Meeting last month at a sweltering U.S. base outside Doha, Qatar, with his top Iraq commanders, President Bush skipped quickly past the niceties and went straight to his chief political obsession: Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Turning to his Baghdad proconsul, Paul Bremer, Bush asked, "Are you in charge of finding WMD?" Bremer said no, he was not. Bush then put the same question to his military commander, General Tommy Franks. But Franks said it wasn't his job either. A little exasperated, Bush asked, So who is in charge of finding WMD? After aides conferred for a moment, someone volunteered the name of Stephen Cambone, a little-known deputy to Donald Rumsfeld, back in Washington. Pause. "Who?" Bush asked.
The comments on Kos' site range from the anguished to the conspiratorial. I personally don't think this little exchange was deliberately engineered to insulate Bush, as Reagan was in the 1980s during the Iran-Contra scandal, but instead I see this as another example of the guy at the top not "sweatin' the small stuff," as he might twang when he's feelin' particularly Texan and all that. When will this man realize that he is the _president of the United States_ and he has responsibility -- legal, moral and otherwise? Whether he was lying about WMD when he claimed they were an imminent threat or whether he was misinformed _doesn't matter._ What matters is that people died because of the decisions he made. And since it looks like he was either a liar or ignorant (or both, since why should one have to choose?) _he is responsible._ As Harry Truman once famously said, "The buck stops here." I think Americans need to stand up and say, "We need to stop Bush here." *ADDENDUM* _Time_ goes on to report that after the Q&A in Doha, Bush charged CIA chief George Tenet to lead the hunt. Tenet, in turn, appointed David Kay, former U.N. weapons inspector and big-time Iraq hawk as his go-to guy in Iraq. As Reagan once famously joked, "My right hand doesn't know what my far-right hand is doing."
“Whether he was lying about WMD when he claimed they were an imminent threat or whether he was misinformed doesn’t matter”
To some extend it will matter when George W. Bush is put on trial. The appropratiate punishment for the war of aggression against Iraq and thousands of deaths might depend on his knowledge.
Andreas, I see your point but I must disagree. There is no higher power in the United States than President. Ostensibly, Bush is the final authority, and he is the only one able to authorize military action on the scale that happened in Iraq. So what George Bush knew or didn’t know is irrelevant. He is the one responsible, period.
Oh please, stop with this trial stuff………there is certainly no doubt that Dubya believe(s)? there are or were WMD.
This is just a classic example as Chris mentioned of US Gov’t beauracracy in action where as he also mentioned that the ‘Right Hands’ don’t know what the ‘Left Hands’ are doing.
Our government has NEVER been able to develop an efficient and effective communications model that works so that everyone is on the right page.
I’m inclined to agree with Newt Gingrich that the time is well past for a massive overhaul of the State Department when considering all of the various debacles that have occurred over the years.
This WMD issue is just another misstep and it has nothing to do with Dubya, he’s just stuck with having to make tough decisions based on filtered, beauracratic intelligence.
Every administration that comes and goes has to hit the ground rolling, doing the best it can with the EXISTING GOVERNMENT INFRASTRUCTURE. The system is too large and intertwined for any President to have any great effect during the first 4 year term and some changes aren’t realized for several administrations.
Want to bitch? Then complain about all the career Federal employees who do all they can to protect their turf and careers (and very nice Federal retirement) by doing all they can to keep from drawing attention to themselves by whitewashing their product.
What we, the public need to know is what was the plan for searching out the WMD in the first place. There was a plan, what happened to it, how is it suddenly no one knows who’s in charge of it. Someone had to pass off on the plan since there were multiple exploitation teams inserted to begin the search? Perhaps a good source would be Judy Woodruff?
Cheers,
Don B.
There are no WMD. PNAC knows this and you should all expect a large distraction to soon appear.
We’re invading Iraq to secure oil to ensure our way of life. Read this: http://dieoff.com/page140.htm
We can invade Iraq now and control their resources, or we can let the rest of the Middle East rise to superpower status and watch our own country deteriorate over the next 100 years. Which would you choose?
Reading American media and blogs, I’m caught between the rationale that your president is too unintelligent to focus any strategy for anything and that he is being out-manoeuvered by greedy public servants. And the rationale that public servants join the civil service to change the world.
Plus to become President of the United States of America takes a very - especially socially - very intelligent person. Okay… plus a lot of influential friends.
There seems to be a lot of internal fighting in American commentary over ‘pots calling the kettles black.’ To tell you the truth, I don’t think you have a chance of knowing what the rest of the world thinks of you. Your media is clearly ‘under-reporting’ and your elected representation of any political stripe is cutting any kind of theory that government is the ultimate altruistic endeavour - to protect the greatest number of citizens.
