Bush's big lie

Wurm

By Robert Adler, eTalkinghead.com

" . . . the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy."

We went to war in Iraq at 5:30 a.m. Baghdad time on March 20, 2003.

For more than a year before we launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Bush administration went to great lengths to try to convince us and the rest of the world that the war was necessary because Saddam Hussein possessed and might use weapons of mass destruction--WMDs.

In the State of the Union message on January 29, 2002, President Bush said that Iraq was part of an "axis of evil" and vowed that the United States "will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."



On February 5, 2003, then Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations. He presented a detailed summary of what U.S. and other intelligence services supposedly knew about Hussein's WMDs. Powell concluded, "The United States will not and cannot run that risk to the American people. Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world."

In short, President Bush put his credibility, Powell's credibility, and our credibility as a nation on the line with the repeated assertion that Hussein possessed WMDs.

We all know that these WMDs were never found and did not exist.

On July 9, 2004 the Senate Intelligence Committee released its unanimous, bipartisan report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq. The committee harshly criticized the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies for "mischaractarizing" or "overstating" their findings. In other words, the blame was placed on the intelligence agencies for misinforming Congress and the President.

It turns out that the truth was very different.

By July 23, 2002, President Bush and his adminsitration had decided to go to war in Iraq. From that point on, a just-released secret memo reveals, ". . . the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

On May 1, 2005, the Sunday Times published a secret, "eyes only" memo that summarized a meeting between Tony Blair and his top advisors that took place on July 23, 2002. They were briefed by Richard Dearlove, then head of Britain's MI-6 intelligence agency, who was just back from consultations in Washington. Dearlove told Blain that U.S. military action was inevitable, and would be "justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD."

"It seemed clear that bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided," the summary continues. "But the case was thin."

(You can read the memo for yourself here.)

One might think that a thin case for a decision as weighty as taking the U.S. to war might be a problem. "But," Blair was assured, "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Our intelligence agencies didn't get it wrong by accident. They got it wrong because they were told to plump up that thin case, to drum up enough noise to back Bush's WMD justification of the war. Why blame them? They were just following orders.

"Fixing" the intelligence doesn't seem to have been that hard for Bush and his team. Unfortunately, fixing the facts has turned out to be somewhat more difficult, as the failure to find WMDs, and the continuing chaos and carnage in Iraq show. Among the facts that are most difficult to fix are the 1,593 American soldiers who have died in Iraq so far, and the $300 billion the war has already cost us.

President Bush lied to us. He took us to war, he said, because Saddam Hussein had and might use WMDs. He told us that our intelligence agencies knew those WMDs existed. It was "a slalm dunk." Yet all the time he (and Tony Blair) knew perfectly well that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Policy first. Then the decision to go to war. Then fix the intellience and the facts to justify the war.

Which means that this President flat-out lied to the American people and the rest of the world, not about his sex life, but about starting a war.

Is this the President you want for the next three years?

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Which then begs the question: Why are impeachment proceedings not underway in the U.S. House of Representatives?

__________________
"Bush is the first President to admit to an impeachable offense."

- John Dean, former Counsel to the President (Nixon)

The aim of big corporations is to separate fools from their money all of the time and ordinary folks from their money most of the time. The rest of us must fend for ourselves.

MountainPro

Bush is in Georgia today greeting the people of the revolution...

he started his speech with the obligatory 'My fellow Merkins'..

one of his advisors leaned over and said, 'errr, we're not in Altanta sir, we are in Europe'...

Bush was given a word, one word only in Russian/Georgian (what ever they speak there) and it simply said 'hello'

he ballsed it up by completely mispronouncing it....he should really start with English...it was a bit too ambitious..

can you imagine a president of any other nation acting like that? seriously...

who ever coined the phrase fucktard* was completely correct..


*fuctard: noun- a very stupid ignoramus...quoted from a cycling forums member.

davidmc

Just as I have posted on numerous occassions in the past, "Bush Inc. use of whatever intel. suited their foregone conclusion (invasion) regardless of the intel's merit. They destroyed Powell's reputation & that's one reason why he left. He was the one dissenting voice & one of the FEW VETERANS THIS ADMIN. EVER HAD. The rest of them are civilian felon's

__________________
I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George Carlin
US comedian and actor (1937 - )

limerickman

Not wishing to steal your thunder but a lot of us put these points on the forum in the run up to the US Presidential election last November.
Your country insisted on re-electing Bush.
Which sends two messages.
The people of the USA supported Bush's policies and have neither the interest or the brain power to realise that Bush is destroying your country.

