Another of a series of letters to the editor at the Missoulian, lead off with the screed that Bush lied about WMDs. Is it just me, or does this make no sense. Seems to me, that a lie is to knowingly make a false statement. How is it that Bush lied, if the Democratic leadership, including Senator Kerry, also said that there were WMDs in Iraq. Further, didn't Saddam do everything to perpetuate the idea that he had WMDs (getting large shipments of atropine, handing out chemical warfare suits, etc.).
Are these letters legitimate expressions of policy, or the cynical manipulation of facts in order to further a political agenda? Going further, could someone explain to me, how, if your enemy has the same objective as you do, (withdrawl of American troops) you are not in support of the people who are killing our soldiers? This is not to question anyone's patriotism, but I would appreciate an answer that makes sense as to why anyone would be in agreement with mass murderers and terrorists.
6 comments:
Wulfgar-
There is a third possibility that you (intentionally?) missed. That being that there WERE WMD's and that they were removed to Syria , Iran or elsewhere. In any case, stating what you believe to be true and have it turn out otherwise might be misleading, but it isn't lying. Just consider whether it is possible, even though I'm sure you'll totally discount it.
Wulfgar, always a pleasure to have your thoughts. However, I don't understand some things that you said. "That Kerry or anyone else believed the same falsehood as the administration does not mean at all that any of them knew that it was a falsehood. No one else's knowledge (or lack thereof) exonerates Bush or Rumsfeld if either of them told a lie."
Not sure about this, You repeat the argument that Bush and Rumsfeld lied, but don't say how they knew something that no one else did. In 1998, when Saddam kicked the inspectors out, President Clinton sent cruise missiles into suspected weapons sites based on available intelligence at the time. So, did he lie, or was it that after the cruise missiles, Saddam suddenly decided to get rid of his programs?
As far as Saddam cooperating with the inspectors, My memory of it was that it was not full and total cooperation as required by the cease fire agreement after the first Gulf War.
As to being duped, your argument seems to be that if Bush didn't lie, then the governemnt was stupid.
I think that is based on a lack of understanding about intelligence. Without having a spy in the inner circles, we never really know what another country is thinking. For the most part, intelligence can only measure capabilities, not intentions. It would have been reasonable to believe that Saddam had weapons based on his actions. It would have been unreasonable to ignore his behavior saying that there is no proof. The risks of being wrong were the possible coalition of Saddam with terrorists use of chemical weapons. Which by the way, are not that hard to make. Any country with a pesticide capability can make chemical weapons. Think Diazanon and all of the other nasty things that we use to kill bugs which use a variant of a nerve agent.
But, some would say, that Saddam was a secularist, who was hated by the Fundamentalists of Iran and Osama bin Laden. True to a point, but involves wishful thinking. Saddam was an opportunist, and would have his son-in-laws executed if it served his purposes. The enemy of my enemy etc.
I think that your example of the Seahawks and the Broncos wanting to get to the Superbowl is inapt. Suppose instead that you were to posit that the Seahawks want to make sure that the Raiders don't get to the Superbowl, and are willing to give the Broncos their wide recievers and running backs to make sure that the Broncos win the Superbowl? Would that not be more what we are talking about?
In game theory, this is to the advantage of the Broncos, the disadvantage of the Raiders, and to an extent to the Seahawks.
And no, I don't apologize for the use of the word "terrorists" to describe those who use indiscriminate violence to terrorize. Insurgencies can be legitimate if they follow the rules of war. But targeting schools, hospitals, markets and other innocent civilians in order to impact American public opinion, without any real military objective is still terrorism.
What territory do your "insurgents" hold, what governement recognizes them?
I think though, that you hit the nail on the head, when you said; "If all the insurgents wanted was for the occupation to end, then wouldn't they all just stop fighting and fall into the Democratic line?"
So, we are in agreement, that this has nothing to do with our invasion and occupation, and everything to do with killing Americans. Hmm, if we were not in Iraq, where would they go to kill Americans then? Would they still target American soldiers who are trained, or just innocent civilians?
I guess, the reason that I posted the comment, was that if the anti-war crowd was morally consistant, would they not decry the actions of the jihadists, as much as the use of American forces to try and bring stability to a fledgling government? Seems all pretty one sided to me.