You are under-educated and have been in my direct experience of American students in Canada and the States - growing up in Alberta’s oil patch in the 50s where half the class were Americans, the civil rights movement (brought California professors thrown out by Governor Regan) draft dodger era (thank you - we got a lot of great people), graduate level American university students who didn’t know where on the globe any country was. Right there is a huge problem, but in response? the administration axes education programs?? Malevolent or stupid?
Canada is the second oldest democracy in the world and American’s may be the second newest - but tell that to the American media. As a Canadian I know mediation and diplomacy is everything. War costs too much. It is the one thing that sticks out looking at Canadian history.
The American Wild West was destructive and its heroisim a myth. And Canada didn’t go that route even though we share the same geography. Why? As a Canadian, once married to an American, and travelling internationally, I have had this conversation for 50 years.
Personally, I’m waiting for another Watergate or Pentagon Papers or some other miracle to get the right people in the right place.
Amazing that it isn’t as obvious to all Americans that there has to be a malevolent intelligence organizing the ‘lack of compassionate response by the US’ to the Iraq situation, Palestine, Congo, Aids, … endless. I just cannot believe that the people who direct US government policy are simply bumbling souls.
In my despairing moments, I think the operative thinking with the powers that be is that ‘the poor are always with us’ - a wonderful source of workers/ soldiers.
In my hopeful moments, I trust the force of creative ethical reporting will emerge and that that, miraculously, changes the world. Chris’ efforts fascinate me.
Don B.,
Canada,
Another Watergate won’t work. Whether he (King George) was lying about WMD or not doesn’t matter anymore. The President of the United States is a figurehead representing what the people want to believe, not reality. First rule of controlling the masses is to keep them stupid. We’re doing an excellent job of that!
Keep it going Chris…
Canada, clearly you’re a little soft. I don’t blame you.
The people of the US aren’t stupid and nor are the politicians. There’s a political war in our government and a division among the people about how we should proceed in the world. Bush and PNAC want to secure the future of the US by controlling the oil and currency in the Middle East while a good number of citizens would hope for a peaceful solution (which I favor, too, but it isn’t going to happen).
The key positions of US Government are filled with people working for the same goal. Go here and read: http://pnacrevealed.com/
There’s still opposition, but PNAC and the rest of their associates are rich, motivated and organized, so a bunch of whimpering Democrats or few millions upset citizens aren’t going to get too far.
Maybe if someone among them has the gall to release the necessary documents to expose the plans behind 9/11 and the presidential take-over… then maybe enough momentum can be generated to remove them from power - but then the US is going to go bankrupt and lose it’s superpower status in the next 100-150 years (you can savor that, Canada ;)
And now… just because:
“Plus to become President of the United States of America takes a very - especially socially - very intelligent person. Okay… plus a lot of influential friends.”
Okay, I would recommend you stop thinking so blindly and optimistically. You suffer from the common Canadian disease of wanting to be superior because your country has developed in the shadow of the US. I don’t blame you - I just wish you’d get over your petty insecurity.
If all the countries of the world aligned themselves to truly good goals we might have a chance of getting out of this mess, but more likely we’re headed for a century of more war, disease and famine.
See you in the fray.
-Damon
Canada, having read your comments, I find myself surprisingly on the defensive. You appear to be setting yourself up as the omniscient and omnipotent overseer of the world by citing your “direct experience” with so many Americans, and that we are undereducated. You do not know me. Americans may be lazy - most people of the world are, given the opportunity. It is human nature.
The fact that the current American president barely passed his school courses and is demonstrably inarticulate should prove to you that it does not take an intelligent person to gain political office. It takes connections and money.
That Canada’s evolvement has been unlike that of the U.S. is largely irrelevant. Yes, the Wild West was destructive, but it was also constructive. California emerged from the wild west, and where do Canadian entertainers go for exposure and employment? Their ultimate destination is not usually Ontario.
“As a Canadian I know mediation and diplomacy is everything” - ah, that would be why Canada is a world superpower, then; there are surely no internal squabbles over mistreatment of native Canadian minorities; your government has had no scandals wherein highly placed officials resign in disgrace. Perhaps if you were your government’s sole adviser these statements would be true.
The Canadian government is now taking cues from the U.S. puppetmasters on spying and maintaining computer databases on Canadian citizens. Not a good way to abandon Canada’s superiority complex and begin playing “me too”, in my opinion.
Sorry this is a bit snippy - I resent being lumped together with millions of other, very diverse, people and group-insulted.
“There seems to be a lot of internal fighting in American commentary over ‘pots calling the kettles black.’ To tell you the truth, I don’t think you have a chance of knowing what the rest of the world thinks of you. Your media is clearly ‘under-reporting’ and your elected representation of any political stripe is cutting any kind of theory that government is the ultimate altruistic endeavour - to protect the greatest number of citizens.”
Quebec? ……. Ok just kidding. :P