If you haven't done so already, I suggest everyone take the time to sign the online petition requesting a full and public investigation into the intelligence distortion by this administration. The link can be found at:
http://www.moveon.org/distortion/The site will send a form letter to your representative and senator. You also may post an additional message. Here's what I wrote:
<CLIP>
So much for an accountable White House. Prior to the start of the conflict in Iraq, our President and his spokespersons led us to believe that Iraq was capable of launching an attack against U.S. interests in the form of chemical and biological weapons in a mere 45 minutes. Furthermore, we were told by this president that Iraq was in the process of re-starting a nuclear program and had attempted to procure materials for this purpose. This administration also exploited the tragedy of 9/11 by claiming that Iraq was a hot bed of terrorist training activities of "Al-Quaeda - like" organizations. In the media and the mind of the American people, this essentially cemented the perception of a link between Iraq and 9/11. The rest of the world, and the world intelligence agencies rebutted the claims of this administration, and indeed the sad motley group that the president has the gall to call a strong coalition reflects the fact that world opinion was and is strongly against the assertions by this president in the name of United States security. This president continually pounded the assertion that there was no more time, that action was required immediately, despite the protestations of the U.N. arms inspectors request for more time.
Now, in the aftermath of this conflict, we have approximately 200 American sons and daughters dead, with more casualties occurring daily. Add to that countless numbers of Iraqi soldiers and civilians, numbering in the thousands. We have a country destabilized, and the chaos left in the wake of this conflict indicative of incompetent planning for post-war administration of Iraq.
After weeks of searching, interviews with Iraqi weapons scientists, we turn up... NOTHING. This administration then subtly changes its spin that we did this because of the existence of WMD programs in Iraq. Programs are a far cry from the scare tactics claim of imminent attack against the U.S. The red herring of this being for the liberation of the Iraqi people is thrown in for good measure. The chaos, emnity, and continuing American casualties are a clear indication of just how much the Iraqi people value our "liberation."
This president has claimed through Dr. Rice that the CIA director did not tell him to purge questionable intelligence claims from his State of the Union address. REGARDLESS of that, prior to this conflict going forward, this president and his handlers were fully cognizant that the intelligence was faulty at best. Rather than a retraction, or being up front about the questionable nature of this intelligence, the American people were left uninformed, until recently when this administration has been called out about this faulty intelligence. Only after being caught cheating do they admit there being an issue, and rather than accepting responsibility, they are spinning and casting the blame elsewhere - blame it on the CIA director, blame it on faulty British intelligence, blame it on anyone else but the president. This is sad, and this is criminal.
Taking a country to war, and causing the destruction of a country, and the deaths of thousands of human beings is a grave and weighty undertaking, a decision of incredible import and consequence. If this president knew that the intelligence was questionable and pursued this conflict due to internal policy, this is criminal. If this president did NOT, as is claimed, realize that the intelligence was questionable, or that the failing was with our intelligence community, it is also criminal. A decision of this gravity, affecting this number of human lives requires near certainty - any grounds of reasonable doubt, this operation should have been pulled.
The actions of this administration are irresponsible. This administration has used fear and jingoistic patriotic fervor to further its policy in Iraq. Our perception in the world community has been seriously damaged. Our security has been seriously compromised, and as it is evident that the imminent danger was just so much spin, it is readily apparent to the rest of the world that this is an unjust war. Most importantly, our administration has managed through its inept foreign policy, its sliding position on the justification for this war, to fuel the passions of a thousand want-to-be Osama Bin Ladens (remember him?). This is a far more dangerous world now than it was before.
This situation demands a full and PUBLIC investigation. The American people were either deceived, or ill-served by gross incompetence. Either of these choices qualifies for a serious rebuke of this administration.
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