Those 16 words
Yes, those deadly words, those stealthy words that stalked President Bush relentlessly until, in a moment of exhastion the President let his guard down and the words got past him. Only George Tenet stood between those 16 words and the State of the Union speech.
But it doesn't matter, because it was just 16 words, right?
Jesse did the math
In fact, Bush only devoted 74 words of his entire address to the idea that Saddam was actively producing any weapons of mass destruction - the 74 word portion which contains the Niger lie, the aluminum tube lie, and the assertion that the IAEA provided a report which claimed Saddam was actively pursuing nuclear weapons - a report which the IAEA disavowed.
The remaining 1,068 words focus on the regime's deception over the nature of their WMD and programs. The problem with this section is that it rests on the assumption that the regime was active maintaining and/or developing stockpiles of WMD. Those 74 words, 16 of which are an avowed lie, are the core of this argument. Bush said that we led a "coalition to disarm" in his speech. Not a coalition to liberate, or free, or any of the other "primary" goals which Bush barely mentioned (if at all) - a coalition to disarm.
When a significant portion of the core of the disarmament argument - the existence of an active and ongoing program to develop WMD - is, at best, dishonest, then how can we trust this President on other matters of national security?
posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/13/2003 01:43:41 PM |
Posted by P6 at July 13, 2003 01:43 PM
| Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1242
