Deja-vu (All over again?)
In August President Bush received a briefing by Mike O’Connell, the director of national intelligence, that there was new information available regarding a nuclear-armed Iran. But, being the “war president” that he claims to be, two months later he warned that such a dangerous country as Iran might lead to World War Three. It was a stark warning for America and the world even though he knew that there were fresh indications that Iran had actually halted its nuclear weapons program. He now says that he was waiting for further information on the situation and really didn’t know the extent of the “new information.”
It seems that in a situation of such tremendous import that a “war president” would either ask questions at the time (last August) or at least hold off any further accusations against Iran as he did in the fall, especially with so many lives at stake. But he didn’t, and instead beat the fear of war drums as he did in the past with Iraq. It’s a sales job that sounds familiar to thinking Americans, and each of should be insulted that either he thinks we are that stupid, or maybe he is.
Remember the warnings of “weapons of mass destruction,” yellow cake materials from Niger, chemical warfare machines on the back of trailer trucks? It all turned out to be phony and embarrassed our ambassador to the United Nations (Colin Powell) and our country to the rest of the world. U. S. claims that these mobile weapons labs were based on 100 reports from a single source, whom U.S. officials never interviewed in person. Bush’s pronouncements of not wanting to wait for an atomic cloud was salesmanship that was as bad as an elixir of youth sold on the back of a Conestoga wagon. But this salesmanship cost our country the lives of over 3,800 service people (and counting) and a trillion dollars (and counting.)
In 2005, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) said that Iran was “determined” to acquire nuclear weapons. This report was accurate, but sorely dated.
Bush now says that “our policy remains the same” regardless of the new intelligence. Look Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. What’s to say they couldn’t start another covert nuclear weapons program.” I guess the president isn’t interested in updated intelligence and wants us to be afraid of everything in sight. The same prognostication could be said about many countries in the world, and even an individual with a computer and knowledge of how to search for such information on the subject.
European nations, our allies so to speak, are struggling to understand why the United States chose to issue the intelligence report just two days after the six powers involved in negotiating with Iran had decided, at the behest of the U.S., to press ahead with a new Security Council resolution. Timing is everything.
Let’s not make the same Iraq mistake again. We don’t need another Bush/Cheney war killing more Americans and putting us further into debt that our great-grandchildren and their descendants will still struggle to pay off.
It seems that in a situation of such tremendous import that a “war president” would either ask questions at the time (last August) or at least hold off any further accusations against Iran as he did in the fall, especially with so many lives at stake. But he didn’t, and instead beat the fear of war drums as he did in the past with Iraq. It’s a sales job that sounds familiar to thinking Americans, and each of should be insulted that either he thinks we are that stupid, or maybe he is.
Remember the warnings of “weapons of mass destruction,” yellow cake materials from Niger, chemical warfare machines on the back of trailer trucks? It all turned out to be phony and embarrassed our ambassador to the United Nations (Colin Powell) and our country to the rest of the world. U. S. claims that these mobile weapons labs were based on 100 reports from a single source, whom U.S. officials never interviewed in person. Bush’s pronouncements of not wanting to wait for an atomic cloud was salesmanship that was as bad as an elixir of youth sold on the back of a Conestoga wagon. But this salesmanship cost our country the lives of over 3,800 service people (and counting) and a trillion dollars (and counting.)
In 2005, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) said that Iran was “determined” to acquire nuclear weapons. This report was accurate, but sorely dated.
Bush now says that “our policy remains the same” regardless of the new intelligence. Look Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. What’s to say they couldn’t start another covert nuclear weapons program.” I guess the president isn’t interested in updated intelligence and wants us to be afraid of everything in sight. The same prognostication could be said about many countries in the world, and even an individual with a computer and knowledge of how to search for such information on the subject.
European nations, our allies so to speak, are struggling to understand why the United States chose to issue the intelligence report just two days after the six powers involved in negotiating with Iran had decided, at the behest of the U.S., to press ahead with a new Security Council resolution. Timing is everything.
Let’s not make the same Iraq mistake again. We don’t need another Bush/Cheney war killing more Americans and putting us further into debt that our great-grandchildren and their descendants will still struggle to pay off.
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 2:48 PM
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