Wolfowitz should keep his mouth shut

[HBox]

I don't like being misled:http://www.msnbc.com/news/919535.asp

IN AN INTERVIEW in the next issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is quoted as saying a "huge" reason for the war was to enable Washington to withdraw its troops from Saudi Arabia.
"For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on," Wolfowitz was quoted as saying.


British Prime Minister Tony Blair was fighting his own battle against allegations that he fabricated evidence against Saddam after the BBC reported that an intelligence dossier had been altered at the request of his office to make it "sexier" by claiming that Saddam's weapons could be readied for use within 45 minutes.

[FiveB247]

Beat you to the punch :)

http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/viewmessages.cfm?Forum=87&Topic=28699&RequestTimeout=50

http://www.waste.uk.com/gfx/bear.gif

[HBox]

Yes, yes, I hang my head in shame.

I'm waiting for someone to comment about how the "libs" are tripping over themselves to attack Bush.

[Bergalad]

Great. Two threads about the same issue. You and Five need to get together.

[HBox]

Wow, I had to wait like nanoseconds.

[Bergalad]

Hey, at least I didn't say anything about "libs".

[FiveB247]

It's sad how these types will say almost anything to avoid the issue and seem to associate negative attitudes towards opposing views. How come you haven't commented on the actual article or the comments from this US official? Losing any faith in the US's noble cause of disarmament and Iraqi freedom?

http://www.waste.uk.com/gfx/bear.gif

[Yerdaddy]

<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/030512fa_fact" target="_blank">Selective Intelligence - Seymour Shersh</a> - How the administration filtered intelligence for information to bolster their case in the first place.

BTW, Wolfowits didn't mention any of this in last week's Senate Foreign Relations hearings, when Chairman Lugar and ranking dem. Biden both asked him to finally tell them what the fuck was going on.

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FREE YERBOOBIES!

This message was edited by Yerdaddy on 5-30-03 @ 5:46 PM

[Bergalad]

It's sad how these types will say almost anything to avoid the issue and seem to associate negative attitudes towards opposing views. How come you haven't commented on the actual article or the comments from this US official? Losing any faith in the US's noble cause of disarmament and Iraqi freedom?
"These types"? What the fuck does that mean Five? You're the first on here to sob about getting labelled, and then you do that? Nice.
I haven't made my decision yet on the WMD issue because there is no resolution on it yet. I have stated, and you can look it up, that if they never find any proof of a significant WMD program in Iraq that I would be pissed. That's a fact. The public was "sold" on the immediate and future threat from these systems, and if that information was either fabricated or blown out of proportion then I will be right with you in blasting Bush. Satisfied? I am not the lapdog you think I am.

[TheMojoPin]

I have stated, and you can look it up, that if they never find any proof of a significant WMD program in Iraq that I would be pissed. That's a fact. The public was "sold" on the immediate and future threat from these systems, and if that information was either fabricated or blown out of proportion then I will be right with you in blasting Bush.

He HAS done this several times, Five. And people like msyelf have done the reverse and conceded that were ample evidence found to prove that Saddam was an immediate threat to the region and possibly more of the world with his WMD's, I'd be more than ready to admit that many (Though not quite all) of my reservations towards this war would be answered.

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2% << December boys got it BAD. >> "You can tell some lies about the good times you've had/But I've kissed your mother twice and now I'm working on your dad..."

[Se7en]

I'm waiting for someone to comment about how the "libs" are tripping over themselves to attack Bush.

Well, I don't know about liberals in general, but you and Five seem to fit that bill.

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[mdr55]

NOW people are STARTING to get IT!!!

Forget about Korea, Cuba and Iran
Bush's war coming up next....the MEDIA!!!

[HBox]

Well, I don't know about liberals in general, but you and Five seem to fit that bill.


Yes. When will we learn that the government lies to us BECAUSE THEY LOVE US!!!!!!

[FiveB247]

It's funny being label. Thanks...This post has been brought to you by (fill in sponsor here).

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[mdr55]

HBox trying to shock us again. Can't we all just get along.

[The Jays]

Some of the quotations in the Vanity Fair article differ from the versions offered by the Pentagon, which suggested that Wolfowitz meant to say withdrawal of U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia was an important outcome of the war, not an important reason for it.


YAY, let's jump to conclusions and not read that part of the article!

<font color="blue" face="Trebuchet MS" size=-2> Fuck what you heard.</font>
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[HBox]

OK. Fair point. Here are excerpts from the DOD transcript:

No, I think it happens to be correct. The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason, but -- hold on one second --

(Pause)

Kellems: Sam there may be some value in clarity on the point that it may take years to get post-Saddam Iraq right. It can be easily misconstrued, especially when it comes to --

Wolfowitz: -- there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people. Actually I guess you could say there's a fourth overriding one which is the connection between the first two. Sorry, hold on again.


Q: And then the last question, you've been very patient and generous. That is what's next? Where do we stand now in the campaign that you talked about right after September 11th?

Wolfowitz: I think the two most important things next are the two most obvious. One is getting post-Saddam Iraq right. Getting it right may take years, but setting the conditions for getting it right in the next six months. The next six months are going to be very important.

The other thing is trying to get some progress on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. I do think we have a better atmosphere for working on it now than we did before in all kinds of ways. Whether that's enough to make a difference is not certain, but I will be happy to go back and dig up the things I said a long time ago which is, while it undoubtedly was true that if we could make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian issue we would provide a better set of circumstances to deal with Saddam Hussein, but that it was equally true the other way around that if we could deal with Saddam Hussein it would provide a better set of circumstances for dealing with the Arab-Israeli issue. That you had to move on both of them as best you could when you could, but --

There are a lot of things that are different now, and one that has gone by almost unnoticed--but it's huge--is that by complete mutual agreement between the U.S. and the Saudi government we can now remove almost all of our forces from Saudi Arabia. Their presence there over the last 12 years has been a source of enormous difficulty for a friendly government. It's been a huge recruiting device for al Qaeda. In fact if you look at bin Laden, one of his principle grievances was the presence of so-called crusader forces on the holy land, Mecca and Medina. I think just lifting that burden from the Saudis is itself going to open the door to other positive things.

I don't want to speak in messianic terms. It's not going to change things overnight, but it's a huge improvement.


This isn't an unbiased source, but its important to see nonetheless. As far as the Saudi Arabian situation goes, it does seem less worse than the article made it seem.