I was watching the Jon Stewart interview with Donal Rumsfeld and it really frustrates me how hard these people try to rewrite history in order to cover their own ass about what they knew and what they didn't know. As Jon Stewart pointed out the case the administration made for Iraq was always one of certainty. Rumsfeld's reply? It is the job of the president the be certain when making his case to the american people. :banghead:
Here is a time line of the Bush administration lies. Obviously not every single lie is covered but it should give a clear picture of what the administration knew and when they knew it.
Pre-9/11:
Cheney On Iraq In 1994: "Quagmire"
In 1994 Cheney in a response to a question about why they didn't topple Saddam in the first gulf war responded that had they done that it would have created a quagmire. That if you got rid of Saddam you didn't really have anyone to replace him.
Powell On Iraq's WMDs in early 2001: Saddam has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction and that sanctions against him have been working.
Condoleezza Rice in July 2001: We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt. In the same interview when she is asked if she thinks Saddam is a threat she makes it a point not say she thinks he is a threat, she says that the president thinks he's a threat.
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In late 2001 9/11 happens and the administration's tune changes. 3 months after the attack in December of 2001 the Bush administration starts planning a war with Iraq eventhough absolutely no evidance exists linking Saddam to the 9/11 attacks. Saddam's WMD capabilites go from being virtually non existent to a certainty about the fact that he has them. Any doubts Cheney or anyone else in the administration had about how easy the war in Iraq would be go away. A war with Iraq is painted as a walk in the park.
In March 2002, a full year before the war, Bush tells three US senators: "Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out."
August 2002, Cheney insists: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
February 2003 Colin Powell to the UN security council as he holds up a vile of anthax: Ladies and gentlemen, these are not assertions. These are facts, corroborated by many sources, some of them sources of the intelligence services of other countries.
February 2003: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to U.S. troops in Aviano, Italy: "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
February 2003 Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz tells the house budget committee: It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam’s security forces and his army. Hard to imagine.
March 2003: Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a breakfast with reporters: "What you'd like to do is have it be a short, short conflict. . . . Iraq is much weaker than they were back in the '90s," when its forces were routed from Kuwait.
March 2003: Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars: "The Iraqi people understand what this crisis is about. Like the people of France in the 1940s, they view us as their hoped-for liberator."
March 2003 4 days before the war: Vice President Cheney, on NBC's Meet the Press: "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly, . . . (in) weeks rather than months." He predicted that regular Iraqi soldiers would not "put up such a struggle" and that even "significant elements of the Republican Guard . . . are likely to step aside."
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March 20 2003: The Iraq war begins. Now that there is no turning back the administration changes its tune once again about how difficult this conflict might be.
March 20, President Bush, in an Oval Office speech to the nation: "A campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as California could be longer and more difficult than some predict."
March 27, Bush, at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, when asked how long the war would take: "However long it takes. That's the answer to your question and that's what you've got to know. It isn't a matter of timetable, it's a matter of victory."
March 30, Myers, on Meet the Press: "Nobody should have any illusions that this is going to be a quick and easy victory. This is going to be a tough war, a tough slog yet, and no responsible official I know has ever said anything different once this war has started."
March 30, Rumsfeld, on Fox News Sunday, when asked whether Iraqis would "celebrate in the streets" when victory is won: "We'll see."
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Once it was clear Iraq had no WMDs, that this war was going to take years, and that it was going to cost far more than anyone predicted the lies continued. Lies about the justifications for the war. Lies about the capabilites of the insurgency. Lies about what the administration knew and when they knew it.
The media did it's part in this too, and I hope to compile some select clips from people that are still on the air which should have lost their jobs a long time ago because of the statements they made on Iraq. I hope to post that early next week.
To see this post with links please visit my original post here:
Timeline Of Pre-Iraq War Lies: The Administration
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