davidmc

Remember, there are different factions of Bush voter's. There are the uber rich who could care less about any policy except where it will impact buisiness (e.g.-tax cuts/write-off's/havens), Evangelicals (this might or might not include the homophobe &/or anti-abortion faction), "Good ol' Boys" (beer swillin', NASCAR watchin', wife-beatin' types, ect...), People who beleived Kerry would have merely sat on the sidelines inre: taking the fight TO the terrorist's as opposed to letting them bring the fight to us, Britain, Spain, Russia, ect...&, finally, the "duped". Thats a very broad spectrum

__________________
I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George Carlin
US comedian and actor (1937 - )

Carrera

I think he gets very nervous during public speeches. Bush is very ignorant of other cultures and countries but he's smart with regard to American internal affairs. He's by no means stupid, as we assume in Europe. For example, he held his ground very well against John Kerry during the Presidential Debate and would know a great deal more about economics and legislation than I could possibly grasp. I think we write him off as a total ignoramus in Europe but he's not dumb - just isolationist.
Strangely enough he seemed to be getting on well with Putin in Russia, given the back slaps and jokes during their meetings.

limerickman

I hear what you're saying but..........

If you listened to the foreign policy lies about Iraq, you'd be persuaded not to vote for Bush.
If you listened to the economic policy about the US economy, you'd be persuaded not to vote for Bush.
If you listened to Bush's envormental policy, you'd be persuaded not to vote for Bush.
The critical mass of the ineptitude of george Bush on these three policy issues alone, ought to have persuaded people in the USA not to vote Bush.

Which begs the question.
Obviously people thought that Bush's policies were acceptable to them.

Wurm

I'm sure many have discussed this and other very important points here in the past. I just wanted some of the neo-con supporters here to see that there is now hard evidence implicating not only PM Blair, but by extension the GWB regime.

ie: there are no more excuses. Impeachment proceedings against the Bush/Cheney admin. should begin forthwith.

I have discussed these points in quite a bit of depth and detail on RBR's 'Politics Only' forum for the past couple of years.

__________________
"Bush is the first President to admit to an impeachable offense."

- John Dean, former Counsel to the President (Nixon)

The aim of big corporations is to separate fools from their money all of the time and ordinary folks from their money most of the time. The rest of us must fend for ourselves.

limerickman

The evidence, or rather the lack of evidence to validate the US invasion of Iraq was always apparent.
Hans Blix, Robin Cook (British ex-foreign sec), Claire Short (ex British minister),
the CIA, MI6, all said that there was no evidence of WMD or of Saddam supporting the 9/11 attacks.
But still Blair and Bush invaded Iraq on a tissue of lies.

Unlike the USA however, Blair although re-elected is now a lame duck PM.
There are calls for him to be replaced because his party say that the public doesn't trust him.

davidmc

Those things are all important but thwarting/destroying terrorism is the linch-pin upon which all else rests. As you know, I didn't vote for him but he is more amenable to our blue-collar types (through his craftily made blurb's) & interestingly enough at the same time to the uber-rich. Rove is the one who has crafted his msg. to dupe the poor & not let on that they really cater to the elite.

__________________
I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George Carlin
US comedian and actor (1937 - )

davidmc

You forgot to mention Scott Ritter who came out & denounced the unfounded allegations inre:WMD. He was our weapons inspector

__________________
I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George Carlin
US comedian and actor (1937 - )

Wurm

Again, there is plenty of evidence extant to try these thugs, so it really doesn't require further rehashing. What needs to be done now is for American public to snap out of their apathetic, lazy stupor and start rattling Congress for a truly independent special investigation to be appointed, (not anything like what the shill 9/11 Commission was).

__________________
"Bush is the first President to admit to an impeachable offense."

- John Dean, former Counsel to the President (Nixon)

The aim of big corporations is to separate fools from their money all of the time and ordinary folks from their money most of the time. The rest of us must fend for ourselves.

limerickman

I realise that you didn't vote for him, Dave.

I still find it very hard to understand, given all that has come to pass, that people would still re-elect him.

The rest of the world took it's lead from the result, on the basis that his policies enjoy widespread support in the USA and that the will of the people has been affirmed by his re-election.
You can see it in the financial markets, essentially the world markets have decided that economic policy of the USA for the next three years will only do more damage to your country's economy.

I have a lot of sympathy for people who have to live in a country run by Bush.

Wurm

But you're forgetting one small detail LM - that GWB's "re-election" in '04 was a farce, just as his selection by the Supreme Court was in '00. The majority of American voters actually did NOT vote for him, as evidenced by U.S. Rep. John Conyers' report to Congress, which has been entered into the official Congressional record.

As long as the Repubs'/cons hold the majority in Congress, there will be no justice.

__________________
"Bush is the first President to admit to an impeachable offense."

- John Dean, former Counsel to the President (Nixon)

The aim of big corporations is to separate fools from their money all of the time and ordinary folks from their money most of the time. The rest of us must fend for ourselves.