Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

It Depends On What The Definition Of “Mistake” Is

October 7, 2002

Tonight I want to take a few minutes to discuss a grave threat to peace, and America’s determination to lead the world in confronting that threat.

The threat comes from Iraq. It arises directly from the Iraqi regime’s own actions — its history of aggression, and its drive toward an arsenal of terror. Eleven years ago, as a condition for ending the Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi regime was required to destroy its weapons of mass destruction, to cease all development of such weapons, and to stop all support for terrorist groups. The Iraqi regime has violated all of those obligations. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. It has given shelter and support to terrorism, and practices terror against its own people. The entire world has witnessed Iraq’s eleven-year history of defiance, deception and bad faith.

[…]

Some ask how urgent this danger is to America and the world. The danger is already significant, and it only grows worse with time. If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today — and we do — does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?

[…]

Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles — far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other nations — in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work. We’ve also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States. And, of course, sophisticated delivery systems aren’t required for a chemical or biological attack; all that might be required are a small container and one terrorist or Iraqi intelligence operative to deliver it.

[…]

Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists. Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints.

Some have argued that confronting the threat from Iraq could detract from the war against terror. To the contrary; confronting the threat posed by Iraq is crucial to winning the war on terror. When I spoke to Congress more than a year ago, I said that those who harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves. Saddam Hussein is harboring terrorists and the instruments of terror, the instruments of mass death and destruction. And he cannot be trusted. The risk is simply too great that he will use them, or provide them to a terror network.

[…]

The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his “nuclear mujahideen” — his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. And if we allow that to happen, a terrible line would be crossed. Saddam Hussein would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his aggression. He would be in a position to dominate the Middle East. He would be in a position to threaten America. And Saddam Hussein would be in a position to pass nuclear technology to terrorists.

[…]

Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. As President Kennedy said in October of 1962, “Neither the United States of America, nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small. We no longer live in a world,” he said, “where only the actual firing of weapons represents a sufficient challenge to a nations security to constitute maximum peril.”

Understanding the threats of our time, knowing the designs and deceptions of the Iraqi regime, we have every reason to assume the worst, and we have an urgent duty to prevent the worst from occurring.

January 27,2004:

David Kay, The Central Intelligence Agency’s outgoing chief weapons:

“I’m personally convinced that there were not large stockpiles of newly produced weapons of mass destruction,” he said on Saturday. “We don’t find the people, the documents or the physical plants that you would expect to find if the production was going on. I think they gradually reduced stockpiles throughout the 1990s.”

April 14, 2004

Q. In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you’d made in your life and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. You’ve looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say? And what lessons have you learned from it?

A. Hmmm. I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. I’m sure historians will look back and say, Gosh, he could have done it better this way or that way. You know, I just I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn’t yet.

I would have gone into Afghanistan the way we went into Afghanistan. Even though what I know today about the stockpiles of weapons, I still would have called upon the world to deal with Saddam Hussein. See, I happen to believe we’ll find out the truth on the weapons. That’s why we sent up the independent commission. I look forward to hearing the truth as exactly where they are. They could still be there. They could be hidden, like, the 50 tons of mustard gas in a turkey farm.

One of the things that Charlie Duelfer talked about was that he was surprised at the level of intimidation he found amongst people who should know about weapons and their fear of talking about them, because they don’t want to be killed. You know, there’s this kind of, there’s this terror still in the soul of some of the people in Iraq. They’re worried about getting killed. And therefore, they’re not going to talk. And it’ll all settle out. We’ll find out the truth about the weapons at some point in time.

However, the fact that he had the capacity to make them bothers me today just like it would have bothered me then. He’s a dangerous man. He’s a man who actually not only had weapons of mass destruction — and the reason I can say that with certainty is because he used them. And I have no doubt in my mind that he would like to have inflicted harm or paid people to inflict harm or trained people to inflict harm on America because he hated us.

You know, I hope I don’t want to sound like I’ve made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here and maybe I’m not quick, as quick on my feet as I should be.

September 22,2004:

In Washington, in the tense months before war in Iraq, Charles Duelfer was confident. “Of course he is developing his weapons of mass destruction,” the American arms expert wrote of Saddam Hussein.

In Baghdad, however, Hans Blix was much less convinced. The UN weapons inspector, on the eve of the conflict, remarked sadly on the likelihood that armies would be “waging the war at a tremendous cost, and in the end find there was very little”.

In the end, as a hurricane distracted Americans, as terrorist car bombings and US air strikes bloodied Iraq, the findings of a Duelfer-led investigation were quietly leaked in Washington.

