Before and After
The Colonel brings our attention to the disparity between what Bush et al were saying before the War on Logic (aka War on Iraq) and what they've been saying lately.
BEFORE THE WAR
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has
weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." - Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002.
"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Sept. 8, 2002.
"After 11 years during which we have tried containment, sanctions, inspections, even selected military action, the end result is that Saddam Hussein still has chemical and biological weapons and is increasing his capabilities to make more." - President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002.
"Saddam Hussein is a man who told the world he wouldn't have weapons of mass destruction, but he's got them." - Bush, Nov. 3, 2002.
"The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world." - Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 5, 2003.
AFTER THE WAR
"Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq. ... We removed a declared enemy of America who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder." - Bush, July 12, 2004.
"We got it wrong. We have seen nothing to suggest that he had actual stockpiles." - Powell, Oct. 1, 2004.
"We were all unhappy that the intelligence was not as good as we had thought that it was. But the essential judgment was absolutely right. Saddam Hussein was a threat." - Rice, Oct. 3, 2004.
"It turns out that we have not found weapons of mass destruction. Why the intelligence proved wrong I'm not in a position to say, but the world is a lot better off with Saddam Hussein in jail." - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Oct. 4, 2004.
"He retained the knowledge, the materials, the means and the intent to produce weapons of mass destruction and he could have passed that knowledge on to our terrorist enemies." - Bush, Oct. 7, 2004.
"Based on what we know today, the president would have taken the same action because this is about protecting the American people." - White House press secretary Scott McClellan, on Wednesday.
The incredible thing is how many Americans bought into the meme that John Kerry was the flip-flopper in the Presidential race. A meme put out there by the same folks quoted here.
4 Comments:
Why don't you mention a list of all the DEMOCRATS who thought Iraq had WMD before the war? Folks like Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Jerry, etc. (http://wkelly.blogspot.com/2004/04/my-political-rant.html)
Why can't you admit that everyone was wrong -- not just Bush? Our intelligence community let us down. Nobody lied -- or did everybody lie?
There were lots of Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Anarchists, Socialists and Communists who firmly believed that Iraq had WMD.
Here's the key difference between all of them and the crooks running our nation. Rumsfeld, Cheney et al claimed repeatedly to know PRECISELY where the WMD were at. THEY LIED.
Kevin, the evidence doesn't justify calling the President et al. liars. They may have been wrong, but there's a pretty significant difference.
Intelligence reporting, in a number of countries, was pretty specific, and it was believed. That goes back quite a few years, certainly to the point where WMD unquestionably were in Iraq and were used.
I disagree, Tom.
Cheney and Rumsfeld both claimed specific knowledge as to the location of the phantom WMD. As did Powell in his dog and pony show address to the Security Council. That went well beyond anything claimed by either the international community or the Clinton administration.
Further, we know that Bush et al deliberately went with highly controversial intel opinions once we were in control of Iraq. The aluminium tubes being a classic example. There was dissent, some of it quite strong, in the intelligence community over what those tubes actually were. Bush et al demonstrated a pattern of ignoring anything that didn't ditto their preconceived ideas on the subject.
The bottom line here is that just prior to the invasion of Iraq, Saddam's government submitted "evidence" to the UN, per the relevant UN resolutions, stating that they had no illegal WMD. Bush et al essentially called Saddam a liar. Turns out Saddam was telling the truth for once and it was. Thus the burden of responsibility for 1300+ dead American soldiers, many thousands more wounded and disabled American soldiers, many thousands more dead and wounded Iraqi civilians, and billions of dollars in squandered American taxpayer funds falls squarely on the shoulders of Bush et al. What the international community or previous American administrations might have suspected is irrelevant because none of them invaded Iraq.
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