Bush Lied and Soldiers Died
By Wayne Francis for t r u t h o u t.

Legions of foreign intelligence agencies, from China to France to Russia to Germany, reported that Iraq was no threat, had no terrorists, and most importantly had no weapons of mass destruction. Understandably, the leaders of these countries opposed the war, and the citizens protested in the streets. It appears the Bush administration was well aware of these facts, but proceeded to use

Standard Operating Procedure
By Paul Krugman for The NY Times.

The mystery of Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction has become a lot less mysterious. Recent reports in major British newspapers and three major American news magazines, based on leaks from angry intelligence officials, back up the sources who told my colleague Nicholas Kristof that the Bush administration “grossly manipulated intelligence” about W.M.D.’s…
In Britain, the news media have not been shy about drawing the obvious implications, and the outrage has not been limited to war opponents. The Times of London was ardently pro-war; nonetheless, it ran an analysis under the headline “Lie Another Day.” The paper drew parallels between the selling of the war and other misleading claims: “The government is seen as having `spun’ the threat from Saddam’s weapons just as it spins everything else.”
Yet few have made the same argument in this country, even though “spin” is far too mild a word for what the Bush administration does, all the time. Suggestions that the public was manipulated into supporting an Iraq war gain credibility from the fact that misrepresentation and deception are standard operating procedure for this administration, which

I hate arguments about impeaching the Shrub “like we impeached Clinton” because I think the Clinton impeachment was a total crock and you can’t even compare lying to a political witchhunt about a sexual affair to the act of lying to the American Government, American Public, and the rest of the World about why the military invasion of a foreign country is necessary. That said. This editorial contains an interesting perspective.
We Used To Impeach Liars
By William Rivers Pitt for T r u t h o u t.

The case for war against Iraq has not been made. This is a fact. It is doubtful in the extreme that Saddam Hussein has retained any functional aspect of the chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons programs so thoroughly dismantled by the United Nations weapons inspectors who worked tirelessly in Iraq for seven years. This is also a fact.
This was a straightforward argument, set against stern and unrelenting prophesies of doom from Bush administration officials, and from Bush himself. I can tell you, as the writer, that it was a tough sell. The facts contained in the book were absolutely accurate, as has been proven in the aftermath of war, but Americans are funny. They fall for Hitler’s maxim on lies over and over again: “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” Over and over and over and over and over again, the American people were told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction practically falling out of his ears. The American people were told that Hussein was giving away these weapons to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda the way you and I might give away birthday presents.
Feast for a moment, on this brief timeline:
“Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”
– Dick Cheney, August 26 2002
“If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.”
– Ari Fleischer, December 2 2002
“We know for a fact that there are weapons there.”
– Ari Fleischer, January 9 2003
“We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.”
– Colin Powell, February 5 2003
“Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.”
– Ari Fleischer, March 21 2003
“There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.”
– Gen. Tommy Franks, March 22 2003
“We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad.”
– Donald Rumsfeld, March 30 2003
“I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found.”
– Ari Fleischer, April 10 2003
“There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.”
– Donald Rumsfeld, April 25 2003
“I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he had weapons of mass destruction.”
– Colin Powell, May 4 2003

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Note that there has now been a Correction and Clarification posted, and the article has been removed. Except that the correction doesn’t say that any of the words that Wolfowitz was reported as saying were incorrect, only that the magazine’s interpretation of them was incorrect.
Luckily we’ll always have a copy of the article right here.
And now, on with my original post…
For the life of me, I can’t understand why Paul Wolfowitz is blowing the whistle on his own administration like this. (See above note, this is only a logical crazed interpretation and is not what he really meant to say. So with that in mind, let’s get back to my little rant, shall we?) Is he so mad with power he thinks it won’t matter? Is he simply mad in general, and perhaps he doesn’t even realize the implications of what he is saying? Is this part of some greater scheme to prove to the rest of the world that the American public will tolerate this kind of behavior so he can go do the same thing in other parts of the world? (Presumably with the American people’s blessing?)
I can’t figure it out, but it sure is fun to watch. These days, I’ll take little sputters of truth from this administration any way I can get them 🙂
Wolfowitz: