Bush Didn't Lie

[Annie]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ec28,0,7879020.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed

Judging the case for war



December 28, 2005

Did President Bush intentionally mislead this nation and its allies into war? Or is it his critics who have misled Americans, recasting history to discredit him and his policies? If your responses are reflexive and self-assured, read on.

On Nov. 20, the Tribune began an inquest: We set out to assess the Bush administration's arguments for war in Iraq. We have weighed each of those nine arguments against the findings of subsequent official investigations by the 9/11 Commission, the Senate Intelligence Committee and others. We predicted that this exercise would distress the smug and self-assured--those who have unquestioningly supported, or opposed, this war.

The matrix below summarizes findings from the resulting nine editorials. We have tried to bring order to a national debate that has flared for almost three years. Our intent was to help Tribune readers judge the case for war--based not on who shouts loudest, but on what actually was said and what happened.

The administration didn't advance its arguments with equal emphasis. Neither, though, did its case rely solely on Iraq's alleged illicit weapons. The other most prominent assertion in administration speeches and presentations was as accurate as the weapons argument was flawed: that Saddam Hussein had rejected 12 years of United Nations demands that he account for his stores of deadly weapons--and also stop exterminating innocents. Evaluating all nine arguments lets each of us decide which ones we now find persuasive or empty, and whether President Bush tried to mislead us.

In measuring risks to this country, the administration relied on the same intelligence agencies, in the U.S. and overseas, that failed to anticipate Sept. 11, 2001. We now know that the White House explained some but not enough of the ambiguities embedded in those agencies' conclusions. By not stressing what wasn't known as much as what was, the White House wound up exaggerating allegations that proved dead wrong.

Those flawed assertions are central to the charge that the president lied. Such accusations, though, can unfairly conflate three issues: the strength of the case Bush argued before the war, his refusal to delay its launch in March 2003 and his administration's failure to better anticipate the chaos that would follow. Those three are important, but not to be confused with one another.

After reassessing the administration's nine arguments for war, we do not see the conspiracy to mislead that many critics allege. Example: The accusation that Bush lied about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs overlooks years of global intelligence warnings that, by February 2003, had convinced even French President Jacques Chirac of "the probable possession of weapons of mass destruction by an uncontrollable country, Iraq." We also know that, as early as 1997, U.S. intel agencies began repeatedly warning the Clinton White House that Iraq, with fissile material from a foreign source, could have a crude nuclear bomb within a year.

Seventeen days before the war, this page reluctantly urged the president to launch it. We said that every earnest tool of diplomacy with Iraq had failed to improve the world's security, stop the butchery--or rationalize years of UN inaction. We contended that Saddam Hussein, not George W. Bush, had demanded this conflict.

Many people of patriotism and integrity disagreed with us and still do. But the totality of what we know now--what this matrix chronicles-- affirms for us our verdict of March 2, 2003. We hope these editorials help Tribune readers assess theirs...

 

[Harmageddon]

Bush stated he feels he is a born-again christian

Bush started a war in the name of demcocracy and freedom

Christians are not supposed to start wars

Bush is lying

 

[Annie]

Bush stated he feels he is a born-again christian

Bush started a war in the name of demcocracy and freedom

Christians are not supposed to start wars

Bush is lying

Well look who's back.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

Bush stated he feels he is a born-again christian

Bush started a war in the name of demcocracy and freedom

Christians are not supposed to start wars

Bush is lying

The sound you hear is the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

 

[5stringJeff]

Bush stated he feels he is a born-again christian

Bush started a war in the name of demcocracy and freedom

Christians are not supposed to start wars

Bush is lying

On what grounds do you say that "Christians are not supposed to start wars?"

And what, specifically, do you say that Bush lied about?

 

[Gunny]

On what grounds do you say that "Christians are not supposed to start wars?"

And what, specifically, do you say that Bush lied about?

I'd like to add to your question .... just WHAT war did Bush start? If you are referring to the invasion of Iraq, SADDAM, not Bush started that in 1990. Only a ceasefire existed between the US and Iraq from 90-03 contingent on Saddam's compliance.

Bush just got tired of Saddam's "shuck and jive" and brought it to an end.

And c'mon jeff, everyone knows Bush lied about everything.

 

[Abbey Normal]

Bush stated he feels he is a born-again christian

Bush started a war in the name of demcocracy and freedom

Christians are not supposed to start wars

Bush is lying

Oh, I get it. If A=B, and B=C, then A=QFGT.

 

[Gunny]

Oh, I get it. If A=B, and B=C, then A=QFGT.

Algebra, huh?

 

[Abbey Normal]

Algebra, huh?

Makes as much sense as Harmy's supposed logical progression.

 

[Gunny]

Makes as much sense as Harmy's supposed logical progression.

Oh .... I get it .... he was being logical huh? :scratch:

 

[Abbey Normal]

Oh .... I get it .... he was being logical huh? :scratch:

Let's humor him and say yes, he was, in his own lefty illogical way.

This kind:

 

[LuvRPgrl]

Bush stated he feels he is a born-again christian

Bush started a war in the name of demcocracy and freedom

Christians are not supposed to start wars

Bush is lying

Well, since you believe in seperation of church and state, then PRESIDENT Bush would not be allowed to let his Christian doctrine to guide his decision.

 

[007]

Well look who's back.

You mean we have to pay attention to left wing nut jobs now?

OK... I'll ding 'em since I had to look at 'em... :teeth:

 

[Annie]

You mean we have to pay attention to left wing nut jobs now?

OK... I'll ding 'em since I had to look at 'em... :teeth:

It's difficult, but they save us from an echo chamber...

 

[manu1959]

Oh .... I get it .... he was being logical huh? :scratch:

he / she is dutch....they belive there is their way then all the other wrong ways

 

[Gunny]

he / she is dutch....they belive there is their way then all the other wrong ways

A lot of that seems to go on in Europe. Must be a virus or something .....

 

[007]

A lot of that seems to go on in Europe. Must be a virus or something .....

europe is ultra liberal. liberals always think they're right... even when they're wrong.

europe is a prime example of what a country/continent should NOT become. They have big problems over there. europe will crumble LONG before America does, unless we let our liberals turn America into another europe, and that's exactly what they're trying to do.

 

[Annie]

europe is ultra liberal. liberals always think they're right... even when they're wrong.

europe is a prime example of what a country/continent should NOT become. They have big problems over there. europe will crumble LONG before America does, unless we let our liberals turn America into another europe, and that's exactly what they're trying to do.

I agree, we should not become anything like the left or maybe it's the right in Europe today. I think one must be careful though, in any assumption that Europe is too PC, no where in the 20th C was more responsible for death and mayhem than Europe. Even in the 90's, in Kosovo and France's detour to Congo, they kept at it.

Europe is a timebomb with the vast, unassimilated, discriminated immigration hordes; high unemployment; higher taxes; falling like a rock birth rates; and soaring elderly population. I certainly wouldn't want to be a neighbor to any of these continental countries, they could explode fairly soon.

 

[OCA]

Sure Bush lied, remember that nation building bullshit? I guess i'm the only one willing to call him on the mat for that.

We got Sadaam, lets move the 130,000 troops to Afghanistan and find OBL, let Iraq take care of itself.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Sure Bush lied, remember that nation building bullshit? I guess i'm the only one willing to call him on the mat for that.

We got Sadaam, lets move the 130,000 troops to Afghanistan and find OBL, let Iraq take care of itself.

Yeah. And when the newly empowered shia majority wants to ICBM nukes at us, then what are you gonna do? Suck Pat Buchanan's d#ck? That's an illusory victory.