Rich: The plot starts with Cheney

[Rose Siding]

snip>
So put aside Mr. Wilson's February 2002 trip to Africa. The plot that matters starts a month later, in March, and its omniscient author is Dick Cheney. It was Mr. Cheney (on CNN) who planted the idea that Saddam was "actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time." The vice president went on to repeat this charge in May on "Meet the Press," in three speeches in August and on "Meet the Press" yet again in September. Along the way the frightening word "uranium" was thrown into the mix.

By September the president was bandying about the u-word too at the United Nations and elsewhere, speaking of how Saddam needed only a softball-size helping of uranium to wreak Armageddon on America. But hardly had Mr. Bush done so than, offstage, out of view of us civilian spectators, the whole premise of this propaganda campaign was being challenged by forces with more official weight than Joseph Wilson. In October, the National Intelligence Estimate, distributed to Congress as it deliberated authorizing war, included the State Department's caveat that "claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa," made public in a British dossier, were "highly dubious." A C.I.A. assessment, sent to the White House that month, determined that "the evidence is weak" and "the Africa story is overblown."

AS if this weren't enough, a State Department intelligence analyst questioned the legitimacy of some mysterious documents that had surfaced in Italy that fall and were supposed proof of the Iraq-Niger uranium transaction. In fact, they were blatant forgeries. When Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said as much publicly in the days just before "shock and awe," his announcement made none of the three evening newscasts. The administration's apocalyptic uranium rhetoric, sprinkled with mushroom clouds, had been hammered incessantly for more than five months by then - not merely in the State of the Union address - and could not be dislodged. As scenarios go, this one was about as subtle as "Independence Day" and just as unstoppable a crowd-pleaser.

http://nytimes.com/2005/07/17/opinion/17rich.html?pagewanted=2&hp

[DemInDistress]

1. that killer weed in the whitehouse

was hell bent on starting a war with saddam,dubunking these killer weeds from texas was evidence of forged papers but like a script out of the t.v. series "Dallas" these greedy scumbags of big oil proceeded with their plan to liberate Iraqi's from their oil fields

[Blue_Roses]

2. I think this is so interesting considering

we seemed to be focused on Rove. I admit, nothing made me more giddy than to think of Rove squirming this week knowing that his web of deceit was being exposed little by little. Knowing that he is behind so much of the political cheap shots at Dem candidates, I often wondered if he would ever see his due. However, along the lines of this, I--and along with many others--lost sight of the true puppeteer--Cheney. Joe Wilson knows it, he even made mention of how now he feels sorry for Rove when asked what he thought of him on the "Today Show" interview.

Yes, this is much more than Rove.

[H2O Man]

11. Correct.

The pressure being put on Rove at this time may well help to further the split between him and Cheney & Libby. All roads lead to the VP's office. I am confident that very soon, it will be evident that Bush can not keep both Rove and Cheney. We'll se what "mr. loyalty" decides then.

[enigmatic]

3. We need Colin Powell

We need somebody who was there and who has a conscience, or who is in danger of being fred to the wolves.

I think think is Colin Powell's last chance to be a true hero to not only this country, but to himself, to tell all he knows. I'd love to see it happen.

[PurityOfEssence]

5. Forget it. He'll suck the boss man's dick even when being killed by him.

Powell is a military man. Few who live by that creed ever escape the mind-numbing functionary status. Wes Clark may be one of the very few; Eisenhower was close, but not quite there. Smedley Butler was a legendary exception.

There's little hope that even his oversized ego will help history by bringing him to out the current plutocrats. He's still going to suck up to the people who've used him so well. He is a fool, a mediocre intellect at best, and so deeply dirty that his time has long since passed. He was functionally dead when covering for My Lai, and that was nearly 40 years ago. He's morally ugly, vain and shockingly foolish; those who still hold out hope for him are less connected to reality than McCain fans.

Infused with the righteous masculinity of selfishness, he will never admit mistakes or back down, even after having been so deftly used by the REAL forces of nastiness. He is one of the greatest fools to have ever had a prominent place on our national stage. His legacy is one of excruciating embarrassment, and he doesn't even know it. Expecting him to "do the right thing" is akin to expecting an ant to part from the single-file line and dance the light fantastic.

Let's not let him off the hook, though: he wasn't a "good man" who signed on with forces beyond his ken. He's like Condi: a somewhat less than average intellect who needed to be lauded as a great god-king. Signing on with those who only use them, they both will be reviled by history. At least they're both too dim to realize it.

He is long since gone.

[enigmatic]

6. I never bought into the "he was a good man" stuff..

But I think in his own mind he knows he's going to be tarred directly or indirectly by this scandal and maybe the only way that he can come out a hero instead of being a party to treason is to tell what he knows.

I'm not expecting it to happen, but I'm hoping it will.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

8. Excellent summation of a venal man

[Jane Austin]

9. You are an amazing writer, Purity!

Wow.

[Lecky]

10. Powell will cover for these thugs in a skinny second

Sorry, but he is an asshole.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. -elucidating snip-

Once we were locked into the war, and no W.M.D.'s could be found, the original plot line was dropped with an alacrity that recalled the "Never mind!" with which Gilda Radner's Emily Litella used to end her misinformed Weekend Update commentaries on "Saturday Night Live."

[joanne]

7. Colin Powell would NEVER be my hero

No matter what he might say or do now.

Too late Colin.

x(