And, after 16 months of trying, what his teams have found is less than little.

In fact, the only unconventional weapon turned up in Iraq wasn’t turned up by the Americans at all, but by the other side, Iraq’s shadowy resistance.

In May, in an incident causing no serious injuries, insurgent fighters in Baghdad rigged an old artillery shell as a roadside bomb, apparently unaware it was loaded with sarin nerve agent.

Otherwise, two or three stray shells have been discovered with traces of degraded agent – far short of the 100 to 500 tons of usable chemical weapons that Secretary of State Colin Powell warned of on February 5 2003, as he sought a UN blessing for the US-British invasion.

September 23, 2004:

Q Mr. President, you say today that the work in Iraq is tough and willremain tough. And, yet, you travel this country and a central theme of your campaign is that America is safer because of the invasion of Iraq. Can you understand why Americans may not believe you?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No. Anybody who says that we are safer with SaddamHussein in power is wrong. We went into Iraq because Saddam Hussein defied the demands of the free world. We went into Iraq after diplomacy had failed. And we went into Iraq because I understand after September the 11th we must take threats seriously, before they come to hurt us.

And I think it’s a preposterous claim to say that America would be better off with Saddam Hussein in power. I certainly know that that’s the case for America and I certainly know it’s the case for the Iraqi people. These are people who were tortured. This good man was abed in a London flat, and he wakes up with two Saddam henchmen there with axes, trying to cut him to pieces with an axe. And, fortunately, he’s alive today; fortunately, we call him friend and ally. But he knows what it means to have lived under a society in which a thug like Saddam Hussein would send people with axes to try to kill him in bed in a London flat. No, this world is better off with Saddam Hussein in prison.

Q Sir, may I just follow, because I don’t think you’re really answering the question. I mean, I think you’re responding to Senator Kerry, but there are beheadings regularly, the insurgent violence continues, and there are no weapons of mass destruction. My question is, can you understand that Americans may not believe you when you say that America is actually safer today?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Imagine a world in which Saddam Hussein were still in power. This is a man who harbored terrorists — Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, Zarqawi. This is a man who was a sworn enemy of the United States of America. This is a man who used weapons of mass destruction. Going from tyranny todemocracy is hard work, but I think the argument that says that Saddam Hussein — if Saddam Hussein were still in power, we’d be better off is wrong.

King.

Q Sir, I’d like you answer Senator Kerry and other critics who accuse you of hypocrisy or opportunism when, on the one hand, you put so much stock in the CIA when it said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and now say it is just guessing when it paints a pessimistic picture of the political transition.

[…]

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, got it. Listen, the other day I was asked about the NIE, which is a National Intelligence Estimate. This is a report that talks about possibilities about what can happen in Iraq, not probabilities. I used an unfortunate word, “guess.” I should have used, “estimate.” And the CIA came and said, this is a possibility, this is a possibility, and this is a possibility. But what’s important for the American people to hear is reality. And the reality is right here in the form of the Prime Minister. And he is explaining what is happening on the ground. That’s the best report. And this report was written in July, and now we are here in September, and as I said, “estimate” would have been a better word.

As of September 4, 2004:

7032 coalition forces wounded in action

As of September 23, 2004:

1176 coalition forces killed in action, 67 in this month alone.

As of September 23, 2004:

Between 12800 and 14843 Iraqi civilian deaths

How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?

 

Speaking Out Of Both Sides Of His Mouth

Shortly after our two faced president took office it was revealed that his single largest political contributor had been running a congame on his workers and investors to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. He quickly came up with a 10 point plan to ensure that CEOs could never snow their investors like that again.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the country really should be run like a business and that bush has been out CEO for the last four years. Has our prez lived up to his CEO requirements?

1.) Each investor should have quarterly access to the information needed to judge a firm’s financial performance, condition, and risks.

“It’s hard for me to explain why we need to make [the tax cuts] permanent. It’s kind of like some of the things that happen in Washington. On the one hand, they taketh away. On the other hand, they giveth.

— Denver, Colorado Sep. 27, 2002

2.) Each investor should have prompt access to critical information.

It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.

— Reuters, May 5, 2000

3.) CEOs should personally vouch for the veracity, timeliness, and fairness of their companies’ public disclosures, including their financial statements.

“The CIA laid out several scenarios. It said that life could be lousy, life could be OK, life could be better. And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like,” he said

— Washington, D.C., September 22, 2004

4.) CEOs or other officers should not be allowed to profit from erroneous financial statements.

