Monday, May 31, 2004
Note: This was written on 7/20/03, but I didn't have access to it, as it was in my old computer. It's old, but here it is:
President Bush Is His Own Worst Enemy
The controversy is over the following sixteen words in the President’s State of the Union address: “The British government has learned that Suddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” Although the President never before suffered from a credibility problem, he has recently created one for himself after it was discovered that one of the documents containing this fact was forged. However, the mistake the President made was not including these sixteen words, but “admitting” that he made a mistake, when there was none.
First, let us put this in context. We know with certainty that in the 1980’s Suddam Hussein did in fact purchase uranium from Africa -- 270 tons of it. The President’s speech merely stated that the British government had reason to believe he was trying to do it again. This fact was true at the time that the State of the Union was given and it is true now. The British government stands by this statement even today. Tony Blair, at a recent Liaison Committee hearing in Parliament, directly stated that this fact remains true. He further pointed out that the decision to go to war with Iraq was not based on the forged dossier which is causing all this brou–ha-ha. Rather, the decision to go to war was based on Saddam Hussein’s twelve years of violating UN resolutions, culminating in his most recent violation of Resolution 1441 in which the entire UN community unanimously voted that there was reason to believe Suddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and that failure to account for them would constitute a material breach requiring “serious consequences.” Let me repeat: it was not just George Bush and Tony Blair who believed that Hussein had WMD, but the ENTIRE UN community.
The British intelligence which provided that Hussein sought to buy uranium from Africa was not based on the forged dossier. According to Blair, the facts in that dossier were independently verified by British intelligence. Therefore, it is irrelevant that that document was forged, because the document itself was irrelevant to the ultimate decision.
Some are arguing that the United States should not have relied on foreign intelligence. However, the United States cannot combat the evils of terrorism alone. Britain has been our closest ally; it is not as though we relied on information provided by France or China. In any event, the state of the union attributed the statement to that entity from which it was obtained. The President did not say “Hussein sought to buy uranium...” Rather, he stated that “[t]he British government has learned that …Hussein sought to buy…” Moreover, he did not state that Iraq bought the uranuim, but merely that it was seeking to do so.
No one criticized the President for relying on British intelligence at the time of his speech. If it was OK then, it should be OK now. The fact that the Democrats are raising this as a “problem” almost a year later, exposes it for what it is: a sham political point. Not to mention the fact that the Democrats are conveniently glossing over the fact that they voted in favor of the resolution giving the President the power to go to war if necessary, three months prior to the State of the Union speech.
The reason they did this was because the decision to go to war was not based on the allegation that Iraq had nuclear weapons. As someone who listened to every speech on every station every night for weeks leading up to the war, I distinctly remember the Bush administration saying that they did not believe Iraq had nuclear weapons, but that they believed they had weapons of mass destruction – namely biological and chemical weapons. Indeed, the Democrats’ whole argument against war at the time was that perhaps we should focus on North Korea, who in contrast to Iraq did have nuclear weapons. They repeated this like a chant. However, the Democrats are rewriting history. It is as though that debate never took place. Now they claim that Bush made the decision go to war based on false information that Iraq had nuclear weapons. And worse, that he misled the country intentionally. How ironic – those who supported Clinton literally and figuratively to their deaths – suddenly purport to be concerned about honesty. However, they are lying to defame a principled president in order to score political points.
Yet, President Bush is his own worst enemy. He opened a Pandora ’s Box when he “admitted” that a true fact should not have been included in the State of the Union. The Democrats were sitting hopelessly on the sidelines waiting for just such an opportunity. Now we will have to suffer though congressional hearings and investigations on what is really a non-issue. Others who are supposed to be on our side are of no help. These include Don Rumsfeld, who on Meet the Press retracted his true statement about Iraq seeking uranium and passed the buck to the President, and Trent Lott who “conceded” that the Senate should investigate the CIA sources for the decisions leading up to war. Presently, the White House has hired Mary Matlin to clean up their public relations mess. The problem is that Matlin’s strategy of focusing on the broader picture of why we were justified in going to war will not work. Her explanation is long and detailed, and evades the question that the public wants to know: did President Bush state the truth when he uttered the sentence that the British intelligence believed that Hussein was seeking uranium…
The world is not constituted of political junkies who will watch every interview to get the full story. It sounds like the administration doth protest too much. The public will listen to eight second sound bites and they want the truth. The truth is that Bush was right to include that sentence in the State of the Union. Those facts were true then, and those facts are true now. He should take responsibility for his actions and stop apologizing needlessly.
