Truespeak

"Knowing what I knew then, and knowing what I know today, America did the right thing in Iraq."

- George W. Bush, Charleston, South Carolina 2/5/04

We've heard this many times from the president over the last several months. Clearly, President Bush wants us to believe that he had no idea that things in Iraq were going to turn out the way they have. However, today we found out different. As it turns out, George Bush did know that the current situation in Iraq was likely to happen.

The Bush administration disregarded intelligence reports two months before the invasion of Iraq which warned a war could unleash a violent insurgency and rising anti-US sentiment in the Middle East, it emerged yesterday.

The warning, delivered in two classified reports to the White House in January 2003, was prepared by the National Intelligence Council, the same advisory board that warned the Bush administration last month that the violence in Iraq could descend into a full-scale civil war.

This is the same group of individuals that Bush accused of "just guessing" about the future of Iraq. Were they also guessing in January, 2003? If they were, I'd say they're pretty damned good guessers. Maybe Bush should pay a little closer attention to their most recent "guess."

What this points out, though, is that Bush did know then what we do know now and he chose to ignore it. Ironically, George W. should have been familiar with the issues discussed in that NIC report, because his own father had given a speech in February, 1999, concerning the very same topic.

"Had we gone into Baghdad -- we could have done it, you guys could have done it, you could have been there in 48 hours -- and then what?

"Which sergeant, which private, whose life would be at stake in perhaps a fruitless hunt in an urban guerilla war to find the most-secure dictator in the world?

"Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho?" he asked. "We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power -- America in an Arab land -- with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."

Bush said, "We don't gain the size of our victory by how many innocent kids running away -- even though they're bad guys -- that we can slaughter. ... We're American soldiers; we don't do business that way."

You know, I was never a big fan of the father, but compared to his son, he looks like a genius. The question is, will the son acknowledge his mistake or will he claim that his father was just guessing too?

At every turn, it becomes more and more apparent that George W. Bush ignored pertinent information that contradicted his claims against Saddam Hussein. It's interesting how the intelligence was trustworthy enough to send over 1000 soldiers to their death, yet things like the NIC report were ignored. Also ignored were the CIA's claims that the Niger-Uranium documents were forged.

Truth is, George W. Bush was being selective with the intelligence. He was choosing what best suited his cause. He was playing politics with the war and we are now paying for it in lives. If elected to a second term, there is nothing to stop him from doing this again. George Bush must lose in November for the safety of our country.


BONUS!

Want to read something funny?

Checkout which presidential candidate the Crawford, Texas, newspaper is endorsing. It's not who you might think.