Willcousa, Re: "It is not fair to hold Bush responsible for the intelligence he inherited from the Clinton administration and the UN until it was known to be wrong."
You are absolutely correct. That would not be fair. It is, however, fair to hold him responsible for failing to inform the public and the Congress about the extent to which that intelligence was "thin" and to warn of the caveats that the intelligence community placed on it. As you will recall, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Rice used words like "we know," "it's certain" and "there can be no doubt." It is wrong to state a fact as certain when you are aware that you have insufficient information to judge whether that fact is true.
It is also fair to hold him responsible for the actions he took on the intelligence. Clinton evidently did have the same intelligence information, and Clinton and the Congress did call for "regime change" in Iraq. No one at that time, however, called for regime change in Iraq through the use of the U.S. military. The use of the U.S. military not only cost the lives of soldiers; it also caused the rise of resentments and hatred of the U.S. throughout the world, cost of billions of dollars and imposed the obligation on the U.S. to care for, protect and feed a rebellious and protesting nation of 20+ million people.
I repeat what I said earlier:
"Maybe both Clinton and Bush were stupid, wore blinders and were wrong. BEING STUPID IS ONE THING, BETTING THE FARM ON IT, HOWEVER, TAKES STUPID TO THE NEXT LEVEL. I, for one, expect a hell of a lot better judgement from the men who lead this nation and, in fact, the world." |
