WaPo op-eds take on Bush

[grytpype]

Bush: Safely in Denial
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45365-2004Jul12.html
By Richard Cohen

Excerpt:

When it comes to telling you right to your face that black is white, maybe no one compares with George W. Bush. Last week, for example, he responded to yet another report that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction by saying that it didn't matter. "Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons, I believe we were right to go into Iraq," Bush said. "America is safer today because we did."

"America is safer today because we did." The statement is worth repeating because it ranks up there with the insistence that the sour East of Berlin out-dazzled the West. Just the day before, in fact, senior administration officials were saying that Osama bin Laden and his top guys were planning a terrorist attack in the United States sometime before the November presidential election. How's that for safer?


Who's Got the Wrong Values Now?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45366-2004Jul12.html
By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Excerpt:

It's notable that in a week when the major reasons the administration offered for the war in Iraq were undercut by a Senate intelligence committee report, our presidential candidates devoted themselves to talk about "values."

The idea that our country fought a war on false premises is astonishing -- and it has a lot to do with the "values" of this administration.

President Bush's government was unrelenting in trying to convince Americans that Saddam Hussein posed an immediate threat to us, that he had scary weapons, that he was tied to al Qaeda and thus to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It is wholly inadequate to shuck all this off on the CIA. The president was determined to scare the hell out of the country and make the case for war by whatever means necessary.

[MikeG]

1. OH YEAH!! E.J. DIONNE KICKS W'S ASS!!!!

[ewagner]

2. Finally

Somebody in the press is revealing that the Emporer has no Clothes!

That second cartoon is brutal...brutally true....brutally sad...brutally infuriating.........

[JohnnyRingo]

3. Let me get this right....

Even though we found that he had no weapons of mass etc, we were justified in our invasion because he was going to give them to the terrorists.
And...
What is the average level of education of his supporters.

[shraby]

5. I'm sure Saddam would have given

weapons to terrorists who would have taken those weapons and overthrown Saddam. I don't think Saddam stayed in power as long as he did by being stupid.

[Manix]

4. ..they both nailed the smirks' lying ass to the wall.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. .................

[bleowheels]

7. I think a great campaign ad would be a clip of Bush saying...

"America is safer now" and then show the numerous times Ridge and Ashcroft have elevated the terror level, also show the news anchors reporting these elevations. And then end the ad with "SAFER?"

[jbfam4]

8. Great Idea...

and welcome to DU.. I have had this same thought.....we can't be safer if Ridge and Ashcroft keep telling us the terrorists are coming. You can't have it both ways.

[spooky3]

9. Excellent idea--is there some way you could get it to the Kerry-Ed

campaign or to MoveOn.org?

[bleowheels]

10. Just emailed it MoveOn.Org but could not find an email address...

for the Kerry/Edwards site without registering. So I registered and posted this idea on one of their forums.

[Martin Eden]

11. Best E.J. paragraphs:

Bush gave a powerful speech in York, Pa., last week describing his "values." He declared: "The culture of America is changing from one that has said 'If it feels good, do it, and if you've got a problem, blame somebody else' to a culture in which each of us understands we are responsible for the decisions we make in life."

That's a great idea. Applying it to the president means that he, not the CIA, is responsible for the case that was made for the war in Iraq. By the president's own logic, he can't blame a bunch of bureaucrats ("if you've got a problem, blame somebody else") for his administration's eagerness to offer the most lopsided picture possible of the threat Hussein posed.