« New Hampshire Wrap | Main | Bush's Blind Hope »
Bush the Stupid or Bush the Stupid Liar?
Bush got his first chance to respond to David Kay's remarks that Iraq didn't have WMD before the war. The whole thing was pretty unbelievable, but the wildest was his repeated assertion that Saddam wouldn't let the weapons inspectors into Iraq. "And then we went to the United Nations, of course, and got an overwhelming resolution -- 1441 -- unanimous resolution, that said to Saddam, you must disclose and destroy your weapons programs, which obviously meant the world felt he had such programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in."
Whoa, did you see that? "...he did not let us in." Hello George! Don't you recall ordering Hans Blix and his *weapons inspection team* out of Iraq so that you could deliver your 'shock and awe'? This is the second time Bush has made this assertion--the last was in a joint conference with Kofi Annan (who looked dumbfounded at the statement). So I ask: is Bush stupid (he forgot that we did have weapons inspectors in Iraq for months, reporting on their progress at the U.N., etc.), or is he a stupid liar (he knows there were inspectors, but figures, like everything else, that if he repeats the lie enough people won't call him on it)? I suspect the former.
Earlier in the interview, he also said this about whether he was ill-served by the prewar intelligence (you know, the people who supposedly told him that Iraq was about to blowup the planet): "...I've got great confidence in our intelligence community." Again, is he stupid (he thinks the bearer of incorrect information that leads to war with a non-threatening country deserves his confidence), or is he a stupid liar (he has confidence because they told him Iraq wasn't a threat and he blew them off anyway and lied to everyone else)? On this one, I suspect the latter.
Joe Conason also did a double-take on the first quote and analyzes much of the remarks here. The NY Times critiques the remarks, but blows it on both issues.
Posted on January 27, 2004 11:32 PM
Comments
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.criticalviewer.com/mt-tb.cgi/9