President Bush Is His Own Worst Enemy
The controversy is over the following sixteen words in the President’s State of the Union address: “The British government has learned that Suddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” Although the President never before suffered from a credibility problem, he has recently created one for himself after it was discovered that one of the documents containing this fact was forged. However, the mistake the President made was not including these sixteen words, but “admitting” that he made a mistake, when there was none.
First, let us put this in context. We know with certainty that in the 1980’s Suddam Hussein did in fact purchase uranium from Africa -- 270 tons of it. The President’s speech merely stated that the British government had reason to believe he was trying to do it again. This fact was true at the time that the State of the Union was given and it is true now. The British government stands by this statement even today. Tony Blair, at a recent Liaison Committee hearing in Parliament, directly stated that this fact remains true. He further pointed out that the decision to go to war with Iraq was not based on the forged dossier which is causing all this brou–ha-ha. Rather, the decision to go to war was based on Saddam Hussein’s twelve years of violating UN resolutions, culminating in his most recent violation of Resolution 1441 in which the entire UN community unanimously voted that there was reason to believe Suddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and that failure to account for them would constitute a material breach requiring “serious consequences.” Let me repeat: it was not just George Bush and Tony Blair who believed that Hussein had WMD, but the ENTIRE UN community.
The British intelligence which provided that Hussein sought to buy uranium from Africa was not based on the forged dossier. According to Blair, the facts in that dossier were independently verified by British intelligence. Therefore, it is irrelevant that that document was forged, because the document itself was irrelevant to the ultimate decision.
Some are arguing that the United States should not have relied on foreign intelligence. However, the United States cannot combat the evils of terrorism alone. Britain has been our closest ally; it is not as though we relied on information provided by France or China. In any event, the state of the union attributed the statement to that entity from which it was obtained. The President did not say “Hussein sought to buy uranium...” Rather, he stated that “[t]he British government has learned that …Hussein sought to buy…” Moreover, he did not state that Iraq bought the uranuim, but merely that it was seeking to do so.
No one criticized the President for relying on British intelligence at the time of his speech. If it was OK then, it should be OK now. The fact that the Democrats are raising this as a “problem” almost a year later, exposes it for what it is: a sham political point. Not to mention the fact that the Democrats are conveniently glossing over the fact that they voted in favor of the resolution giving the President the power to go to war if necessary, three months prior to the State of the Union speech.
The reason they did this was because the decision to go to war was not based on the allegation that Iraq had nuclear weapons. As someone who listened to every speech on every station every night for weeks leading up to the war, I distinctly remember the Bush administration saying that they did not believe Iraq had nuclear weapons, but that they believed they had weapons of mass destruction – namely biological and chemical weapons. Indeed, the Democrats’ whole argument against war at the time was that perhaps we should focus on North Korea, who in contrast to Iraq did have nuclear weapons. They repeated this like a chant. However, the Democrats are rewriting history. It is as though that debate never took place. Now they claim that Bush made the decision go to war based on false information that Iraq had nuclear weapons. And worse, that he misled the country intentionally. How ironic – those who supported Clinton literally and figuratively to their deaths – suddenly purport to be concerned about honesty. However, they are lying to defame a principled president in order to score political points.
Yet, President Bush is his own worst enemy. He opened a Pandora ’s Box when he “admitted” that a true fact should not have been included in the State of the Union. The Democrats were sitting hopelessly on the sidelines waiting for just such an opportunity. Now we will have to suffer though congressional hearings and investigations on what is really a non-issue. Others who are supposed to be on our side are of no help. These include Don Rumsfeld, who on Meet the Press retracted his true statement about Iraq seeking uranium and passed the buck to the President, and Trent Lott who “conceded” that the Senate should investigate the CIA sources for the decisions leading up to war. Presently, the White House has hired Mary Matlin to clean up their public relations mess. The problem is that Matlin’s strategy of focusing on the broader picture of why we were justified in going to war will not work. Her explanation is long and detailed, and evades the question that the public wants to know: did President Bush state the truth when he uttered the sentence that the British intelligence believed that Hussein was seeking uranium…
The world is not constituted of political junkies who will watch every interview to get the full story. It sounds like the administration doth protest too much. The public will listen to eight second sound bites and they want the truth. The truth is that Bush was right to include that sentence in the State of the Union. Those facts were true then, and those facts are true now. He should take responsibility for his actions and stop apologizing needlessly.
Comments:
Post a Comment