You forgot one Matt: 2c. Clinton lied under oath, even though he had appealed a proposed right not to even testify all the way to the Supreme Court and lost, but it didn't matter because it was just about sex, not perjury.
It was a joke!
Wulfgar, I appreciate that you have explained your position better than anyone else has, but I still disagree with you on your conclusions. You said "No, not at all. I'm raising the possibility that they *did* lie in contra to your assertion that if Dems believed a falsehood then those Dems were lying as well. Your assertion was bad logic. There is ignorance of the truth, and then there are bold claims of fact in the face of obvious ignorance. The current administration at least did the latter, claiming to know what they obviously didn't know. That in itself, is lying."
If I am guilty of anything, it is of setting up a straw man. My argument boils down to the fact that the Democrat leadership at the time believed it as well, not that they were lying. Unless you can show me that the Democratic leadership received different intel than the administration, I think my point still works.
If my logic is faulty, it must be because one of my premises are faulty, but which one? 1. That everyone, and not just the US intel community believed that Saddam had WMDs?; or 2. That Saddam did nothing to disprove that fact, and seems to have done a lot to perpetuate it, even though he eventually lost everything on his gamble?; or 3. That the administration would have been negligent to ignore the intel from our own intel community, that of the UN, France, Russia, Germany and Egypt , and that failure to act would have been disastrous if he did have them.
As to your point that the administration lied by presenting their side as "truth" even though they did not have 100% proof. Is that not like me relying on the weather report which says that there is a 70% chance of rain, and carrying a rain coat. If it doesn't rain, does this mean that the weather report lied, or that I lied, because I relied upon the report?
I honestly believed in the run up to the war that there were WMDs. We knew that he had them in the '80s, and also had them displaced to firing positions in the First Gulf War. We knew that the inspectors said that they could not account for all of them when they were kicked out in '98. We knew that Blix said that while he had not found them in his more recent search that they still could not account for all of the materials, and that the inspectors had found evidence of other violations of the agreement for the cease fire.
As to lumping the terrorists into one bin, perhaps I am guilty of that accusation, although I really hate the Michael Moore assertion that these are the equivalent of the Founding Fathers. The Sunni minority used to kill the Iraqis before the war, and that seems to be the only thing that they are good at. Most of the Shiite and Kurdish areas are relatively calmer than that of the Sunni triangle. I think that this is because the Sunnis realize that as a minority, their status and privleges are threatened by a democracy. Not that they are just that they are interested in the removal of the Americans. Could Iraq turn into another Iran? Possibly, and if they do it through the ballot box, who are we to disagree with them? But the evidence seems to be, at least from Al Sistani, that this is not what they want to happen. Besides, my forecast is that in 2 more years, there will be another revolution in Iran to overthrow the Mullahs.
Finally, I agree with what you said when you posted "The facts of the case are these: Many anti-war types in America do stridently decry the actions of jihadists. I'm among those. I want terrorists dead, period. We're not just fighting those, however, we're fighting people who just want us out of their country. Sounds fair. If they want to kill each other, then fine. We won't stop that; in fact we can't. As to those who live to kill us; hunt them down and shoot them in the head. That's what we were doing in Afganistan, and what we gave up to invade Iraq."
I would hope that it is simply an example of selective news coverage that prevents me from finding protests against the terrorists, but maybe, because I haven't seen it, I am justified in believing that it is just not there, like those who believe that the administration lied about the existance of WMDs.
Wulfgar,
I thought I was playing nice. I wasn't taking shots at you below the belt. I merely suggested a possibility that you left out. You went from there and totally discounted it, as I suggested you would. That's fine with me. Just don't come out like I'm being such a bad boy for predicting what you eventually did. It is VERY possible that there were no WMDs. I only suggested a possibility that you didn't. Don't get your panties in a wad, sir.
One of the things that I have overlooked in this discussion, is that Matt and Wulfgar seem to be saying that the intel on WMDs was "hyped" by Bush. But if I remember right, in Woodward's book didn't CIA director Tenet, (a Clinton appointee) say that the case for WMDs was a slam dunk?
Was Tenet a Republican plant, just in anticipation of the WMD issue?
Too conspriatorial for me.
By the way, Matt, where are you, I cna't get to your blog.
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