Bush fires back at critics of Iraq war

Dr. Dilznick

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Saturday, November 12, 2005 Page updated at 12:27 AM


President fires back at critics of Iraq war

By Warren Vieth and James Gerstenzang

Los Angeles Times


TOBYHANNA, Pa. — President Bush, on the defensive over claims that he manipulated intelligence to build support for invading Iraq, launched an unusually sharp attack on critics Friday for what he called trying to "rewrite the history" of how and why the war began.

Bush said his critics were undermining U.S. troops by claiming that his administration had misled the public on whether Saddam Hussein had obtained weapons of mass destruction.

"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges," the president said in a Veterans Day address at an Army depot in Tobyhanna.

"These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will."

Bush's rhetoric, which coincided with a similar attack on Democrats from the Republican Party chairman, reflected growing White House concern over signs that the public's confidence in the president is slipping and that misgivings about Iraq are among the principal causes of his credibility problems. The administration has conceded that some prewar intelligence suggesting Saddam held or sought banned weapons was faulty.

But Democrats in recent weeks have sought, with some success, to revive the question of whether officials at the White House and other agencies misrepresented the intelligence to the public before the war. Claiming Republicans had blocked a promised investigation in the matter, Democratic senators used a rare parliamentary maneuver earlier this month to win assurances the inquiry would proceed.

At the same time, public-opinion surveys show more Americans question Bush's handling of the war and prewar intelligence. In a recent ABC News/Washington Post survey, 55 percent said they believed the Bush administration "intentionally misled" the public in making its case for war.

In an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Friday, 57 percent of respondents said they did not think the administration has high ethical standards. Bush's approval rating in that poll remained at an all-time low of 37 percent.

Bush told a crowd of soldiers and civilians at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania: "While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began."

The president said his critics were aware a bipartisan investigation "found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs."

He appeared to be referring to a White House commission that reported in April, after a yearlong inquiry, that U.S. intelligence had been "dead wrong" in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq's illicit weapons, but that it found no evidence that administration officials pressured analysts to shade their reports for political reasons.

Bush said his critics "also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction." He also noted that "more than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate, who had access to the same intelligence, voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power."

Referring to his defeat of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the 2004 presidential campaign, Bush said many of his critics "supported my opponent during the last election," and that Kerry had cited Iraqi weapons programs when he voted to support the use of force in Iraq.

Bush's attack set off a daylong series of rhetorical volleys between the White House and its critics. Democratic lawmakers continued to accuse the president of twisting the facts and called for a new administration strategy for extricating U.S. troops from Iraq.

"We can no longer simply pledge to stay the course; we must change the course," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who added that Iraq was now a haven for terrorists, something it had not been before the war.

Kerry, among the senators calling on Bush to start withdrawing forces from Iraq, castigated Bush for "playing the politics of smear and fear on Veterans Day."

"This administration misled a nation into war by cherry-picking intelligence and stretching the truth beyond recognition," Kerry said. "The mistake we made was trusting the president, and it's a sad day when an administration's word is no good."

Some Republicans also have questioned the handling of intelligence before the war. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., has backed an investigation "because I thought we needed the answers to whether intelligence was misused, intentionally or unintentionally."


Material from the Chicago Tribune

is included in this report.


Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company
 

Matthew

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Well, now that Bush makes that masterful argument, I'm convinced. :rolleyes:
 

madame_zora

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How interesting that THIS pig used the line "trying to rewrite histroy" when that is exactly what HE has been trying (somewhat unsucessfully) to do. I am pleased, although still quite wary, that the American people seem to be starting to see through his foul rhetoric.
 

jay_too

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Bush & Co. know the facts do not support their assertions. However, they want their base fighting mad and aroused...No, No, not down there. So they try to wrap themselves in a bloodied Amercan flag and question the patriotism of those who have second doubts about whether or not we are pursuing a winning strategy. Remember their base is hardly intellectual or educated and must have a 5-second sound bite/attack in order for it to register.

Bush and Cheney can question the patriotism of those who supported a resolution in December 2001 to force Saddam to open country for inspection. How many times in the next six months did Cheney and others tell the American people that if you or the Congress had seen the intelligence that I have seen, you would understand the threat he poses to the U.S? Fast forward to the present, now they claim the Congress saw the exact intelligence that the President and his staff saw. Only the idiots in their base without a decent memory or perhaps, intellectual honesty and believe such crap. Oh wait, I forget they are Robertson-type Christians; and we all know what kind of people those are.

From the center, I am, jay
 

jay_too

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Jana, I hope that before this decade is over, I will no longer equate the Falwell/Robertson Republicans as moral and intellectual retards. jay
 

GoneA

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madame_zora said:
I am pleased, although still quite wary, that the American people seem to be starting to see through his foul rhetoric.

and we continue to pray, madame. and we continue to pray.
 

cruztbone

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and Madame Zora is correct. Only now, 1 year after the election, is the red section of the nation coming around to realize what California knew in 2000:
you cant elect a dry drunk crackhead president and expect anything close to the truth to emerge from his mouth, his cabinet or his policies.

