February 2, 2004 5:47 AM

The truth will always rise to the surface

Intelligence Probe Would Be Risky for Bush (insert your own joke here....)

Bush orders weapons probe: Broad scope could extend it past election (OK, kids, repeat after me: I'M SHOCKED!!!)

The Definition of "Imminent": Americans must not allow the Bush administration to manipulate the truth about Iraq

Nothing To Preempt

Bush OK's Independent Probe of Prewar Intelligence

It's like a basketball game, and he's got the ball and there's a problem here and there and he's just going to play out the clock. And he may be able to do it.

- James Thurber

For those of us of the Liberal persuasion, is there ANYTHING more enjoyable than watching Our Sainted And Yet Illegitimate President trying to evade accountability? I would submit to you that this is probably the most fun you can have politically while still keeping your clothes on. Let the fun begin, because one you let people begin asking questions, it's going to be very difficult to control what the answers are.

WASHINGTON - A full-blown investigation of Iraq intelligence failures would pose election-year risks for President Bush. No one could be certain where it would lead, who it would touch or what it would uncover.

But resisting an investigation has hazards, too, because that would give Democratic presidential rivals an opening to keep the issue alive and question what the White House might be hiding.

A bipartisan proposal for an independent investigation is blossoming into a prominent issue on the presidential campaign trail and on Capitol Hill.

It's about damn time that Our Sainted And Yet Illegitimate President begin to be held accountable for the deception and trickery that led us into Iraq. It would be one thing if we had been told the truth and our military actions had cost 500+ young Americans their lives. At least one could argue that they had died for a just cause- not that that makes losing those lives any less painful to their families. No, 500+ young Americans have died- and for what?

While Bush once raised dire warnings, he now seems to say Saddam's weapons were almost beside the point. "Saddam Hussein was a danger," Bush said. "The world is a better place and a more peaceful place and the Iraqi people are free" without him.

This may be true, but spin control will not relieve Our Sainted And Yet Illegitimate President of culpability. This war was presented to Americans as necessary because Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction and they posed a clear and present danger to our national security. Review Colin Powell's presentation to the UN and tell me that this isn't EXACTLY the argument that was used to sell the war in Iraq to the American people?

I was one of those folks who decided that it was time to support partisan politics in the interest of something that seemed so clearly to be in our national interest. Now I find myself angered beyond words, and if Our Sainted And Yet Illegitimate President finds himself vulnerable because he lied to the American public, well, he deserves what he has coming. Considering that this President was SELECTED by the US Supreme Court and not ELECTED by the American electorate (OK, y'all, who received more votes??), Bush's Imperial Presidency is deservedly in grave danger.

By joining the effort to create the commission rather than allowing Congress to develop its framework on its own, Bush will likely have more leverage to keep the focus on the CIA and other intelligence organizations rather than on the White House. Democrats have asserted that Bush exaggerated the intelligence on Iraq to justify going war, a theory that was boosted by recent allegations from former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill that Bush had been contemplating the ouster of Hussein long before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Politically, the decision to back an independent probe contains substantial risks for Bush. It means the White House will have to surrender some control over the timing of the investigation, raising the possibility that such a panel could release information about the intelligence failures before the Nov. 2 elections.

Now we have a legitimate issue with which Democrats can skewer Our Sainted And Yet Illegitimate President. The state of the economy, while certainly a significant issue, is a fuzzy argument, because not all of us are impacted equally. Truth, or the lack thereof, is much less fuzzy, and my hope is that when the truth is revealed Americans will realize that they were lied to- in the same way the Administration manipulated numbers in the recently passed Medicare bill.

We've been manipulated and lied to, y'all. If that and 500+ dead young Americans doesn't set your blood to boiling, I don't know what will.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 2, 2004 5:47 AM.

Yeah, but if you have TiVo, it was the breast- er, best- part of the halftime show, eh?? was the previous entry in this blog.

And this, kids, is why I don't eat red meat.... is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12