-mikefro
Thanks to the Center for Public Integrity & Fund for Independence in Journalism we now know how many lies we were told leading up to coalition forces striking Baghdad in March 2003: 935. In a tour de force of research spent combing speeches, emails, and reports, the publication War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War details every piece of propaganda advanced by top administration officials in a 350,000 word document. This is a graph showing Time vs. Number of Lies Told:
Pretty ridiculous isn’t it? This only scratches the surface – the fine people at CPI have deposited all of the lies into a database giving you the ability to find your favorite lie! I think the true strength of this report lies within its juxtaposition of the lies proclaimed by the administration with the truth that was later uncovered:
“In a speech on August 26, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney flatly asserted that “there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet later wrote that Cheney’s statement “went well beyond what our own analysis could support.” Tenet was not alone within the CIA. As one of his top deputies later told journalist Ron Suskind: “Our reaction was, ‘Where is he getting this stuff from? Does he have a source of information that we don’t know about?’” ”
Interestingly enough, when White House spokesman Scott Stanzel was asked about the merits of the report:
““The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world,” Stanzel said.”
That quote right there demonstrates the disconnect that exists between the Bush administration and the rest of the world – they will continue to believe their misguided reports, while everyone finally knows the truth. It’ll be interesting to see how the traditional media and politicians will spin this report – is this from a left-wing, freedom-hating, liberal organization or is it a report that takes is grossly misquoting the events leading up to the bombing of Iraq? (even though the report addresses that concern)
The question that you must now consider, as a voter who believes in government accountability, do these lies merit impeachment hearings? Take a step back and think about it – we have a government that clearly ignored intelligence estimates, professional opinions, and international diplomacy to lead young men and women into a war that could have been avoided. Yes, these lies are awful, but what is even worse are all the lives that have been sacrificed for this vacuous “war on terror.” The administration instead relied upon the word from sources such as “Curveball” who turned out to be a con artist and another individual who provided information after reportedly being tortured by the CIA (he later recanted what he said, obviously) to completely misguide the American people. If we can have impeachment hearings for a President who messed around with interns, we sure-as-hell can make a case for impeachment hearings held for Bush.