Why arent more people outraged? In california, we are ready to impeach the bastard. What about the rest of you?:mad:
 

madame_zora

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I've been whining about him nonstop since 2000, I can't imagine why more people aren't outraged. I guess even HIS handwriting on the wall wasn't clear enough for most dunderheads to read. Hopefully, the religious loonies that were willing to support him solely because he said "God" on tv will finally come to understand that not all who profess are Christians.

Here in Ohio where the election was clearly fraudulent, there are plenty who would like to see him impeached. Yeah, it was no blowjob, but I'd think election fraud along with war crimes would be good enough.
 

cruztbone

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and I would love to see you run for office in Ohio. How about replacing that awful Bob Taft? could Ohio possibly be Taft-free for 4 years? You are sharp and thoughtful and witty. You have a great built-in crap detector as well, so let us all know when you decide to run. I will send money from CA.:)
 

SurferGirlCA

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MZ, YOU'RE in Ohio!!! So what do you know about the right honorable Congresswoman/person from your state, Jeane Schmidt (sp?). I read that she got into a bit of hot water after her speech on the floor of the House last week when the "Marine Colonel" she claimed had asked her to pass the message on to Murtha that "cowards cut and run" stepped forward to say that wasn't what he said to her. Of course, it also turns out, he's a GOP rep from Ohio who is in the reserves and has never been in combat himself, but that's just splitting hairs at this point. Was she the woman who won the seat last year against the former Gulf War vet (Dem) who ran a campaign against Iraqi War Redux?

madame_zora said:
I've been whining about him nonstop since 2000, I can't imagine why more people aren't outraged. I guess even HIS handwriting on the wall wasn't clear enough for most dunderheads to read. Hopefully, the religious loonies that were willing to support him solely because he said "God" on tv will finally come to understand that not all who profess are Christians.

Here in Ohio where the election was clearly fraudulent, there are plenty who would like to see him impeached. Yeah, it was no blowjob, but I'd think election fraud along with war crimes would be good enough.
 

madame_zora

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cruztbone said:
and I would love to see you run for office in Ohio. How about replacing that awful Bob Taft? could Ohio possibly be Taft-free for 4 years? You are sharp and thoughtful and witty. You have a great built-in crap detector as well, so let us all know when you decide to run. I will send money from CA.:)

I have legel limitations that would prohibit me from running (unless I was a Republican ;) ), so I'll have to shout out from the sidelines. Feel free to send the money anyway!
 

madame_zora

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SurferGirlCA said:
MZ, YOU'RE in Ohio!!! So what do you know about the right honorable Congresswoman/person from your state, Jeane Schmidt (sp?). I read that she got into a bit of hot water after her speech on the floor of the House last week when the "Marine Colonel" she claimed had asked her to pass the message on to Murtha that "cowards cut and run" stepped forward to say that wasn't what he said to her. Of course, it also turns out, he's a GOP rep from Ohio who is in the reserves and has never been in combat himself, but that's just splitting hairs at this point. Was she the woman who won the seat last year against the former Gulf War vet (Dem) who ran a campaign against Iraqi War Redux?

Yeah, yeah, guilty on all counts. This state is so fucked up with inbred republicans it makes me sick. She got put up to making the comments by Bubp who didn't want to sully his own hands, so he passed the message on to the dumbest person he could find to do it for him. When will America get the message that those who have fought in and know war should be the primary ones making these decisions? REAL COWARDS aren't the ones who suggest we "cut and run", they are the ones who never served in the first place, then send OUR children off to die so THEY can Make.More.Money.
 

DC_DEEP

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Interesting, isn't it? Most often, it is the decorated veterans who are called "coward" and "unpatriotic" by those who have never served? So many clouds and obscurities concerning gw's "service" in the reserves, gaps in attendance records... and he and his never-served-at-all buddies are the first ones to call Kerry and Murtha unpatriotic cowards.

Fortunately, my unit never got deployed overseas during my tour of duty... but we were a combat-ready unit, assigned as perimeter guard for field exercises or combat. We were responsible for being first in to an area, and setting up camp (command tents, chow hall tents, digging in for guard posts) before the rest of the troops got there. It was very demanding, physically, and a very dangerous job. I'm a very vocal critic of the situation in Iraq, so I suppose that in gw's eyes, I'm also an unpatriotic coward. Yeah, right. If my Honorable Discharge had not gone through when it did at the end of my contract, I would have been in the first wave, with the rest of my unit, in the original Desert Storm operation. I will pit my integrity, patriotism, and bravery against that of gw any day any time.
 

B_HappyHammer1977

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Now I'll be the first to say, I'm not the biggest fan of Cunt...I mean Bush, for many different reasons. However, most people were happy for invasion to happen on the basis that it was believed there were WOMD hidden in Eye-rack. Problem hit when it was well publicised in advance that the UN were going to go in for an inspection...then all of a sudden...woosh!...all the WOMDs, that half-a-dozen independant 'agencies' said were there, dissappeared! Could it be that that nice Mr Hussein moved them elsewhere? Surely not?
So am I the only one left that thinks there actually was WOMD there and that they're hidden in several secret places?


Bill Hicks, 1994, on how America knows Iraq has WOMD:
(Imitating US official) "Eye-rack - amazing weapons, fantastic weapons"
"How do you know?"
"Uh...we looked at the reciept."