Finally, I mean finally, the gig is up. No more hyperbole, no more distortions, no more lies. A new study just released by two nonprofit journalism organizations, the Center For Public Integrity and the Fund For Independence In Journalism has determined objectively and conclusively that the Bush administration and it’s officials made literally hundreds of patently false statements about Iraq and the threat it posed in the two years leading up to the war.
Specifically named were President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.
The study was formulated by reviewing public statements and records as well as information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews. The study made this strong and emphatic indictment,
They were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.The study reported there were 935 incorrect and misleading statements made from 2001 to 2003. It found that Bush officials stated unequivocally on 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both. Bush made 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. Powell made 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about al-Qaida.
According to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism,
It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida. In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003.It’s time for all Bush supporters and many in the media to finally drop to their knees and beg the Iraqi and American people’s forgiveness for not standing up to the lies and distortions that led us into the mess in Iraq that we are in today. While you are at it, you might also apologize to someone, anyone, for the death and suffering we caused along the way.
One can only hope that if there is any justice in the world, someday, the criminals in the Bush cabal will be held to account.
Not with this facist dictator in the White House.