“The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.”

— Annandale, Virginia, Aug. 9, 2004

5.) CEOs or other officers who clearly abuse their power should lose their right to serve in any corporate leadership positions.

“Q: So when you say that you want the U.S. to adhere to international and U.S. laws, that’s not very comforting. This is a moral question. Is terr — torture ever justified?

GWB: Look, I’m gonna say it one more time. I can — if I can — maybe — maybe I can be more clear. The instructions went out to our people to adhere to law. That oughtta comfort you. We — we’re a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws. And that might provide comfort for you. And those were the instructions out of — from me to the government.”

— Savannah, Georgia, Jun. 10, 2004

6.) Corporate leaders should be required to tell the public promptly whenever they buy or sell company stock for personal gain.

“I remember campaigning in Chicago one time, and the guy said, would you ever deficit spend? I said, well, only if we were at war, or the country was in recession, or there was a national emergency. I didn’t realize we were going to get the trifecta.” — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Apr. 3, 2002

7.) Investors should have complete confidence in the independence and integrity of companies’ auditors.

“You know, capitalism is only as strong as the integrity of the people involved in the process. And these leaders will tell you that you’ve got to be open with your employees. Otherwise, they’re not going to work for you very hard.

— Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 2004

8.) An independent regulatory board should ensure that the accounting profession is held to the highest ethical standards.

Sometimes things aren’t exactly black and white when it comes to accounting procedures.

— Justifying his oil firm’s accounting record, Washington, D.C., July 8, 2002

9.) The authors of accounting standards must be responsive to the needs of investors.

Look, I don’t care about the numbers. I know the facts.

— St. Petersburg, Florida, Mar. 8, 2002

10.) Firms’ accounting systems should be compared with best practices, not simply against minimum standards.

“In order to make sure the country was stronger, I pulled this page out of the economic textbook, the page that says, if you let people keep more of their own money, they’re going to spend it on a good or a service. If they spend it on a good or a service, somebody will produce the good and service. And if somebody produces a good or service, some American is more likely to find work.”

— Trenton, New Jersey, Sep. 23, 2002

 

Rhetorical Inversion

Via TAPPED I see that John Edwards has begun to use some of his great primary speech in the stretch of this campaign.

I posted a glowing review of this speech back in June of 2003 because I thought it was one of the best examples of reframing the economic issues I had seen in many a day. He takes the language of the right and throws it right back at them in a way that’s very difficult for them to deflect:

“It’s the most radical and dangerous economic agenda to hit our shores since socialism a century ago. Like socialism, it corrupts the very nature of our democracy and our free enterprise tradition. It is not a plan to grow the American economy. It is a plan to corrupt the American economy,” he told an audience outside in Cleveland. “We don’t know all of the details, but we know that people who inherit hundreds of millions will pay nothing; firemen and waitresses and working people will pay everything. And we know his plan will take away the most important incentive for the single most important form of ownership: it will eliminate entirely the tax deduction for home mortgage interest.”

Now, I don’t happen to think that socialism corrupts the nature of our economy, but you can bet that most Americans have been brainwashed to think that. The key here is to jettison the word “socialism” on to the ashheap of history and tie the Republicans into it by saying they have a similarly “radical and corrupt” economic plan. This is using their own propaganda against them and it’s very smart.

The TAPPED post goes on to point out that Bush really has proposed changes to the tax code that would eliminate the home mortgage deduction. That fits in nicely with another part of Edwards speech that goes like this:

Our economy, our people, and our nation have been undermined by the crony capitalists who believe that success is all about working the angles, working the phones, and rigging the game, instead of hard work, innovation and frugality. And these manipulators find comfort in an Administration which, through its own example, seems to embrace that ethic. We will never turn this country around until we put our economy and our government back in line with our values.”

[…]

It’s time for a new approach that trusts people to make the most of their own lives and gives them the chance to do so. It’s time to stop emboldening entrenched interests and start empowering regular people. Above all, it’s time to end the failed conservative experiment and return to the idea that made this country great: Instead of helping wealthy people protect their wealth, we should help working people build their wealth.”

I just love the way this appropriates all the comfortable GOP catch phrases — projecting their own critique back back at them while redefining the positive ones for our own purposes. It’s a very effective way to make the permeation of GOP rhetoric in the national subconscious work for us instead of against us.

It also has the value of confusing the Republicans. It’s one of the most creative uses of political rhetoric I’ve seen in this campaign. I’m glad they are using it.

