Thursday, July 15, 2004
Bush: The Buck Stops Over There
Great summary of Bush laziness and incompetence here.
I am so tired of hearing that the supposed mountain of pre-war intelligence indicated that Saddam was a huge threat. Everything known now was known then. For example, within days of Colin Powell's humiliating performance at the UN, when hawks were comparing his performance to the "smoking gun" revelations by Adlai Stevenson to the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the evidence he presented was thoroughly picked apart and debunked by the European press and internet bloggers far smarter than I. Words like obvious forgeries, plagiarism, inconclusive abounded in the descriptions of Powell's triumphant speech and this was supposed to be the final treatise justifying the use of overwhelming force on a helpless country ruled by a brutal dictator. Only later did we learn that Powell himself angrily tossed out parts of the speech he was encouraged to give because it would have made him look even more ridiculous.
I remember Bush being asked in the run up to the invasion why, if our European allies were given access to the same intelligence that we had, did they come to opposite conclusions regarding the necessity of invasion over containment? Bush asserted at the time they he had given French and German leaders access to "all of the intelligence" on the matter that he had. The patriotic bigots amongst us said that this was just another sign of European ungratefulness, immorality and laziness and that the French were "surrender monkeys".
Now we know that our allies actually read the intelligence and analyzed it while for Bush the invasion was a forgone conclusion probably from the moment he took the oath of office.
The worst part is the man's refusal to accept responsibility for the ugly results of his go-it-alone policy. Never before has a president so deserved being run out of office on a rail.
Great summary of Bush laziness and incompetence here.
I am so tired of hearing that the supposed mountain of pre-war intelligence indicated that Saddam was a huge threat. Everything known now was known then. For example, within days of Colin Powell's humiliating performance at the UN, when hawks were comparing his performance to the "smoking gun" revelations by Adlai Stevenson to the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the evidence he presented was thoroughly picked apart and debunked by the European press and internet bloggers far smarter than I. Words like obvious forgeries, plagiarism, inconclusive abounded in the descriptions of Powell's triumphant speech and this was supposed to be the final treatise justifying the use of overwhelming force on a helpless country ruled by a brutal dictator. Only later did we learn that Powell himself angrily tossed out parts of the speech he was encouraged to give because it would have made him look even more ridiculous.
I remember Bush being asked in the run up to the invasion why, if our European allies were given access to the same intelligence that we had, did they come to opposite conclusions regarding the necessity of invasion over containment? Bush asserted at the time they he had given French and German leaders access to "all of the intelligence" on the matter that he had. The patriotic bigots amongst us said that this was just another sign of European ungratefulness, immorality and laziness and that the French were "surrender monkeys".
Now we know that our allies actually read the intelligence and analyzed it while for Bush the invasion was a forgone conclusion probably from the moment he took the oath of office.
The worst part is the man's refusal to accept responsibility for the ugly results of his go-it-alone policy. Never before has a president so deserved being run out of office on a rail.
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