Stupidity or Lying???????
Dear editor:
As a child I was always taught, as most of us were, to respect our elected leaders and have faith in what they told us. Sometimes we disagreed with their reasons and desires, but they were assumed to know more than we did. This was especially true of our president. Good or bad, Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, he was our president and had to have our respect. This has always been true for me, all the way from Roosevelt to Clinton. Did they always do the right thing 100% of the time? Of course not. But I trusted their words as always being truthful. That is until now.
Yes, we all now know that we entered the Iraq war under questionable circumstances, but I would like to think that it was an error in judgment rather than bending the truth to suit the administration’s purposes. But continuing that pre-emptive war is becoming another story, and one which involves the so-called “benchmarks” set out by President Bush. These “benchmarks” were the justification for the surge in American troops that he had approved. One of those important “benchmarks” for success in Iraq was to be when the Iraqi government passed legislation on oil revenue sharing. The following are actual quotes by him on the subject.
In January 2007 he said: “To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq WILL PASS legislation to share revenues among all Iraqis.”
In February 2007 he said: “They’re in the process of FINALIZING A LAW that will allow for the sharing of all revenues among Iraq’s peoples…making it clear to the Iraq people that they have a stake in the future of their country by having a stake in the oil revenues.”
In March 2007 he said: “As we help the Iraqis secure their capital, their leaders are also beginning to meet the benchmarks they have laid out for political reconciliation. Last month, Iraq’s Council of Ministers APPROVED a law that would share oil revenues among Iraq people.”
In April 2007 he said: “The Council of Ministers recently APPROVED legislation that would provide a framework for an equitable sharing of oil resources.”
In May 2007 he said: “The Council of Ministers has APPROVED legislation that would provide a framework for equitable sharing of oil resources. We strongly believe…that a good oil bill will help unite the country.”
In June 2007 the tune changed a bit and he said: “At home, most of the attention has focused on important pieces of legislation that the Iraq Parliament MUST PASS to foster political reconciliation…including laws to share oil revenues…I speak to the Prime Minister and I speak to the Presidency Council quite often, and I remind them we expect the government to function, and to pass law.”
In July 2007 Tony Snow, Mr. Bush’s spokesman, said that Mr. Bush: “had phone calls with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the three members…They do report that they have now transmitted to the council of representatives, their legislature, the oil law, and are HOPING QUITE SOON to have a related piece of legislation, one that has to deal with the distribution of oil and hydrocarbon revenues, before the legislature quite soon.”
Two days later it was reported that attempts to pass a key oil law sought by the U.S, were snarled once more by deep differences among Iraq’s Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, delaying parliament debate despite the prime minister’s claims of a breakthrough. The influential Sunni organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, issued a fatwa, or religious edict blasting the bill as “religiously forbidden” and warned that those who back it “anger God for usurping public money.”
But the Kurds also objected, fearing concessions had been made to the Sunnis. The Kurdistan Regional Government warned it would oppose the bill if it made “material and substantive changes” to an outline agreed upon during weeks of negotiations.
Meanwhile, the Shiite party loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which opposes too much decentralization, outright rejected the draft, saying it “left nothing to Iraq’s unity.”
I know that Mr. Bush cannot control the Iraqi Parliament and its many sectarian and religious parties, but he went out of his way to convince America, repeatedly from January thru June that everything was a done deal and had PASSED. Now was that an accident, bad information, bending the truth again, or out and out plain untruths (I won’t say lies)? Whatever it was it sure shakes the faith of one who was raised on “My president good or bad.”
As a child I was always taught, as most of us were, to respect our elected leaders and have faith in what they told us. Sometimes we disagreed with their reasons and desires, but they were assumed to know more than we did. This was especially true of our president. Good or bad, Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, he was our president and had to have our respect. This has always been true for me, all the way from Roosevelt to Clinton. Did they always do the right thing 100% of the time? Of course not. But I trusted their words as always being truthful. That is until now.
Yes, we all now know that we entered the Iraq war under questionable circumstances, but I would like to think that it was an error in judgment rather than bending the truth to suit the administration’s purposes. But continuing that pre-emptive war is becoming another story, and one which involves the so-called “benchmarks” set out by President Bush. These “benchmarks” were the justification for the surge in American troops that he had approved. One of those important “benchmarks” for success in Iraq was to be when the Iraqi government passed legislation on oil revenue sharing. The following are actual quotes by him on the subject.
In January 2007 he said: “To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country’s economy, Iraq WILL PASS legislation to share revenues among all Iraqis.”
In February 2007 he said: “They’re in the process of FINALIZING A LAW that will allow for the sharing of all revenues among Iraq’s peoples…making it clear to the Iraq people that they have a stake in the future of their country by having a stake in the oil revenues.”
In March 2007 he said: “As we help the Iraqis secure their capital, their leaders are also beginning to meet the benchmarks they have laid out for political reconciliation. Last month, Iraq’s Council of Ministers APPROVED a law that would share oil revenues among Iraq people.”
In April 2007 he said: “The Council of Ministers recently APPROVED legislation that would provide a framework for an equitable sharing of oil resources.”
In May 2007 he said: “The Council of Ministers has APPROVED legislation that would provide a framework for equitable sharing of oil resources. We strongly believe…that a good oil bill will help unite the country.”
In June 2007 the tune changed a bit and he said: “At home, most of the attention has focused on important pieces of legislation that the Iraq Parliament MUST PASS to foster political reconciliation…including laws to share oil revenues…I speak to the Prime Minister and I speak to the Presidency Council quite often, and I remind them we expect the government to function, and to pass law.”
In July 2007 Tony Snow, Mr. Bush’s spokesman, said that Mr. Bush: “had phone calls with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the three members…They do report that they have now transmitted to the council of representatives, their legislature, the oil law, and are HOPING QUITE SOON to have a related piece of legislation, one that has to deal with the distribution of oil and hydrocarbon revenues, before the legislature quite soon.”
Two days later it was reported that attempts to pass a key oil law sought by the U.S, were snarled once more by deep differences among Iraq’s Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, delaying parliament debate despite the prime minister’s claims of a breakthrough. The influential Sunni organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, issued a fatwa, or religious edict blasting the bill as “religiously forbidden” and warned that those who back it “anger God for usurping public money.”
But the Kurds also objected, fearing concessions had been made to the Sunnis. The Kurdistan Regional Government warned it would oppose the bill if it made “material and substantive changes” to an outline agreed upon during weeks of negotiations.
Meanwhile, the Shiite party loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which opposes too much decentralization, outright rejected the draft, saying it “left nothing to Iraq’s unity.”
I know that Mr. Bush cannot control the Iraqi Parliament and its many sectarian and religious parties, but he went out of his way to convince America, repeatedly from January thru June that everything was a done deal and had PASSED. Now was that an accident, bad information, bending the truth again, or out and out plain untruths (I won’t say lies)? Whatever it was it sure shakes the faith of one who was raised on “My president good or bad.”
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 12:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home