|
I refer to the bobbing and weaving of both Condi-LIE-za and Darth Rumsfeld. I recall the carefully crafted Orwellian pre-war language that proved to me and others that no WMD existed nor was there a connection between Hussein and OBL. Their choice of words then, I claimed (albeit on other boards), augered that later (today) they would recant the conclusions the public drew from their words -- but only after having marshalled the public behind their War! (Goebbells would be proud, Karl!) Nothing more than the actualization of the neocon's Straussian political philosophy; lie to get what you want, nobody will care. On this last point, I'm hoping they are wrong, but I already note how those "16 words" have disappeared from the major media babble...
I have nothing pre-war handy on the connection between Hussein and OBL at the moment, but to illustrate (from GWB's State of the Union Address):
The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax; enough doses to kill several million people. He hasn't accounted for that material. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
Note two things: Bush never states that Hussein had Anthrax, just "materials sufficient to produce" Anthrax. And note that it isn't the Bush administration making the claim, it's the United Nations.
The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin; enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hasn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
Same here -- we don't have weaponized botulinum toxin, just a UN conclusion of "materials sufficient to produce".
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
Here Bush was bolder. It's no longer the "irrelevant" UN, but "our intelligence officials" that estimate Hussein had, not sarin, mustard, and VX nerve agents, just "the materials to produce as much as...". But note Bush still provides himself an out -- one of course he has since used to deflect accountability.
I drew from this, after the SOU was delivered, that Bush would say (when no weapons turned up) that he never said Hussein had WMD, just the means to produce them. A "program", as it were. We will be spending $169+ billion of hard earned present and future treasure because Hussein, like many other nations on the earth, had possibly the technical werewithal to produce weapons. Hardly sounds imminent to me!
But, then, the National Security Strategy of the United States (quietly ushered in as policy in 2002 without debate) does not say threat has to be "imminent", it merely needs to be "sufficient". Take a look. Quoting myself now (bolded emphasis added),
I understand the arguments that, in the age of WMD proliferation and of ferocious terrorist will (greatly elevated with the attacks of 9-11), we may now need to rethink policy. Significant threats may no longer announce themselves as armies massing along borders, allowing time for security-maintaining (and legal) first strikes based on observed imminent threats. Some reasonable and thoughtful people today believe that the first sign of "imminent threat" might now be a rising mushroom cloud over Manhattan or Washington DC. They think, therefore, we must eliminate, not just real present threats, but the potential for such threats to emerge. Children and mothers in foreign lands might have to die based on a whim and a fear held by our President that someday – perhaps in a month, a year, or ten years – their leaders may develop the means and the will to attack the United States directly or by proxy via terrorists. Saddam Hussein, for example, might be developing nuclear weapons, and he might share them with terrorists, therefore we must amass our armies on his borders and attack to protect ourselves. I wholly reject this thinking.
Such is the paranoid madness and careful calculation of our King George. Hold onto your seats, folks, as this has only been Act I. There's much more fun to come!
|