The nation's Cheerleader in Chief appeared on MTP with Timmeh... it's fascinating to see how differently the interview process is interpreted on each side of the aisle.
From the Left:
RICE: I understand that Americans see on their screens violence. They continue to see Americans killed, and we mourn every death. These are very hard things to do. But I would ask that people remember why we are there. We are there because we are trying to--having overthrown a brutal dictator who was a destabilizing force in the Middle East, we're trying to help the Iraqis create a stable foundation for democracy and a stable foundation for peace."I seem to recall a different rationale for why we're there:
"Citing Bush administration officials, The New York Times reported Sunday that Iraq tried to buy thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes. The tubes, Rice said, "are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs." [CNN, 9/8/2002]
From the Right:
In addition, Russert most conspicuously did not share the fact that scores of Democratic leaders, beginning with Bill Clinton, spoke very clearly and often about the unambiguous existence of Saddam's WMD and that they supported a policy to seek a change of his regime.Russert did not mention that these Democrats, having access to the very same intelligence as President Bush, voted to authorize him to militarily attack Iraq. Russert also failed to note that this congressional war resolution contained multiple reasons for going to war against Iraq -- not just WMD -- and that despite John Kerry's later lies to the contrary, was not conditional on President Bush further exhausting diplomatic avenues or even more weapons inspections.
And in mentioning the "costs of the war" as one of Bush's "misjudgments," Russert also conveniently omitted the fact that from early on, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld steadfastly refused to be pinned down on the projected "costs of the war" because they were "unknowable."
After 6 years of top to bottom Republican rule, it's still the Democrats' fault we went to war. Thinking someone has WMDs is one thing. Rushing to war on intelligence proven to have been false and manipulated while losing sight of the primary objective (OBL) is another.
Life must be easy being the last sheep in line.
Posted by kerry at May 23, 2006 03:19 AM