Another damn list
In Their Own Words: Iraq's 'Imminent' Threat
January 29, 2004
Download: DOC, PDF, RTF
The Bush Administration is now saying it never told the public that Iraq was an "imminent" threat, and therefore it should be absolved for overstating the case for war and misleading the American people about Iraq's WMD. Just this week, White House spokesman Scott McClellan lashed out at critics saying "Some in the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent'. Those were not words we used." But a closer look at the record shows that McClellan himself and others did use the phrase "imminent threat" – while also using the synonymous phrases "mortal threat," "urgent threat," "immediate threat", "serious and mounting threat", "unique threat," and claiming that Iraq was actively seeking to "strike the United States with weapons of mass destruction" – all just months after Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted that Iraq was "contained" and "threatens not the United States." While Iraq was certainly a dangerous country, the Administration's efforts to claim it never hyped the threat in the lead-up to war is belied by its statements.
Man, between this and the Washington Post's rundown of the Bushista's economic errors, Kos and Wampum and Compassiongate cataloging the flip-flops a truly bizarre possibility occurs to me:
Suppose it becomes impossible for politicians to get away with lying?
