
*******
If Rush Limbaugh or his ilk argue that it makes no difference that we found no WMD's, and that the war was worth it because we freed the people of Iraq, then ask them one question: which is worse: that the highest officials in this country deliberately lied to us and took us to war, or that they are so incompetent that they mistakenly took us to war on the erroneous premise that Iraq posed a grave, imminent, military threat to America?
posted by James Finkelstein (Ga.) at 12:15 PM
1 Comments:
He should have been impeached for it. No question...
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