How History Will View Bush

[davidswanson]

By Bob Fertik and David Swanson

As George Bush prepares to leave office, he and his aides are trying desperately to rewrite history, especially on Iraq. Nearly six years after invading Iraq on the basis of lies that were manufactured inside the White House, the Bush Administration adamantly insists the lies were all innocent mistakes. Were they?

Originally, the invasion of Iraq was justified primarily on grounds that Iraq had substantial quantities of chemical and biological weapons and had "reconstituted" its nuclear weapons development program, and that it could give terrorists "weapons of mass destruction."

But there was no actual evidence Iraq had such weapons, and the White House knew it.

In 1995, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law Hussein Kamel informed U.S. and British intelligence officers that all Iraqi biological, chemical, missile, and nuclear weapons had been destroyed under his direct supervision. After U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998, Scott Ritter wrote, "The chemical, biological, nuclear, and long-ranged missile programs that were a real threat in 1991, had by 1998 been destroyed or rendered harmless." Ritter's conclusion was confirmed by the DIA in September 2002: "A substantial amount of Iraq's chemical warfare agents, precursors, munitions and production equipment were destroyed between 1991 and 1998 … here is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons."

In September 2002, CIA Director George Tenet personally told President Bush that Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri - whom the CIA had recruited and persuaded to remain in place - said Iraq had no WMD. That fall, the CIA sent Iraqi-Americans to visit Iraqi weapons scientists, and they reported all weapons programs had ended. In January 2003, Iraq's intelligence chief Tahir Jalil Habbush told British intelligence the same thing.

Thus the evidence against Iraq's possession of WMD's was overwhelming. What was the evidence for WMD's?

The source for biological weapons was the German informant "Curveball," whose interrogators informed the Bush Administration that Curveball was not "psychologically stable," was a heavy drinker, had had a mental breakdown, was "crazy," and was "probably a fabricator."

One source for nuclear weapons was a letter about an attempted Iraqi purchase of uranium from Niger that was given to the CIA in Rome in 2001, but the CIA quickly rejected it as a forgery. Ambassador Joe Wilson visited Niger in early 2002 and further discredited the claim of an Iraqi uranium purchase. The other source was the capture of aluminum tubes in Jordan in 2001, which Bush administration hardliners claimed were intended for uranium-enriching centrifuges. But experts in the Energy and State Departments insisted the tubes were for conventional battlefield rocket launchers.

Thus the weight of evidence was solidly against Iraq WMD's; the evidence for WMD's lacked credibility. So who is responsible for the lies - the intelligence agencies or the White House?

In June 2008, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence blamed the White House and said the statements about WMD's made by Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld were not substantiated by evidence. According to Chairman Jay Rockefeller, "In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent."

Moreover, the White House directly pressured intelligence agencies to twist the evidence. Cheney made several visits to the CIA to pressure analysts. Numerous intelligence officials have testified about White House pressure, including Robin Raphel and David Dunford of the State Department, Richard Kerr and Paul Pillar of the CIA, and former national security official Kenneth Pollack.

The elaborate White House scheme to manufacture WMD lies was best summarized by Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of Britain's MI6, upon his return from meeting with CIA director George Tenet in Washington in July 2002. According to minutes of Prime Minister Blair's cabinet meeting on July 23, Dearlove reported "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

The invasion of Iraq was a catastrophe of historic proportions. George Bush and senior White House officials may never admit they deliberately lied about Iraq's weapons, but history has already concluded otherwise.

--

Bob Fertik is president of Democrats.com. David Swanson is Washington Director of Democrats.com.

[liberal N proud]

1. Try as they might, bu$h's destiny in history is set

Past destroying documents, the evidence of George W. Bu$h's failures are piled higher than the twin towers that fell on 9/11.

Historians will judge him as they see it, a total blunder in American history.

[KharmaTrain]

2. His "Legacy" Is Assured...

Just like Richard Nixon shaped a lot of my political views and made me a lot stronger Democrat, I saw the same thing occur during the past 8 years. In the past two years, the party went from being on the verge of irrelevance into full control of all three branches and have make the GOOP irrelevant. Obama's big victory is boooshie's legacy...so are the millions of new Democrats who weren't fooled by the GOOP con games and feel good slogans.

Let them "revise" history as much as they dare, fact remain facts, the dead remain dead, the memories of millions will live longer than one man's dillusional ego.

I will say this shitstain's legacy isn't fully written...that comes with the epilogue...how Obama and the Democrats cleaned up his messes.

[MotorCityMan]

14. GREAT post, KarmaTrain!

I have been avoiding *'s "legacy" speeches like the plague. I just can't stomach his refusal to take ANY responsibility whatsoever. Actually, I just can't stomach * or anyone or thing remotely connected to him. He can delude himself all he wants, history will NOT be kind to him.

