oldreliable67
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2005
- Messages
- 4,641
- Reaction score
- 1,102
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
The "Bush Lied!" meme has gotten a lot of play lately, and has been mentioned in several threads here at DP. Bush responded to it in a Veteran's Day speech. (And as a veteran, no, I did not resent his using that occasion to do so.) DNC Chairman Howard Dean was on Meet The Press this past Sunday and repeated and repeated and repeated the "Bush lied" mantra, well, repeatedly. Consequently, I have begun to wonder if usage of said mantra has been orchestrated by the DNC in its continuing attacks on Bush. Don't know, but maybe there is another conspiracy theory in there for those who dig such things!
While wondering about such, I came across a mention at techcentralstation.com on the subject. The recommendation: ask Google!
Simply Google "Clinton Iraq 1998" and one gets at the time of this writing over 3,600,000 hits. As the author, Bryan Preston says,
"Google is not just a search engine; it's also something of a wayback machine. It can take us back to the last time prior to 2003 that the United States waged a campaign against Saddam Hussein."
Clicking on the very first link took me to a CNN story dated December 16, 1998 about President Clinton warning Iraq that its failure to comply with UN weapons inspections left him no choice but to attack. And attack he did, launching Operation Desert Fox, which destroyed Iraq's intelligence headquarters and a few other points of concern. Clinton enumerated his reasons for the operation as follows:
"Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons,"
And:
"Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces,"
"Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors,"
Another Google link finds a story with the following quote:
"Mr. President, today, along with Senators McCain, Lieberman, Hutchison and twenty-three other Senators, I am sending a letter to the President to express our concern over Iraq's actions and urging the President 'after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.'"
The letter quoted goes on to detail the many ways Iraq has violated its post-Gulf War obligations to the UN (those violations being among the causes for war in 2003) and the Coalition that liberated Kuwait after the 1990 Iraqi invasion. It was written by Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan. Today Sen. Levin is among those Democrats who publicly accuse President Bush of lying about WMD in order to get the U.S. into war with Iraq.
Link to techcentralstation.com
Clearly, if the Bush administration was complicitous in some big lie, so was the Clinton administration. But of course, as the "Big Lie" shouters will oh-so-quickly respond, it was the Bush administration that took us to war. (Debaters: there is a name for that technique in debating, but it escapes me at the moment. What is that technique called?)
Now, in the interest of being an equal opportunity ankle-biter, and for those who do embrace the "Bush Lied" meme, I offer the following: go to Juan Cole's blog here and scroll down to his post titled "Bush Administration Lie about Iraq". Cole is a respected academic and Bush critic. In this post, he accuses Bush of lying by omission, specifically of withholding certain information from Congress in the run-up to the war. Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view), Cole makes a couple of assumptions that may or may not be warranted in coming to his conclusion. Cole, to his credit, has excellent academic credentials and has both agreed with and sharply disagreed with Bush when he has felt it appropriate. Very pragmatic, a rare commodity these days.
So, there it is, something for all persuasions to chew on in debating whether or not "Bush Lied" and perhaps interestingly but not necessarily more importantly, is the "Bush Lied" mantra a campaign, a coordinated project of the DNC? Flame away!
While wondering about such, I came across a mention at techcentralstation.com on the subject. The recommendation: ask Google!
Simply Google "Clinton Iraq 1998" and one gets at the time of this writing over 3,600,000 hits. As the author, Bryan Preston says,
"Google is not just a search engine; it's also something of a wayback machine. It can take us back to the last time prior to 2003 that the United States waged a campaign against Saddam Hussein."
Clicking on the very first link took me to a CNN story dated December 16, 1998 about President Clinton warning Iraq that its failure to comply with UN weapons inspections left him no choice but to attack. And attack he did, launching Operation Desert Fox, which destroyed Iraq's intelligence headquarters and a few other points of concern. Clinton enumerated his reasons for the operation as follows:
"Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons,"
And:
"Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces,"
"Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors,"
Another Google link finds a story with the following quote:
"Mr. President, today, along with Senators McCain, Lieberman, Hutchison and twenty-three other Senators, I am sending a letter to the President to express our concern over Iraq's actions and urging the President 'after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.'"
The letter quoted goes on to detail the many ways Iraq has violated its post-Gulf War obligations to the UN (those violations being among the causes for war in 2003) and the Coalition that liberated Kuwait after the 1990 Iraqi invasion. It was written by Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan. Today Sen. Levin is among those Democrats who publicly accuse President Bush of lying about WMD in order to get the U.S. into war with Iraq.
Link to techcentralstation.com
Clearly, if the Bush administration was complicitous in some big lie, so was the Clinton administration. But of course, as the "Big Lie" shouters will oh-so-quickly respond, it was the Bush administration that took us to war. (Debaters: there is a name for that technique in debating, but it escapes me at the moment. What is that technique called?)
Now, in the interest of being an equal opportunity ankle-biter, and for those who do embrace the "Bush Lied" meme, I offer the following: go to Juan Cole's blog here and scroll down to his post titled "Bush Administration Lie about Iraq". Cole is a respected academic and Bush critic. In this post, he accuses Bush of lying by omission, specifically of withholding certain information from Congress in the run-up to the war. Unfortunately (or not, depending on your point of view), Cole makes a couple of assumptions that may or may not be warranted in coming to his conclusion. Cole, to his credit, has excellent academic credentials and has both agreed with and sharply disagreed with Bush when he has felt it appropriate. Very pragmatic, a rare commodity these days.
So, there it is, something for all persuasions to chew on in debating whether or not "Bush Lied" and perhaps interestingly but not necessarily more importantly, is the "Bush Lied" mantra a campaign, a coordinated project of the DNC? Flame away!
