Warning in Iraq Report Unread: Bush, Rice Did Not See State's Objection (thanks to John for sharing this....)
It was "bordering on treason" to disagree with the President that Hussain presented an immediate threat to our safety and had to be dealt with by force, and liberals hated their country because they refused to honor and trust the President...
...who doesn't bother to read the intellegence statements, isn't responsible for his own speeches, and doesn't bother double-checking facts before sending people into combat?
Aaaugh. My head is exploding.
It's nice to know that the most powerful man in the world is on top of things, isn't it? Wait...you mean he isn't? Well, is anyone REALLY surprised that someone born with a silver foot in his mouth does so little of the heavy lifting required of the Presidency??
It's interesting to note that Shrub's justification for the war against Iraq was based on an intelligence estimate that he couldn't even be bothered to read. Of course, by then he'd already made up his mind, so evidence for or against the existence of Iraq's WMD program would have been superfluous.
President Bush and his national security adviser did not entirely read the most authoritative prewar assessment of U.S. intelligence on Iraq, including a State Department claim that an allegation Bush would later use in his State of the Union address was "highly dubious," White House officials said yesterday....
A senior administration official who briefed reporters yesterday said neither Bush nor national security adviser Condoleezza Rice read the NIE in its entirety. "They did not read footnotes in a 90-page document," said the official, referring to the "Annex" that contained the State Department's dissent. The official conducting the briefing rejected reporters' entreaties to allow his name to be used, arguing that it was his standard procedure for such sessions to be conducted anonymously.
The official said Bush was "briefed" on the NIE's [National Intelligence Estimate] contents, but "I don't think he sat down over a long weekend and read every word of it." Asked whether Bush was aware the State Department called the Africa-uranium claim "highly dubious," the official, who coordinated Bush's State of the Union address, said: "He did not know that."
"The president was comfortable at the time, based on the information that was provided in his speech," the official said of the decision to use it in the address to Congress. "The president of the United States is not a fact-checker."
Right; who needs facts when you already KNOW the "truth"? What sort of arrogance and sloppiness are we tolerating in the White House? The President may not be respsonsible for the research and writing that went into his State of the Union address, but it is HIS speech. In the end, Shrub is responsible for the words coming out of his mouth.
We may have gone to war against Iraq anyway, but I can't help but wonder how many US soldiers died because of the deception, sloppiness, and poor fact-checking? Try explaining THAT to the parents of a soldier killed in the war.
What I find truly amusing is the relative lack of silence from the Democratic side of the aisle. If Bill Clinton had been guilty of this sort of behavior, Republicans would have been falling over themselves in fits of apoplexy and paroxysms of righteous indignation. Demand for the President's resignation would have been raining from the rafters. Now? The silence is almost deafening.
I'm also amused by a few of my more Conservative readers who have accused me of being a fanatic. Trust me, y'all; you haven't SEEN fanaticism from me (and besides, someone who lives in a gas tank should not be lighting matches...). I am quite capable of my own fits of righteous indignation. All I'm asking is that Our Sainted Republican President be held to the same standards that Republicans demanded of Bill Clinton. Anything less is sheer hypocrisy (and, sadly, the norm).
How many Americans have died because of Shrub's lies and manipulations? I don't imagine that we'll ever know. At least when Bill Clinton lied, the only thing that was destroyed was a blue dress.
