Byron York on CSPAN: Bush* never said Iraq was 'imminent' threat

[Q]

- The deed is done. History has been successfully revised. Pundits like National Review's Byron York are spreading the gospel: Bush* never even suggested that Saddam posed an 'immediate' threat to the United States. Just a threat 'sometime in the future'.

- Does this jive with what you remember during those months leading up to the invasion and occupation? I seem to remember the Bush* administration's full court press in spreading the fear of a clear and present danger from Iraq.

- Will this lie stand the test of time? Looks like it will.

[veracity]

1. he said it...

Bush repeated the lie that Saddam had the capability to attack in 45 minutes. I do believe that's "imminent."

[Q]

2. But what Bush* actually said has already gone down the memory hole...

...and history is being revised by an army of right wing talking heads like York.

- Revisionism is made all the easier with the media's 'new' format of not having an opposing point of view to offer a counter argument.

[alcuno]

6. Do you think they are succeeding?

They can work at revising history all they want, but it's only likely to further anger the electorate.

[DUreader]

3. What were the requirements for W* to implement the War Powers?

What was the wording of the congressional resolution?

I recall imminent threat, or direct 9/11 involvement.

[alcuno]

4. I said this 6 months ago and had to fight off people here.

It's true. He didn't say it, but he certainly implied it. The irony is that that was the impression they wanted people to have and it worked. Now they are stuck with it.

You can't go back now and tell people, "Well, I never said Iraq was an imminent threat" without angering them even further.

[Q]

9. The Bushies did more than 'imply' it...

...they used every provocative word and phrase they could muster to give the impression that Iraq had to be attacked immediately.

- Bush* has the best team of propagandists on earth. Hell...these guys aren't even being taken to task on the PROVEN lies he told about WMD and Iraq.

[robcon]

5. York is right - what Bush said in the SOTU was...

"..."Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."

[Q]

14. But York went on to say....

...that Bush* didn't even IMPLY that Iraq posed an imminent threat. He said that Bush* was talking about a threat sometime in the future.

- But this doesn't explain the reasons behind the RUSH to war.

[liberalmuse]

7. BULLSH*T!

This lie won't stand up, as long as there are decent and honest people in the world. I heard his speech earlier this year. Bush practically had Hussein launching 'weapons of terror' at the U.S.. I'm sickened by these liars. I wish the jaws of hell would open up and swallow them all.

On edit: After reading the other posts that appeared--so basically we carried out a pre-emptive strike against a nation that was not an 'immenent threat'. Bush never 'said' it, but he sure as hell implied it, with the help of his lap dog media, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. Between reading what the press is spinning for the White House and the margarita's last night, my head feels like it's going to explode and I wish it would.

[Spazito]

8. Suggested? He sure did!

but whether the actual words "Saddam posed an imminent threat" were used by Bush, I don't know. They are in a panic mode if they have to resort to this kind of parsing.

It is interesting that by using this kind of argument, they are calling out the press. Inferring that the press is to blame not Bush.

[BigLed]

19. This is going to be important

"they are calling out the press. Inferring that the press is to blame not Bush."

See the polls that showed something like two thirds of those whose primary source of news is Fox believed the link between Sadam and Al Qaida.

This idiot and evil admin has already angered the CIA. Now it will do the same to its propoganda arm. When that happens...

Bye Bye Shrub.

[leesa]

28. Good! Maybe the lapdog press suckling on this administrations tits

will develop some ethics.

[ldf]

33. ethics, schmethics..

the media aleady feels like it has the power to choose the president for the people, by spinning, and telling outright lies, in such a way that the sheeple swallow it hook, line and sinker.

i want bush out, no matter how it happens. but it would be icing on the cake if it was in SPITE of the media, not because they finally decided to toss bush out and push someone else.

[nannygoat]

10. Also being discussed on this thread (not Byron York)...

but the fact that this is one of the new talking points. * must have not used the words "imminent threat" (they probably did a search before sending out their minions to talk this up). One of those freaks at Townhall.com has already been pushing this talking point, too (Kathleen Parker).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=521026

I found these two sources that talk about *'s 45-minute claim which seems pretty imminent to me...

White House Didn't Gain CIA Nod for Claim On Iraqi Strikes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17424-2003Jul19?language=printer

Bush under pressure over 'dodgy' Iraq weapons claim
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/07/21/wmd21.xml

[screaming_meme]

11. Bush said we have to attack BEFORE Iraq is an immenent threat

That's even worse. What the fuck kind of defense is that?

[Dudley_DUright]

25. Good point screaming_meme

BTW welcome to DU.

:toast:

I like your screen name. Very clever. ;-)

[kodi]

12. york has been shown to be a congenital liar, check out the daily howler

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh082203.shtml

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh092503.shtml

[Q]

17. York was also talking about the 'Bush* haters'...

...so it's no doubt that his knee pads are used for a single purpose.

- It finally dawned on me that the Bushies REALLY DID get away with all their lies about Iraq. This has to be true when you consider even the Democratic party has agreed not to make an 'issue' of it.

- How and the hell can this be? Is this now a banana republic where the leaders can do anything and not be held accountable? Have I answered my own question?

