Silencing a Skeptic (An excerpt from Isikoff & Corn's 'Hubris')

[IndianaGreen]

Silencing a Skeptic

An excerpt from 'Hubris,' the new Isikoff and Corn book about how the Bush administration sold the Iraq war to its supporters

The president’s message was direct. There was no time to wait. The showdown with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, had to start right away.

It was the morning of September 4, 2002, and George W. Bush had summoned eighteen senior members of the House and Senate to the Cabinet Room of the White House. When the lawmakers took their seats at the imposing oval mahogany table, they were given copies of a letter from the president. "America and the civilized world face a critical decision in the months ahead," it began. "The decision is how to disarm an outlaw regime that continues to possess and develop weapons of mass destruction." Bush told the assembled leaders he needed a quick vote in Congress on a resolution that would grant him the authority to take on Saddam—perhaps with military action. He wanted this vote within six weeks—before Congress left town so members could campaign for reelection. It was the start of an extraordinary public relations campaign by the White House to persuade the American people—and the world—that Saddam was such a pressing threat that war might be the only option.

Listening to the president, Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle felt trapped. House and Senate members were gearing up for the final stretch of the campaign—with control of the Senate up for grabs. Bush was informing them that the national debate would now focus on Iraq, not health care, not tax cuts, not the environment or anything the Democrats wanted to talk about. Daschle pressed Bush on why there was a need to move quickly. Sure, Saddam was a problem that had to be addressed. But what was new? How immediate was the threat? Where was the tangible evidence?

As he did so, Daschle was thinking of one man: Karl Rove. The previous January, Rove, Bush's master strategist, had telegraphed his intention to use terrorism and national security issues to hammer Democrats in the fall campaign. “We can go to the country on this issue,” Rove had proclaimed at a Republican gathering, because the American people "trust the Republican Party to do a better job of strengthening America’s military might and thereby protecting America.” Daschle wondered whether Bush was cynically pushing the Iraq threat as a campaign gambit

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14740070/site/newsweek/

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. I wonder if the thing could have been stopped if Daschle

& others had been forthright and clear spoken with the public. I doubt it.

[Phredicles]

2. "Bush was cynically pushing the Iraq threat as a campaign gambit"?

Gosh, ya think?

And essentially Daschle just rolled over and took it. Now THERE was a case of appeasing fascism.:grr:

[IndianaGreen]

4. From reading this excerpt, it reinforces my view that Bush is insane

and that Cheney is the de facto President. That's a very scary portrait that the authors paint of Bush and Cheney, a portrait that is given credence by Dick Armey's own experiences with them.

[keopeli]

3. In the next 60 days, the most liberal senator mysteriously died and Bush

won the Senate. It was the "Trifecta."

[pacalo]

5. I'm more afraid of this evil co-presidency than the "terrorists".

That's all I'm sayin'.

[IndianaGreen]

6. The excerpt shows a petty and delusional Bush, and an evil Cheney

The following are examples of Bush's irrational behaviour which indicates that this is a man unfit for the Presidency and one that should be kept away from the nuclear trigger:

On the afternoon of September 26, 2002, Bush was at a Houston fundraiser for Republican senatorial candidate John Cornyn. Surrounded by old friends from Texas, he made his most bellicose public comments about Saddam yet. There would be “no discussion, no debate, no negotiation” with the Iraqi dictator. He repeated the standard litany: Saddam had tortured his own citizens, gassed the Kurds, invaded his neighbors: "There’s no doubt his hatred is mainly directed at us. There’s no doubt he can’t stand us.” But it was one particular line in this speech that would grab worldwide attention: “After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14740070/site/newsweek/page/3/

At one point, other members of Congress were able to witness Bush's intense feelings about Saddam up close. At a breakfast with a few congressional leaders in late September, Bush expressed exasperation when the issue of a diplomatic settlement arose. Saddam had shown his contempt for the United States, he told the legislators. There was no use in talking to him. “Do you want to know what the foreign policy of Iraq is to the United States is?” Bush asked angrily. The president then answered his own question by raising his middle finger and thrusting it inches in front Senator Daschle's face, according to a witness. “F--k the United States!" Bush continued. "That’s what it is—and that’s why we’re going to get him!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14740070/site/newsweek/page/4/