Bush Administration Comments on WMDs (before and after)

[UpInArms]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5006-2005Jan12.html

Statements by the Bush administration, before and after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 on Saddam Hussein's weapons programs:

BEFORE THE WAR

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." - Vice President Dick Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002.

"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Sept. 8, 2002.

<snipping lots of war rah-rah quotes>

"Based on what we know today, the president would have taken the same action because this is about protecting the American people." - White House press secretary Scott McClellan, on Wednesday.

...more at link...

edited to add:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6434-2005Jan13.html

excerpt:

• "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." -- Vice President Cheney, Aug. 26, 2002.

And:

• "Saddam Hussein is a man who told the world he wouldn't have weapons of mass destruction, but he's got them." -- Bush, Nov. 3, 2002.

And let's all remember that these comments came considerably before then-CIA Director George J. Tenet's assertion that the WMD case was a "slam dunk," in late December of 2002. By that point, Bush and Cheney had clearly already made up their minds.

...more...

:argh:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. In all the years that they had them.... courtesy of many "friendly"

nations.... they never used them offensively outside their borders, never gave them to terrorist organizations, never sold them to other nations, etc.... sooooooo Mr. pResident... your drama is just that... your drama... if you could tell the truth... if only... now that would be worth writing about...

[MSgt213]

2. Nobody cares about Bush's lies. Now if Dan Rather had done the same

or the UN or anyone else perceived to be an enemy of the state or a threat to their strangle hold on power then that would have been a major scandal. It would be worthy of hours and hours of talking heads wondering why everyone is picking on Bush. This is fucking bizarro world were up is down, left is right and wrong is right. And its cool with everybody.

[UL_Approved]

3. Its like this is just gloating

They knew that the evidence was bullshit. They knew that the premise was wrong. But they went ahead anyway.

Now, the are saying that they would have gone to war anyway. They would have used some other excuse to do it. And they are grandstanding about this fact.

The Shrub fortress (formerly known as the White House) is just laughing at the world over this. They are basically telling us that we have no choice in these matters and that they have such control that they can make us do anything that they want. Anybody else angry?

[UpInArms]

4. beyond angry

feeling betrayed by the people that are supporting and allowing the destruction of our country - furious at the pigs that continue to act like this is politics as usual - blisteringly mad at the corporate whore media - resigned to the knowledge that they will take all of us down with them in the the inevitable chaos.

[Blower]

5. "freedom to bear arms for..."

???

[UpInArms]

6. ???

n/t

[struggle4progress]

7. Try to stay cool and clear-eyed. It will take life-time commitments ...

... from many people to fight back effectively.

[priller]

8. This is why we can accurately say Bush LIED about Iraq

They lied because they said they *KNEW* Saddam had WMD, that there was *NO DOUBT*, and they 100% certain of their view.

Of course, now they talk about imperfect intelligence and gee, that's what everyone else thought, etc. But they were lying in the certainty and absoluteness of their statements. And they knew they were lying.