[MuseRider]

30. Yes, you answered

your own question. Sad, huh? Shit. Even if he did not say it directly it was implied enough that most of the public bought it. Are we supposed to assume that they all had a massive, simultaneous incorrect revelation? Even if Bush* himself didn't say it the other officials did (45 minutes until mushroom clouds anyone?). The Repubs were out in force with this. If that was being done then the buck should stop at the top because he surely did not come out to stop it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. I almost called, but his stint was ending.

Rose Garden: 45 minutes from launch. End of story.


:grr:

[w13rd0]

15. GWB: Saddam Hussein's regime and his weapons of mass...

...destruction present a GRAVE AND GROWING DANGER...

OMG, whatever, these people are shameless filth.

[liberalmuse]

22. Thank you

'...these people are shameless filth.' You said it! The bile is rising in my throat. 'Disgust' is much too light a word to describe what I feel towards these people. They render over 10,000 years of meticulous human language development as metaphor for universally agreed-upon symbols utterly moot/mute. In doing so, they spit upon all of human kind.

[impeach the gop]

16. Yes, and also he was trying to put out the fire on prescott

Somebody needs to show this baffoon it public record of prescott being put on the trading with the enemy list, and also US
govt, (Truman, I believe) froze assests of one of his laundry mats.

Remember, arnie said where there's fire there's smoke


SMOKE EM OUT!!!! This must be getting around finaly

[nolabels]

18. Is this some kind of new stand up comedy act?

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/iraqimminent.html
Source: Los Angeles Times, January 29, 2003

THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Bush Calls Iraq Imminent Threat

"Trusting in Hussein's Restraint 'Is Not an Option,' President Says

By Maura Reynolds, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- A somber and steely President Bush, speaking to a skeptical world Tuesday in his State of the Union address, provided a forceful and detailed denunciation of Iraq, promising new evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime poses an imminent danger to the world and demanding the United Nations convene in just one week to consider the threat.

But the president made clear his decision whether to attack Iraq would not hinge on U.N. approval.

"All free nations have a stake in preventing sudden and catastrophic attack. We are asking them to join us, and many are doing so," the president said. "Yet the course of this nation does not depend on the decision of others."

Calls have mounted in recent weeks for the president to make a better case for going to war. In response, Bush argued that use of force is not only justified but necessary, and that the threat is not only real but imminent.

"If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late," Bush said. "Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."
(snip)

[Q]

23. It's a comedy act...

...full of dread instead of humor.

- But York isn't the only one spreading this revisionism. I hear it all the time.

- The strange part about all of this is that no one in the Bush* admin seems to have one clear reason why they invaded Iraq.

[nolabels]

32. Back in mid eighties when Iran-Contra was going hot in the press

I was taking a poli-sci class and just happened to get go into this little hideout the professor had to keep her classroom stuff in to get some materials. What was so special about this? I relate this to one spot on the wall I got to check out this Joke of Map (seemed like she had to hide it, maybe she didn’t think it was that endearing to her cause) that showed the whole globe laid out in political terms. The part with Mid-east Arabian countries was just listed as "OUR OIL". The Instructor was a assistant organizer for the Young Republicans. Didn't take me long to figure out who's side of the story I was going to get in the classroom after that.

[Spazito]

20. In essence, he did say it was imminent by using synonyms for the word...

Entry Word: imminent
Function: adjective
Text: 1 about to take place <their departure is imminent>
Synonyms impending, proximate
Related Word approaching, coming, nearing, upcoming; brewing, gathering; pending; likely, possible, probable; ineluctable, inescapable, inevasible, inevitable, unavoidable, unescap-able
Idioms in prospect, in store, in the cards, in the offing, in the wind, in view
Contrasted Words distant, far-off, remote
2 menacingly near <a thunderstorm was imminent>
Synonyms lowering (or louring), lowery (or loury), menacing, overhanging, threatening
Related Word alarming, ominous, sinister; brewing, gathering; minatory

[Cat Atomic]

21. Christ, I feel more like Winston Smith every day.

.

[opihimoimoi]

24. Its those Tahitians, we should attack them before they become a threat

They been learning about coconuts and fish for too long. Now they gonna someday attack the US of A. WE should get em first.

Bring em on.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

29. There is a story about how the Soviet Union used to send

out updates to their encyclopaedias.("Paste new page 742 over old page 742.") This occurred as people rose and fell in favor, as astronauts died and were airbrushed out of photos, and as policy change dictated.


That's what it feels like to me.

[Terwilliger]

26. Can't we categorically deny that already?

Even if he didn't use those words, can't we gather together enough quotes from Bush, his administration, or sympathetic media to truly convince the public that they were wholly deceived?

There is no question that the right-wing agenda was to convince the Amwrican people that Saddam was MORE than just some dictator. And NONE of this would have happened without 9/11.

So, I say once again, who benefitted from 9/11? Who?

[TruthIsAll]

27. Bushit in SOTU implied that the threat was COVERTLY imminent...

in an unforseen attack.

He is implying that Saddam could attack at any time...
Is this not another way of saying that he was an imminent threat?

And even if he wasn't, was the war justified? Remember, the Bush pre-emption policy said he could attack any country at any time.


"Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known. We will do everything in our power to make sure that that day never comes. (Applause.)

Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option. "

[Q]

31. It must be nice for Bush* to have a full-time propaganda team...

...to go around cleaning up his messes.

- This is the same team that insists that patriotism is all about agreeing with every Bush* policy...and to disagree is to be 'unAmerican'.