This sentence from your post really jumped out at me;

"Let them "revise" history as much as they dare, fact remain facts, the dead remain dead, the memories of millions will live longer than one man's dillusional ego."

Excellent choice of words.

I pray (and I'm not a praying man) that Obama does not just let them leave office without having to answer for themselves.

[dysfunctional press]

3. the one silver-lining to bush's legacy for history....

we won't do anything concrete about global warming until it's too late(if it isn't already), so there probably won't be too much future history in civilization for him to worry about.

[mmonk]

4. Most people think Iraq was an honest mistake due to a lack

of a real press corp, political propaganda, and bush's protectors for life in Congress who work hard to preserve his legacy and newly minted unconstitutional powers for the executive branch.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I think history will view the American people as not much better than Bush.

So Obama has to soft-pedal the culpability of the criminals. Can't bruise the feelings of a country that let itself be led so easily into an elective war, an immoral war. The American people will not stand for having their noses rubbed in reality. We are special, God has made an exception for us. We can do no wrong.

For years I made excuses for my fellow Americans. They were deceived by the lying Administration, they were lied to by the corporate press. We are no worse than an other human beings on Earth. Well, I'm getting tired of making excuses, because it's become evident that it's not just about the war, not just about the lying press and the smooth-talking politicians. It's about us.

We need our fix of cheap oil, so let's just let those doubts slide. We can't live without our plastic culture, so global warming can't be real. We're OK, Jack. We got ours. If you don't, if you're poor, God must not love you,and if even God doesn't love you, then why the hell should I be throwing you any bones?

So you better not rock the boat, Barack. You better keep my supply of stuff coming, and you better not try to make me feel any responsibility for this incredible mess, or I'm gonna turn back to the Republicans beause I at least know they peddle an effective variety of sleeping pill.

[MiniMe]

6. I lived through the Raygun years and I thought he was a horrible President

I remember somebody I worked with saying that she thought that history would be much kinder to Raygun, I disagreed. Well, we know what happened after that. I was wrong. Compared to what we have now, Raygun was a good President. Not a great President, but a good President comparatively. I don't see how history could see bush as anything but the disaster that he has been. I've been wrong before, I hope I'm not wrong this time.

[Xenotime]

7. He was a mindless zombie running this country.

[ThomWV]

8. You were right and Reagan still holds the title of wors President in our History

He was the gateway by which the filth which is the Bush Administration found its way to power and brought us to the situation we are in today. It all began with Reagan and just as metaphorically Adam is the father of mankind so is Reagan the father of Bush and all he has brought to us.

[Terran]

9. It did begin with Reagan, yes, but Bush's crimes

are several orders of magnitude beyond Reagan's. The Bush Gang make Reagan's coterie look like a bunch of amateurs and idealists.

[The Wizard]

10. Reagan was an unwitting front man

for the Bush crime family. He made a living pretending to be someone other than who he was. He was in essence, the "Acting President." After he was shot he was the ribbon cutter in chief. The guy who shot him has ties to the Bush crime family.
Now they're trying to use the Jebster to clear the family name. And he will if we allow it. We have to badger the media at any attempt to whitewash these swine. Remember it was Jeb's corrupt state and Antonin Scalia that put W in power. They are on par with the Romanov dynasty.
Eternal vigilance is the price we pay for liberty.

[barbtries]

16. thank you

it can't be said often enough. it is so true.

[balantz]

11. My concern is that it may be a little early to think of him as something to look back on.

He and all his many friends have been around for a long time, and though it looks like they are heading out the door I think we can safely assume they are really set in place quite firmly in so many ways. They didn't build this thing up just for one big robbery and then goodbye, they have long been setting their sights on the whole shebang; complete control over all resources and populations.

And those WMDs that were destroyed under supervision in Iraq in the '90's, where did they come from in the first place? We really need to collectively wrap our heads around this big game they have been playing on us if we someday want to be able to wave goodbye to them once and for all.

It's a game of world domination. Ultimately it's the elite few and their desire to own and control all vs. the rest of us. Class warfare in this day and age has no borders, and a secret government that runs amuck has set itself no ending date.

[bvar22]

12. Bush's legacy will be somewhat rehabilitated....

....when Obama and The Democrats escalate the War in Afghanistan and continue the quagmire in Iraq with "residual forces" "to protect American interests".

[ooglymoogly]

13. Well they made it work for Ray gun...why shouldn't it work

for *, after all the media is in their pocket and they have no qualms about fabrication; Particularly since the media is complicit in his crimes.

[barbtries]

15. i would like for gwbush

to be remembered as the president who spent the last 30 or so years of his life behind bars for the crimes he committed while in office.