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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tsigprofit who wrote (3054)	7/26/2003 10:42:15 PM
From: Ron	Respond to of 20773

'Darn good intelligence' flunks the test By BARRY SAUNDERS, Staff Writer C'mon, 'fess up now. In your heart of hearts, don't you long for the days when we had a president who lied only about his sex life? The nation's prestige undeniably suffered, and late-night talk show hosts had Bill Clinton material for months, but the only person likely to be injured was the commander-in-chief himself -- when an irate first lady aimed a skillet at his head. Alas, we're saddled with a cowboy president whose apparent prevarications and looseness with facts are costing us lives and prestige. Of course, President Bush's defenders will say the liberal media are piling on and blowing things way out of proportion. The media should be piling on -- but how, oh how, can one blow out of proportion the apparent falsehoods emanating from the White House? The biggest, and a chief factor in gaining political and popular support for a war with Iraq, was "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." That assertion, made in a State of the Union address that gave Congress the hard-sell for war, undoubtedly helped push some waffling congressmen into backing the war. With good reason, they should feel deceived now that it appears the president -- or whoever approved putting that "money" line in his speech -- must have known there was a great likelihood the charge was not what it seemed. The president, who likes to portray himself as a stand-up guy, a straight-shooter, sat back and let CIA Director George Tenet take the blame for what now turns out to be unverifiable at best, a lie at worst, even though Britain's Tony Blair still stands by the African uranium allegation. As former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker said -- and said and said -- of then-President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, "What did the president know and when did he know it?" Giving Bush the benefit of the doubt, let's assume that he discovered, say, the next day, that he'd disseminated faulty information during his war-drum-beating speech. Or even the next week or month. Wasn't it incumbent upon him -- or whoever wrote that speech -- to come forth and say "oops, we screwed up"? Darned right it was. Yet even while the whole world is acknowledging that he at the very least overstated the threat, Bush says "I think the intelligence I get is darn good intelligence." Oy. The most ridiculous assertion is that too much attention is being placed on the 16 words in his speech about British intelligence and Iraq's bid to purchase uranium. I'd just like to quote my hero, Fred G. Sanford, and ask "Are you crazy?" That's as specious an argument as Clinton apologists defending their boy by saying the media focused on only nine words when he proclaimed "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." I don't recall even the most ardent Clintonistas making such an argument. If they had, they would certainly have become laughingstocks. Like those who defend this president's "16 words." Unfortunately for us, when a deception leads to deaths on distant battlefields, there's nothing to laugh about. newsobserver.com