Drumbeat

I said earlier in the week that the stupid CBS memos flap was becoming a full fledged Wurlitzer frenzy and I think we went one step closer today.

Yesterday, Rush said:

“…the question about CBS, and I don’t mean to be skirting this, but I don’t know how they expect us to trust them on anything else they do, particularly when it’s in this presidential race. This is a problem for them, folks. Now they’re trying to make it go away by stonewalling it with this independent commission but you’ve got a major, major federal crime here.”

This whore was on FOX saying:

“You start tying these connections together … I said I’m so scared because I know what’s going on with my party,” Democratic strategist Pat Caddell told FOX News. “The fact is, [Burkett] did not approach CBS, CBS approached him looking for the documents, which means someone tipped CBS off … which could be a violation of the law.”

On Wolf Blitzer today, they devoted a full segment to the question of whether the forgeries were a crime. Joe DiGenova, former federal prosecutor de jour, said that a special prosecutor with subpoena power was needed to find out who tried to interefere with a federal election during wartime. Blitzer seemed to agree that the subject was so serious that somebody needed to get to the bottom of it.

Later, Brit Hume had some new nonsense about Mary Mapes and federal prisoners in Colorado.

Fasten your seatbelts. The Wurlitzer is gearing up. It’s possible that it won’t have legs, but the set up for a long term mediawhore feeding frenzy is being put in place. The good news is that Joe Lockhart and Mike McCurry are the two most experienced flacks on planet in dealing with this garbage.

Calling Mr Rains, Mr Claude Rains

Jeffrey Dubner at TAPPED takes the Kerry campaign to task for following up the DNC’s hard hitting rhetoric of yesterday on the Roger Stone rumor with what he calls a weak-kneed follow-up today:

“Mr. President, this is a shameful advertisement that shows a disturbing disregard for those fighting and sacrificing in Iraq, and you should repudiate it immediately.”

He points out that they will never get the Bush campaign to repudiate anything so they show themselves weak by failing to get results.

But, everybody knows very well that Bush is not going to repudiate it and that is exactly why they are saying it. This is the way the game is played. It’s why Ed Gillespie gets the vapors every time the Democrats say boo and calls it “political hate speech.”

It’s called phony sanctimony and it works very well, as the Republicans have shown for years. They always shed crocodile tears and call the other side’s attacks vicious and beyond the pale while they are sticking the shiv in as hard as they can. The difference is that this time we stuck the shiv in too.

I see Atrios disagrees with me. I think he should repudiate it.

Tin Foil Freakshow

On Hardball just now, Ben Ginsberg just claimed that Barnes, the NY Times, the Boston Globe, CBS, Joe Lockhart and Terry McAuliffe coordinated the memos story and the liberal media just isn’t giving it the kind of scrutiny they gave the Swift Boat story.

Chris asked whether this controversy now means that the public should also be skeptical of the media’s Iraq reporting going forward.

Deborah Orin made the important point that the bloggers who “exposed” the forgeries also are very skeptical of the reporting on Iraq so perhaps that should be a lesson for all of us.

Advantage: Idiots

Masterdebator

Ezra has it right on the debates.

We know he beat the friendly, funny, charismatic Weld. But what’s rarely noted is that he also beat John Edwards in the series of one-on-one debates they held at the end of the primary. Edwads came off as nicer and funnier, sure, but he lacked the gravitas and policy knowledge of Kerry. I watched those confrontations expecting to vote for Edwards, but got up from the couch a Kerry supporter. It was clear to me then, as it is now, that the empathy and charm that pols like Edwards and Clinton possess are not applicable to elections fought on serious, scary ground. As I’ve said before, Bush only won (and he didn’t even do that) in 2000 because the country was at peace and the economy was doing well, voters were unconcerned and thus won over by the friendlier, funnier candidate — that was a popularity contest. But in a time when voters want serious leaders who demonstrate competence, strength and judgment, Bush’s glib moralizing and self-effacing jokes are not going to save him. In contrast, Kerry’s boring wonkishness and obvious thoughtfulness (not to mention his 4-inch height advantage — two of the debates are standing) just might.

I sincerely hope that’s true. I also think that this time the press may just be a bit less likely to fall back on their script simply because the Iraq story seems to be heating up as we go into the stretch. They used the press conference today to talk almost exclusively about Iraq and didn’t mention the CBS nonsense.

