Overstatement seen in Bush's case for war...Chicago Trib

[stevebreeze]

Are the wheels coming off the cart? damn I hope so. This article in the less then liberal Chicago Tribune show that at least the truth about *'s forign policy is starting to unravel.


"Four months after Baghdad's fall, virtually all U.S. allegations about Iraq's destructive capabilities remain unproven or in dispute



But the violence and strife roiling U.S.-occupied Iraq, including a vehicle bombing Thursday that killed at least 11 people in Baghdad, is emboldening critics who maintain the White House overstated its primary case for war: that Iraq posed a direct and immediate threat to the United States.

Four months after U.S. forces seized Baghdad, an in-depth look at that case shows that virtually all the administration's allegations regarding Iraq's destructive capabilities remain unproven or in dispute, according to outside experts, former intelligence analysts and a variety of foreign-policy think tanks."


More....
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0308080233aug08,1,992135.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

note the Trib does require online registration.
:kick:

[berry]

1. Well worth registering to read it! I don't think it's syndicated either,

so you won't find it elsewhere.

This is what we've been waiting for--a broadening out of the doubt. Not just the 16 words, but the whole package. This article takes all the elements of the push for war and discredits them, one by one. The tone is calm if a little sardonic. Very credible--good for sending around to apolitical friends.

:kick:

[Forkboy]

2. "Overstatement" is an understatement!

<sigh>

[Robbien]

4. Yea, Dead Wrong should have been in the title

Otherwise it was a great article. It is also good it will be read by the conservative middle because that is the Trib's readership.

[JoFerret]

6. Don't you just love all the euphemisms

for LYING, cheating, killing, maiming.

[Cassandra]

19. It all depends...

on what the meaning of "lie" is. Maybe the whores so abused the word, lie, during Clinton's term that when actually confronted with real lies, they don't know what to call them anymore.

[Ouabache]

3. Yes the Trib does require registration---but this is why this is good

I take an article like this in a conservative paper and forward it to the editor@*mypaper*.com and add something like---


Hey look, even the conservative Chitown Tribune says this *dope* is liar, and here is why, when will you get with the truth?

Shove it in their face. Shove it right in their face.




Trust me -every newspaper has a mailbox called [e-mail]

[HungryLoser]

16. The Trib is one of Chicago's

best newspapers, I read it everyday. They may be a self-proclaimed "Rupublican" (someone made them pick one) paper, but they're not afraid to tell the truth or state the facts. If Bush screws up, they'll tell ya.
The US Senate used the Trib as an example of excellence in journalism, and an ideal goal to strive for in the media when they were trying to reverse the FCC's deregulation of media ownership rules.

[ClintonTyree]

5. Nonsense.............

this is all "partisan politics", or so sayeth our glorious leader yesterday at the pig ranch in Crawford. I'm glad to see the press isn't allowing this to be swept under the White House rug of lies. There's quite a lump beneath that rug, it's hard NOT to notice it any more.

[diamond14]

7. 'Four months'....good!...while shrub spins the '3 month', and now

the '100 day report', someone actually gets out there and tells the truth...it has been 4 months since the war ended, the statue event in Baghdad....(did everyone forget that glorious scene of the war ending ????)

BTW...when is the Commander-in-Chief going to visit OUR troops in Iraq ??? Isn't that required for the CIC ???

[L.A.dweller]

17. He may visit when the time is right

meaning near election time.

[rocktivity]

8. Overstated? Misled?

Who about "conned"? "Conspired?" "Defrauded?" "Flat out LIED"? "Obstructed justice?" And most important, "committed CRIMES"????? This story equates to Nixon's 18-minute gap!



rocknation

[pfitz59]

9. Greedy slime don't care.

Bush* is coming to Bellevue 22 Aug. (Reports say Seattle, but he'll be hanging with Jennifer Dum Dunn, the wicked witch of the East!) His reception will be in the home of the 3rd richest guy in the state and is being organized by the Microsoft CFO! Price of admission is $2000. The Microsoft CFO has been shaking down vendors and underlings for this opportunity to see the great pretender in person. Undoubtedly I-90 bridge will be closed for hours while dimsun and his entourage drive to the venue. I doubt South Seattle or Rainier Valley are on the itinerary! Its all about greed. Soldiers are supposed to die, that's what they get paid for! So Microsoft execs can eat canapes with frat boy!

[SharonAnn]

14. Ooooh, sounds like the Microsoft CFO wants to be a Ranger!

Get lots of donations from friends and contacts for Bush, tally up the points, if he has enough he'll get to be a Ranger!

