Letters to the Editor
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just a reminder ...
... for those of you who don't read too deep into the letters and have been bamboozled by Sidney's lies and half-truths.
He issued many "signing statements" (a device originally designed by Samuel Alito when he served as an aide in the Reagan Justice Department) to express his own understanding of the meaning of enacted legislation and how the executive branch would or would not enforce it.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! The first president to issue a signing statement was James Monroe. Bill Clinton made 247 signing statements compared to GWB's 130.
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more reminders
A week after [Joe Wilson's] piece appeared, the conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote that "two senior administration officials" had informed him that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA operative, had been responsible for sending him on his mission. The intent was somehow to cast aspersions on Wilson's credibility. (For his service as the acting U.S. ambassador in Iraq during the Gulf War, elder Bush had called him "a hero.") The disclosure of Plame's identity was an apparent felony against national security, a violation of the Intelligence Identity Protection Act, and soon a special prosecutor was appointed
And yet it turns out that Joe Wilson is a proven liar, no crime was committed, and the supposed "outing" was a piece of careless gossip by Richard Armitage, hardly a friend of Bush, not some conspiracy by Rove or Libby. Poor Sidney, caught in so many lies.
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and more ...
In making its case for war the administration stampeded public opinion with false and misleading information about Saddam Hussein's possession and development of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons.
"Saddam's goal ... is to achieve the lifting of U.N. sanctions while retaining and enhancing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. We cannot, we must not and we will not let him succeed." -- Madeline Albright, 1998
"[Saddam] will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and some day, some way, I am certain he will use that arsenal again, as he has 10 times since 1983" -- National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Feb 18, 1998
"Iraq made commitments after the Gulf War to completely dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, and unfortunately, Iraq has not lived up to its agreement." -- Barbara Boxer, November 8, 2002
"There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat... Yes, he has chemical and biological weapons. He's had those for a long time. But the United States right now is on a very much different defensive posture than we were before September 11th of 2001... He is, as far as we know, actively pursuing nuclear capabilities, though he doesn't have nuclear warheads yet. If he were to acquire nuclear weapons, I think our friends in the region would face greatly increased risks as would we." -- Wesley Clark on September 26, 2002
"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow." -- Bill Clinton in 1998
"Iraq does pose a serious threat to the stability of the Persian Gulf and we should organize an international coalition to eliminate his access to weapons of mass destruction. Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to completely deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." -- Al Gore, 2002
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein's regime is a serious danger, that he is a tyrant, and that his pursuit of lethal weapons of mass destruction cannot be tolerated. He must be disarmed." -- Ted Kennedy, Sept 27, 2002
"The threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but as I said, it is not new. It has been with us since the end of that war, and particularly in the last 4 years we know after Operation Desert Fox failed to force him to reaccept them, that he has continued to build those weapons. He has had a free hand for 4 years to reconstitute these weapons, allowing the world, during the interval, to lose the focus we had on weapons of mass destruction and the issue of proliferation." -- John Kerry, October 9, 2002
"(W)e need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime. We all know the litany of his offenses. He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. ...And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction. That is why the world, through the United Nations Security Council, has spoken with one voice, demanding that Iraq disclose its weapons programs and disarm. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real, but it is not new. It has been with us since the end of the Persian Gulf War." -- John Kerry, Jan 23, 2003
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The world walks by... disgusted
ER: "Or, you could sit here on your moronic preachy & lame soap box as the world walks by embarassedly, ignoring you completely."
Not sure what you're getting at here, ER. Those voting for Bush in the US are not the majority in the US - and certainly not the majority in the rest of the world. You ask if any readers of Salon have visited other states (I assume you mean outside of California). I have to ask you - have you visited any other countries?
From here in the UK I think you would not believe the overwhelming disgust directed at Bush and his cronies. This feeling runs across the spectrum from right to right and from the ordinary joe in the street right up to government ministers - and it's one of the reasons Blair's premiership is ending soon.
And that's coming from one of your closest allies. I dread to think what the popular feeling is in Cario and Damascus.
The goodwill for the US, from all countries, in the aftermath of 9/11 was pissed away by Bush in the months and years that followed. The igornance, arrogance and violence of his adminstration has dragged the image of the US through the mud.
Rather than ask US liberals to look beyond their immediate horizons - perhaps it would make more sense for conservatives to do so?