Bush: Arms 'We Thought' Were in Iraq Are Not Found

[Barrett808]

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - President Bush acknowledged on Thursday that the United States has not found banned weapons "we thought" were in Iraq, but defended the war as "the right thing" to do.

"We have not yet found the stockpiles of weapons that we thought were there," Bush said in a speech at the port of Charleston, South Carolina. However, he said, "Knowing what I knew then and knowing what I know today, America did the right thing in Iraq."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040205/ts_nm/bush_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

[truthspeaker]

1. and when I saw "we"

I mean everyone everyone except Hans Blix, Scott Ritter, most of the CIA, most of the DIA, the IAEA, Jaque Chirac, Jean Chretien, Gerard Schroeder, Robin Cook, Dennis Kucinich, Paul Wellstone, Greg Thielman...

[chelsea0011]

5. "What we don't know yet is what we thought"...Bush

President speaking at the cabinet meeting a couple of days ago.

I love watching this guy speak without notes.

[dennis4868]

12. add to that....

DOE, DOS, and the Army Intelligence.....

[Zero Gravitas]

22. and...

Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney and proabably even Dumbo himself.

[Richardo]

15. ...and millions of demonstrators world wide in October 2002

Bet he wishes he listened to "focus groups" now!

(I know he doesn't)

[Mountainman]

19. You forgot a couple of thousand DUers

[Richardo]

2. "I don't negotiate with myself" (from "The Price of Loyalty")

O'Neill: "I wanted to say to the President that all sound analysis is about negotiating with yourself."

:eyes:

[fearnobush]

24. O'neill rocks the truth in this book.

I really wish he would come out of closet on this.

[Occulus]

3. But he never said "we thought."

It was always "we know thry'ew there" when speaking of the weapons. Thinking and knowing are two very different things.

Which one is it, Mr. Bush? We you and yours lying when you said you knew where the weapons are- Rummy, for example. In and around Baghdad, Tikrit.

I'm having trouble keeping the daily lies straight.

[Shadder]

21. You think your having trouble keeping the daily lies straight?

Whats really neat is that they are having trouble keeping their daily lies straight at this point and it's really starting to show.

It will not be too much longer before ther damn breaks....

[Newsjock]

4. A worm slowly turning

Just imagine the lead on this AP story had it been written last year... "In a warmly received, spirited defense of his plan for protecting the homeland, President Bush cited extensive evidence to support the removal of Saddam Hussein..."

Now, the WMD issue gets top billing, even though it was a comparatively tiny portion of his blathering speech. In my desperate search for faint glimmers of hope, this actually registers.

[Vidsmaf]

6. So called "weapons of mass destruction."

The only reason why Bush is so sure that Iraq has these weapons of mass destruction is because he has the receipt.

[newyawker99]

31. Hi Vidsmaf!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[peacebuzzard]

33. Hello and welcome Vidsmaf.....!!

:pals:

[salin]

10. Imagine how warmly this line of rationale would have gone over

with the public as THE REASON to go to war with Iraq. "Its the right thing to do." "We don't have good intelligence, but we think he is an evil man who might be pursuing weapons of mass destruction program related activities".

While Osama was still running wild.

While there are other "Bad Men".

The tipping point for the public seemed to have been the images of immenent threat of nuclear weapons used against the US. I don't think he would have got his war on with the rhetoric he is using today. And indeed I think that is why he didn't use that rhetoric from March 2002-March 2003 as they tried to build their case for war.

[AlinPA]

7. Most Americans will fall into the trap and let it ride.

The dirty bastard lied, but conventional wisdom created by the media will be "WMDs? No big deal. The President did what was right"

[fearnobush]

26. History will punish them.

History will state that at the start of the 3rd millennium, the American people acted very sheepishly toward the exploits of their new dictator and that this was the reason why their once great country fell.

[BadGimp]

8. drip, drip, drip

[MGKrebs]

9. Cool. I guess Clinton's finally off the hook.

Since it can't be the (alleged) lying that mattered, then we are left with the obvious conclusion that what really matters is whether Bill "thought" is was the right thing to do or not. OK.

Oh wait, maybe it's OK to lie first and act stupid later, but not act stupid first then lie.

[shugah]

11. "i come before you

to stand behind you, and tell you something i know nothing about." -GWB on any given tuesday that is good friday.

[Poiuyt]

13. Oh well, honest mistake

No harm done

[woofless]

14. The part that fried me

paraphrase: "Because we acted, Sadam no longer has weapons cababilities." WTF? What weapons and what capability? The ones you just said were not (yet) found? Totally devoid of logic.

[zbdent]

16. Here's a thought - since W and the Repukes don't care how many

American Military lives it takes to rid the world of the Evil (undefined, and moving), then he should propose:

Sending in tanks to blast everything that gets in the way of anybody searching for WMDs.

Sending in wave after wave of US military personnel, armed to the teeth with orders to shoot anything that moves (if he doesn't care how many of our soldiers' lives, why should he worry about the witnesses to the atrocities? Bulldozers make convenient and quick mass grave diggers, ask anybody from Gulf91) after the tanks to search for the WMDs that are supposedly buried there!

Oh, wait, it's not "sexy" to uncover "programs" anymore.

[fearnobush]

25. Bad Chimp, Bad, now put those WMD's away.

Bush also blasted critics of the war, saying, "If some politicians in Washington had their way, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) would still be in power." Yet this evil bastard, selected president forgets what God really wanted him to say: "If the anti-war people in Washington had their way, 528 U.S. service men and women would still be alive today," not to mention our 3000 wounded.

[daleo]

17. Whatever slender thread of specious legality

The war had, using the phony U.N. resolutions argument, is certainly dead now.

"Knowing what I knew then and knowing what I know today, America did the right thing in Iraq."

In other words he is saying he would have invaded no matter what, and all the smoke being blown about Saddam not cooperating with the U.N. was just that - smoke and mirrors.

Imagine a cop saying, on the stand, "I busted down the door looking for drugs as my probable cause, but there were no drugs. However, even if I had known there were no drugs I would have still busted down the door. After all, the resident had assaulted his spouse, and that's what I really cared about all along. Plus, this way I get to keep his house."

[yellowcanine]

18. "Knowing what I knew then and knowing what I know today"

Just exactly what did you know then and what do you know now, Mr. Bush? Inquiring minds want to know. How is it that you can begin to "know" anything, since you seem to have very little curiosity about anything?

[tinnypriv]

20. Okay, surely the dems should play these videos:

"We found the weapons of mass destruction" - Bush 03

"We have not yet found the stockpiles of weapons" - Bush 04

With a scrolling ticker on an ad (aircraft carrier in background):

USS CLUELESS

[Brucey]

23. Aren't those the same words Tenet used?

Didn't Bush, Cheney, and Powell tell us before the invasion that they were absolutely sure about WMD?

[fearnobush]

27. Tenet did say

, made a referrence to the CIA as only providing the data with memos and that what interpretations happensafter that, is NOT made by them.

[NNN0LHI]

28. kick - Thanks for pointing out the dupe I posted Barrett808. Take care n/t

[Barrett808]

29. no problemo - catch ya later n/t

n/t

[Kinkistyle]

30. More lies - Bush doesn't "think"

He just regurgitates whatever Cheney, Rove and the Neo-Cons want him to. Just like a big wooden dummy with a hand stuck up his ass.

[Malva Zebrina]

32. Bush though he could get away with an illegal invasion

by saying he "thought" Saddam was a threat.

This was the plan, after all. Since he was so successful in the con game in the congress of the US, I suppose he, and his cabal, also thought they could bully the US into this spurious reason to kill and murder and plunder another country.

It may even work.