Before the war, the administration's answer to that fundamental
question was unequivocal.
But as the emerging facts so far have failed to substantiate their
position, Bush and his aides have become very equivocal indeed, while
doing their best to mask that fact through the tried-and-true method
of hiding it right out in the open.
From New York Newsday, 7/8/03:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uslett073362298jul07,0,5423517.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print
Bush Retreats for All to See
By Ken Fireman
WASHINGTON BUREAU
The best place to hide something, according to an old piece of wisdom,
is in plain view, where everyone can see it - and overlook it.
The Bush administration has followed this rule when it comes to its
shifting position on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
As controversy has mounted over its failure to find anything like the
ominous arsenal it once insisted was there, the administration has
softened its claims, shifted the terms of debate and altered its
rationale for war.
But it has carefully embedded this evolution in a framework that gives
the impression of consistency.
The result is a kind of political trompe l'oeil in which the retreats
are right there to be seen, if all the swirling diversions can be
ignored.
President George W.Bush's prewar assertions were categorical and
unqualified.
On Sept. 12, for example, he told the United Nations:
"The history, the logic and the facts lead to one conclusion - Saddam
Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise
is to hope against the evidence."
Similarly, in his State of the Union speech, Bush said U.S.
intelligence reports indicate Hussein could produce up to "500 tons of
sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent" and already had "upwards of 30,000
munitions capable of delivering chemical agents."
Bush said the British had learned that Hussein "recently sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa" and that U.S.
intelligence sources report "he has attempted to purchase
high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production."
Finally, on March 17, just before launching the war, Bush told the
nation:
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt
that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most
lethal weapons ever devised."
Then came the war, in which no unconventional weapon of any kind was
used.
And the postwar, which has thus far turned up nothing more threatening
than two trailers that may or may not have been mobile germ warfare
labs - government experts differ - and a single centrifuge buried in a
garden since 1991.
And a flood of claims that both the U.S. and British governments
grossly inflated intelligence.
Indeed, two claims in the State of the Union speech have now been
called into serious question.
The British have been forced to admit that documents purporting to
show an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium in Niger were forgeries.
International experts concluded that the aluminum tubes Bush cited
were wholly unsuited for nuclear purposes, and the Iraqi scientist who
provided the buried centrifuge said likewise.
The result has been a slow-motion backpedaling that began May 27 when
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mused about the possibility that
Hussein had destroyed his illicit arsenal shortly before the invasion.
Three days later, Secretary of State Colin Powell indignantly defended
the credibility of U.S. intelligence.
But as he did so, Powell subtly shifted the debate from what Iraq
actually had - the original reason for going to war - to the very
different question of what Iraq was prepared to disclose:
"There were gaps in knowledge. And the Iraqis would not step forward
and bridge those gaps."
Bush performed a similar slip-slide during a May 29 interview with
Polish TV, blithely asserting that the illicit arms had been found
while in the next breath redefining what that meant by conflating the
trailers with a much broader and deadlier program:
"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological
laboratories ... And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for
those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or
banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."
The president addressed the issue again June 4 in a speech to U.S.
troops in Qatar that was a small masterpiece of redefinition by
reduction.
First, Bush described the mobile labs as "facilities which were
capable of producing biological agents" - a subtle but significant
switch from previous assertions that they had in fact been used for
that purpose.
He then said of the search for illicit weapons, "We're on the look.
We'll reveal the truth," but failed to repeat the assurance that the
weapons would be found.
The controversy has not abated, and Bush returned to it on June 17,
decrying what he called the efforts of "revisionist historians" to
rewrite the record.
Even as he did so, he again shifted the rationale for the war, saying:
"One thing is certain. He [Hussein] is no longer a threat to the free
world, and the people of Iraq are free."
Bush repeated both arguments Wednesday, telling reporters it was
"unbelievable what he [Hussein] did" to his own people.
The argument that freeing Iraq from tyranny was by itself cause for
war might have proved persuasive, had it been raised in advance; but
it wasn't.
And saying that Hussein is no longer a threat begs the question of
whether he really was - or whether his weapons program had been
successfully contained through years of international sanctions and
inspections.
Before the war, the administration's answer to that fundamental
question was unequivocal.
But as the emerging facts so far have failed to substantiate their
position, Bush and his aides have become very equivocal indeed, while
doing their best to mask that fact through the tried-and-true method
of hiding it right out in the open.
__________________________________________________________
Section 4. Impeachment
The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United
States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction
of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Harry
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