David Drake: Did George Bush Misrepresent What Led Us Into Iraq?

A brilliant post from David Drakes Blog.

Looking back, maybe Bush did mislead us into going to war in Iraq.

Did he? What do you think? Based on what he knew from intelligence reports at the time, did he misrepresent and embellish "facts" in order to justify war with Iraq regarding WMDs, chemical and biological weapons and al-Qaida?

Let's look at the spoken word from President Bush, from his 2002 State of The Union Address:

"Intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members.

"Eleven years have passed since the UN called on Saddam Hussein to rid himself of weapons of mass destruction as a condition of returning to the world community. Time and time again he has frustrated and denied these conditions."

"I want to insure that Saddam Hussein makes no mistake about our national unity and for our support for the President's efforts to wage America's war against terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. I want the men and women in our Armed Forces to know that if they should be called upon to act against Iraq, our country will stand resolutely behind them."

And from the 2003 State of The Union Address, Bush said:

"[The] mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons."

"Saddam Hussein announced that he would no longer cooperate with the United Nations weapons inspectors."Saddam Hussein [has used] chemical weapons against Iranian troops during a decade-long war. Not only against soldiers, but against civilians, firing Scud missiles at the citizens of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iran. And not only against a foreign enemy, but even against his own people."Iraq repeatedly blocked UNSCOM from inspecting suspect sites."

Prior to the inspection of another site, Iraq actually emptied out the building, removing not just documents but even the furniture and the equipment."Iraq has failed to turn over virtually all the documents requested by the inspectors."Instead of the inspectors disarming Saddam, Saddam has disarmed the inspectors."

Now heres the clincher, the first quote WASN'T from 'W' but in fact from Hilary Clinton in 2002.

And as for the second quote, none other than the darling of the left wing political community President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Funny, isn't it, how the Left today falsely claim that if "Bush had only let the U.N. Inspectors finish their job", when their beloved Bill Clinton admitted - in 1998 - that Hussein was NOT allowing the inspectors to do their job.Hillary and Bubba get a Free Pass on their words. Why the different standard applied to both Bubba and Hillary than is applied to Bush?

Bush isn't a Democrat.

Hat tip Clint Heine