Mike's Blog

No we weren't lying, really.

From Today's Krugman Column

We were not lying," a Bush administration official told ABC News. "But it was just a matter of emphasis." The official was referring to the way the administration hyped the threat that Saddam Hussein posed to the United States.

I happen to disagree, I think they were indeed lying. But that's not my main point here.

A British newspaper, The Independent, reports that "intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic were furious that briefings they gave political leaders were distorted in the rush to war." One "high-level source" told the paper that "they ignored intelligence assessments which said Iraq was not a threat."

Hmm...not a threat eh? Maybe because he was contained? Oh wait, I forgot. Containment didn't work because while the U.S. had Hussein under wraps he was uh...attacking...wait no. He wasn't attacking anything. I've seen this bit on overhyped intelligence elsewhere, including domestic reports on how the CIA was pissed over The Bush Team's overstatements on Iraq. That's the Central Intelligence Agency now. The organization that's not exactly known for its reluctance to fuck with the affairs of other countries. If they're pissed off about the deliberate misrepresentation of intelligence, what does that say?

Sure enough, we have yet to find any weapons of mass destruction. It's hard to believe that we won't eventually find some poison gas or crude biological weapons. But those aren't true W.M.D.'s, the sort of weapons that can make a small, poor country a threat to the greatest power the world has ever known. Remember that President Bush made his case for war by warning of a "mushroom cloud." Clearly, Iraq didn't have anything like that — and Mr. Bush must have known that it didn't.

Stated here better than I possible could. I've said all along that the US will find something. Whatever it is though, whether it's some leftover shit from the Iran wars of the 80s or some sort of substance "that could be used to," etc., the administration is going to trump up the find like they just uncovered ICMB's loaded with VX gas and pointed at New York City. That "mushroom cloud" reference was indeed in reference to NYC, and I think the exact quote from the Chimp was, "I'm not going to wait until there's a mushroom cloud over New York City to act." (The exact quote is either that or something nearly identical to that. I don't have time to go searching for it right now but if you want to challenge me on it....which will be a waste of time....sigh...I guess I will.)

One wonders whether most of the public will ever learn that the original case for war has turned out to be false. In fact, my guess is that most Americans believe that we have found W.M.D.'s. Each potential find gets blaring coverage on TV; how many people catch the later announcement — if it is ever announced — that it was a false alarm? It's a pattern of misinformation that recapitulates the way the war was sold in the first place. Each administration charge against Iraq received prominent coverage; the subsequent debunking did not.

Fox news is probably the biggest offender in this category. "US SOLDIERS MAY HAVE UNCOVERED X,Y, AND Z." And then later, briefly, "oh wait no they didn't BUT THEY STILL HAVE LEADS ON P,Q, AND R." Other media outlets have done this to one degree or another.

For example, in September Mr. Bush cited an International Atomic Energy Agency report that he said showed that Saddam was only months from having nuclear weapons. "I don't know what more evidence we need," he said. In fact, the report said no such thing — and for a few hours the lead story on MSNBC's Web site bore the headline "White House: Bush Misstated Report on Iraq." Then the story vanished — not just from the top of the page, but from the site.

In 1984, this kind of lost information was disposed of via The Memory Hole. There's a "Hole" lotta that going on these days (get it? I spelled it with a....nevermind). And finally:

Now it's true that the war removed an evil tyrant. But a democracy's decisions, right or wrong, are supposed to take place with the informed consent of its citizens. That didn't happen this time. And we are a democracy — aren't we?

As Spike Lee would say, the public has been bamboozled on this one. And if Spike Lee said it, it must be the gospel truth (For those of you with impaired senses of humor, that last sentence was a joke. Repeat, a joke. But I do love Spike Lee. Yes, in a homosexual way as well. (another joke)).

But the public was lied to on this one. I'm inviting anyone to agree or disagree, and I PROMISE that I'll be civil in my responses. Really. So post it up, please. It's terrible lonely here sometimes in my underground, hermetically sealed bunker/military fortress. This blog is the only contact I have with the outside world....

Krugman's latest

Posted by mike at April 29, 2003 11:32 AM