I favored the removal of Saddam Hussein, but I thought that the Bush administration Charlie Foxtrotted the aftermath, particularly with regard to fecklessness with the mullahs. But I was also continually annoyed by the “Bush lied, people died” mantra (not to mention the “War for Oil” nonsense). The only reason WMD was even an issue is that Tony Blair demanded UN approval, which couldn’t be attained without it. Anyway, Ari Fleischer sets the record straight (again).
3 thoughts on “The Media Lied, Their Credibility Died”
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“The only reason WMD was even an issue is that Tony Blair demanded UN approval, which couldn’t be attained without it. ”
I don’t know what you mean by this. WMD was an issue because Democrats (including President Clinton and Madeline Albright) and Republicans all believed that a madman like Hussein should not have them. WMDs were the central justification for the war.
The United Nations inspection team reports made it seem certain (or at least extremely likely) that Hussein was hiding WMDs. Hussein fooled everyone.
Too many people lost their lives but I was and remain in favor of the war, and I’m outraged by “War for Oil” claims. I don’t think President Bush lied, and I don’t think the media lied either.
WMDs were the justification, but not the reason. The reason was that Hussein was a general threat to the region, and (post 911) supporting terrorism. And for me, having a foothold in both Iraq and Afghanistan would have put pressure on Iran, but we never took strategic advantage.
SDB wrote up a great outline of the issues involved back in 2002, during the year-long “rush to war”. I don’t know if it’s archived anywhere, or lost with USS Clueless.
The part that always frustrated me to no end was that no authorization from anyone at all should have been necessary; the Gulf War was ended by a unilateral cease-fire, followed by negotiations and agreements. There was never a peace treaty–legally, the conflict (much like the State of War in Korea) was only placed on hold, and that hold was based on a series of conditions that Saddam almost immediately started violating. We had causus belli to resume the shooting by 1994 at the latest, but Bill preferred to kick the can down the road for 6 years, with minor air raids and cruise missile attacks that didn’t require him to stick his neck out politically.
Given the sheer magnitude of corruption and betrayal from our European allies that we uncovered when we looted Baghdad’s documents (anyone remember Chirac?), we never should have asked their permission in the first place.