Were you unaware that politicians lie? And why would you think that lying is reserved for one side of the aisle? Isn't it a fairly common practice in politics [this thread included] to accuse the side you disagree with as lying?
Are they not LYING right now when they try and claim they were "lied to" and didn't feel enough obligation as a national leader to properly consider the intelligence presented and made available to them?
Overall, I'm pretty disgusted by the dearth of people taking any responsibility for anything. ~But the French thought Saddam had WMD. BFD, that's not taking responsibility. If the French are so good, maybe we should dispose of our intelligence agencies and subcontract out the work to the French.
LYING and irresponsibility as not necessarily connected. Lying is a tricky assertion. You should have noticed that I didn't use that word in our exchange. I didn't even use mislead.
Let's try two examples. As you and I don't have access to the reading room, I'll have to use examples that are in the public record. Bush said in a stump speech that the IAEA claimed that Iraq was within 6 months of having a nuclear weapon. A Washington Times reporter followed up with Ari Fleischer at a press conference. Ari claimed the 6 months was in an IAEA reported dated XXXX. The reporter checked with the IAEA and they said it wasn't. The reporter went back to Ari; Ari claimed that it was in the IAEA report dated YYYY. The reporter went back again to the IAEA and again he said it wasn't and that the IAEA doesn't project capabilities, they only describe current status. The reporter went back again to Ari relayed that information and Ari said Bush got that from a London Times article dated ZZZZ. The reporter checked that article and there was no mention of a projected time frame. Who lied? I believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Ari lied. Did Bush lie in the stump speech? I don't know. Is Bush responsible for what the official White House spokesman says? I think so. Ari, in his official capacity speaks for the White House. Did Bush know what Ari said? I don't know. If he did and didn't have it corrected permitting lying to the public and lying to the public in the name of the White House aren't a lot different. But I think the odds are that more people were likely to hear Bush's stump speech than were likely to watch Ari's press conferences or read that one piece in the Washington Times.
We now know that there were serveral estimates on what the aluminum tubes were used for. I remember that there was at least a DOD assessment and a DOE assessment. DOE has the better technical expertise than DOD does in assessing nuclear related tecnology. The DOE assessment was that the aluminum tubes were not for centrifuges. Somebody decided to pick the DOD assessment rather than the DOE assessment. I couldn't tell you whether that was Tenet, Hadley, Rumsfeld, or some staffer. I doubt that the person who actually picked which one had the technical abilities to decide which one was more reasonable. IMO, they probably picked the one that gave them the "right" answer. I certainly don't believe that Bush, Tenet, Rice, Hadley, or Rumsfeld would have read the technical analysis because they wouldn't have the foggiest idea what all those funny words meant. Nor would any of the Senators; even if those individual technical analyses were even in the reading room. If the individual is picking the one that has the "right" answer, is that misleading, is that manipulation, is that lying, is that merely a subconscious slip, or is it just a difference of opinion? Who you are and what your personal biases are leads you to pick one. Is that lying or a difference of opinion? I suppose that depends on the bias of the reader/listener?
The text from the report is pretty reasonable stuff, but it doesn't make good talking head material for politicians. What makes good talking head material is "They're lying!" and you see it from both sides of the aisle and you'll continue to see it from both sides of the aisle because it works. And you're going to continue to hear it from AS and you're going to continue to hear it from paret.
I didn't post the link to the Washington Times article. I posted it on SI when it occurred and it received little to no attention. I'm not going to go find it. You get to decide whether to think whether I'm lying, misleading, mistaken, have a poor memory, or accept it. And you get to decide whether it's important or not.
jttmab |