Woooo-hoooo!

[LizW]

10. Sigh.

Yes, it's great to see it finally in the mainstream press, but it also makes me want to cry. Where the hell were these guys when there was a chance of stopping this war? You can't tell me they didn't know what we knew.

Does all this recent frowning disapproval of Bush's "overstatements" bring back the lost sons and daughters and husbands and wives? Does it ease the survivors' broken hearts? Does it put the countless lost limbs back in place? Does it restore sanity to the troops who have quietly lost it in the blood and the sand of the desert?

I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I am glad to finally see something that tells me the world may not stay mad forever, but jeez, at the same time it makes me so angry.

[Robbien]

11. Me too.

And just think of all that wasted effort on Kobe and all the other tabloid stories they stuff down our throats. Where is their pride in their profession?

[diamond14]

13. keep fighting, don't give up...shrub's house of cards is collapsing

because of people-power...please, keep writing to your congressional representatives...they need to hear from you...if you get a chance this month, go to their office in your home state...and let them know what you think and what you want them to do about it...

PLEASE help...call into talk shows...write and visit congressional reps...write letters to your local papers...protest shrub and his cabal wherever they go...think creative...

[reprobate]

15. Creative? How about this?

How about making up a cd with references from DU on all the nefarious things this cabal has done. Things like the 9/11 time line. Like the connections of the iran-contra crew with the administration. Like the criminal leaking of the Wilson-Plame cia connection.

Put all these links and stories on a cd and together with telling your congress critter about what you want, give him/her the cd as ammunition to use against the cabal.

Just a suggestion.

[snippy]

22. I agree. But I think it may make it harder to market the Next Bush War.

I take some comfort in that.

[rocktivity]

12. Nice epitaph, Georgie

(Bush said last week during a White House news conference)..."Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States security and a threat to peace in the region...In order to placate the critics and the cynics about intentions of the United States, we need to produce evidence...I fully understand that. And I'm confident that our search will yield that which I strongly believe, that Saddam Hussein had a weapons program."

Sorry Georgie, but what you orginally said you "strongly believed" was that Hussein was an IMMEDIATE AND IMINENT threat with WMDs that could strike the U.S. within 45 minutes. The United States now knows what your intentions truly were--to fatten the wallets of your campaign contributing friends and family. That's why you're changing your story--and why you have some nerve accusing OTHERS of being cynical!

[Judi Lynn]

18. Wonderful seeing this in the Trib.!

Thanks a lot.

You hate to get your hopes up by now, but it could be signifigant!

[grasswire]

20. outstanding, thanks...

...it's not drip drip drip now...

it's plop plop plop!

(apologies to Jim Sagle)

[FubarFly]

21. The question of shrub's veracity is now in the mainstream consciousness

Until the misadministration answers the essential questions about Iraq, WMD's, and intelligence claims, doubts will grow. So far, their answers have been less than satisfying. Silence on this subject hurts their cause, not ours. This is why the drips have become so effective.

People are aware that Iraq is an unholy mess. They may not know how many people are dying, but they do know people are dying daily. They aren't buying the liberation and democracy spin. People now want to see some substance underneath the glossy surface, and shrubco is unable to give it to them.

This is a big reason why i think, ultimately, we will win. I believe we now we have the opportunity to fill a void with reason and truth, where only fear and confusion existed before.

[snippy]

24. Some journalist needs to report on the answers to these questions.

1. Who made the decision to use a campaign of lies to market the invasion of Iraq? (Was it Turd Blossom Rove? Bush? Cheney? Roger Ailes? Someone else?)

2. When was that decision made? (Before or after January, 2001? or September 11, 2001? or March, 2002 when Bush told three Senators in Rice's office: "Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out."? or September 2002 when Andrew Card said about trying to sell the American people on the invasion of Iraq: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August."?)

3. Why was that decision made? (Political reasons? Financial reasons? Personal reasons?)

I think the answers to these questions would reveal a criminal conspiracy and could lead to the appointment of a special prosecutor.

[Poiuyt]

26. Those are excellent questions

I doubt if we'll ever hear the answers though.

[Jonte_1979]

23. "Overstatement?"

Now that's an understatement!

[Guaranteed]

25. I showed this article to my dad, along with Al Gore's speech...

He's a life-long Democrat, but against his better judgment was snowed by Bush and his "we know more than you do" attitude. Needless to say, he's come around now...I feel much better, as it was a source of tension. They're all coming around....things are looking up.O8)