I can’t believe there is any question that Kerry will beat Bush in the debates when it’s obvious that your average ten year old would beat him. But we have to take into account the press corpse which seems to adore his incoherent blather and buy into the idea that making sense is secondary to winning debates than presenting a manufactured regular guy image. So, it’s always possible that in spite of what we all see with our eyes, we will be told that Bush won the debate because Kerry was too tall or something. But, I’m hopeful that the electorate is a bit more serious than last time and will see the contrast between a man of real substance and an empty suit.

I do think that Ezra took Atrios and Yglesias a bit too literally. I think their gnashing of teeth about Bush’s great strength in the town hall format was a little tongue in cheek exercise in lowering expectations. Nobody really believes that Bush is good in debates, but the game requires that you set up Kerry as a big loser in order to defy expectations. Politics is so dumb these days.

Why Should I?

40 percent of Army reservists fail to report to Fort Jackson

COLUMBIA–Only about 60 percent of reservists ordered to report to Fort Jackson have reported so far, Army officials said.

As of Tuesday, 186 of the 309 members of the Individual Ready Reserve ordered to report to the Columbia base had arrived, said Lt. Col. Burton L. Masters, spokesman for the Army’s Human Resources Command.

“We’re not surprised by those numbers at all,” Masters said.

Most of those who have not reported are seeking exemptions from active duty or delays in reporting, he said.

Those who have not reported or applied for a delay or exemption will be considered deserters if they do not show up within seven days of the date they were told to report for duty, Masters said.

“We are going to go the extra mile to work with people,” he said. “But if they don’t report, the Army will track them down.”

Troops subject to the recall have been on active duty but have not completed their eight-year obligation to the Army.

The Army said 5,600 individual reservists were being recalled to active duty; 4,500 were to report to Fort Jackson. However, orders have been cut for only 3,667 of the soldiers to return to active duty, Masters said.

Many people believe that the fact that the president went AWOL during his time in the National Guard has set a bad example for those he has called to serve in Iraq today. They fail to see why they should be forced to do something the president used his influence and connections to avoid.

One Republican has spoken out:

The President’s actions have had an intangible and coercive impact upon military personnel. To turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to it would be shame on us. The question soldiers and sailors ask is: I took an oath to swear to tell the truth. And I also took an oath to uphold the Constitution. How can this President take the same oath and not be truthful and remain in office? If I were to have done what the President did, I would be court-martialed.

You see, we also have to recognize that each of the services are recruiting young people all across the Nation. At boot camp they infuse these young people with the moral values of honor, courage and commitment, and they’re teaching self-restraint, discipline and self- sacrifice. Military leaders are required to provide a good example to those young recruits, yet when they look up the chain of command, all the way to the Commander in Chief, they see a double standard at the top. Again, it is the President that sets the tone and tenor in the military, just as he does for law enforcement.

I believe the President has violated this sacred trust between the leaders and those of whom he was entrusted to lead. I also spoke in my presentation that it was the President’s self-inflicted wounds that have called his own credibility into question not only in his decisionmaking process, but with regard to security policies.

Oh wait. Pardon me. That was House Manager Steven Buyers speaking before the Senate during president Clinton’s impeachment trial. A president getting a blow job obviously sets a very bad example for the troops. But, running out on your own military committment and then sending men and women to fight in a useless war overseas is a perfectly fine example and nobody in the military should ever think otherwise. My bad.

Makeup to Breakup

This article pretends that the reason the campaigns insisted on having their own makeup people for the debates is because of Richard Nixon’s five o’clock shadow, but the real reason is that in the last debates somebody sabotaged Al Gore by making him look like a circus freak on national television. I’ve always been curious as to how that happened. I’m glad to see that the Kerry campaign isn’t taking any chances.

It’s also not surprising that the Bush team agreed seeing as how they must have makeup special effects professionals close at all times to cover Junior’s many pratfalls flat on his face.

Dreams and Visions

I just had the strangest dream. I thought I saw a president who spoke in complete sentences, in great detail, in direct response to questions posed to him in a press conference. It was bizarre and freakish. It made me feel fevered and nostalgic for some reason.

Then I heard a president talk about the pessimistic National Intelligence Estimate. He explained, “The CIA laid out several scenarios. It said that life could be lousy, life could be OK, life could be better. And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like,” he said. “The Iraq citizens are defying the pessimistic predictions.”

I realized that I was not sleeping and our waking nightmare is still ongoing.

Still, it was nice to dream of what might be if we had a president who was sentient and aware — how much more secure we would all feel with someone in charge who is in control of his faculties. Someone who wasn’t living in a fantasy world. It would be such a relief.