Small Stupid Men
by digby
Here is more proof that the president lied repeatedly to take this nation to war. Undoubtedly this is completely lawful since the Infallible Republican President Doctrine asserts that the president can do anything he chooses. Still, it’s unpleasantly discomfiting to see proof that the president and his number one ally casually strategized which lies and provocations they could come up with to justify their decision to invade a country that presented no threat.
Just last week President Bush said this:
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me, excuse me. No President wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it’s just simply not true. My attitude about the defense of this country changed on September the 11th. We — when we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people. Our foreign policy changed on that day, Helen. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life. And I’m never going to forget it. And I’m never going to forget the vow I made to the American people that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.
Part of that meant to make sure that we didn’t allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that’s why I went into Iraq — hold on for a second —
Q They didn’t do anything to you, or to our country.
THE PRESIDENT: Look — excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That’s where al Qaeda trained —
Q I’m talking about Iraq —
THE PRESIDENT: Helen, excuse me. That’s where — Afghanistan provided safe haven for al Qaeda. That’s where they trained. That’s where they plotted. That’s where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans.
I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this problem diplomatically. That’s why I went to the Security Council; that’s why it was important to pass 1441, which was unanimously passed. And the world said, disarm, disclose, or face serious consequences —
Q — go to war —
THE PRESIDENT: — and therefore, we worked with the world, we worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world. And when he chose to deny inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did, and the world is safer for it.
That is a bald-faced lie. He had made the decisions to invade, come what may, long before and it was obvious to anyone who was paying attention at the time. And the world most certainly is not safer for it — there’s now a hot civil war taking place in the middle east, the entire region is destabilized and we’re right in the middle of it.
If there is any proof needed of what we saw with our own eyes just three years ago, the NY Times reports (linked above) that they have seen a copy of the memo (the existence of which which was revealed a couple of months ago in “Lawless World”) showing that on January 31, 2003, Bush and Blair discussed ways to provoke Saddam into giving them an excuse to invade on the predetermined date of March 10th 2003.
Stamped “extremely sensitive,” the five-page memorandum, which was circulated among a handful of Mr. Blair’s most senior aides, had not been made public. Several highlights were first published in January in the book “Lawless World,” which was written by a British lawyer and international law professor, Philippe Sands. In early February, Channel 4 in London first broadcast several excerpts from the memo.
Since then, The New York Times has reviewed the five-page memo in its entirety. While the president’s sentiments about invading Iraq were known at the time, the previously unreported material offers an unfiltered view of two leaders on the brink of war, yet supremely confident.
The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was “unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups.” Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.
The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.
[…]
At their meeting, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair candidly expressed their doubts that chemical, biological or nuclear weapons would be found in Iraq in the coming weeks, the memo said. The president spoke as if an invasion was unavoidable. The two leaders discussed a timetable for the war, details of the military campaign and plans for the aftermath of the war.
Without much elaboration, the memo also says the president raised three possible ways of provoking a confrontation. Since they were first reported last month, neither the White House nor the British government has discussed them.
“The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours,” the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. “If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach.”
It also described the president as saying, “The U.S. might be able to bring out a defector who could give a public presentation about Saddam’s W.M.D,” referring to weapons of mass destruction.
A brief clause in the memo refers to a third possibility, mentioned by Mr. Bush, a proposal to assassinate Saddam Hussein. The memo does not indicate how Mr. Blair responded to the idea.
They knew there were no WMD at this point. They knew they wouldn’t find any. But that lying sack of GOP talking points, George W. Bush, mused casually that they could possibly “bring out” a US defector who could give a public presentation about Saddam’s WMD.
And they still expect us to believe that they didn’t cook the intelligence. (Hey, where’s that phase two report, anyway?)
I suspect the country’s still a bit blinded by the hail of bullshit that the Republicans threw out during that period, but the light is beginning to shine through. People know they heard something about smoking guns and mushroom clouds and they know that they were lied to. They haven’t completely absorbed the full degree of this president’s mendacity and maybe they never will — it is hard to believe. But it’s indisputable: George W. Bush, and his lapdog Blair, are being revealed in their own time as among the most destructive leaders their countries have ever produced.
The picture of these two democratic leaders sitting around a table casually tossing out possible lies to delude their respective populations into supporting a war which they otherwise wouldn’t is sickening. And they are being studied by despots and tyrants around the world who see the utility of using the “loopholes of democracy” they’ve exposed. (See this fascinating post by Steve Clemons about military conman Khadaffi’s co-opting of the language of democracy for his own purposes.)
So please let’s can the talk once and for all about how the invasion was a good idea that was just badly executed. It was a terrible idea, as all such ideas hatched by small, stupid men with big ambitions must be. If we ever hope to regain our credibility we need to seriously contemplate plans to bring about a reckoning.
Update: E&P has the transcript of Bush and Blair’s short press conference after the meeting in which they discussed how to better provoke Saddam into starting the war so they didn’t have to. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to find out that they lied.
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