Neat feeling...

[johnpalmer]

Near the end of this article, a certain theory is proposed that some folks might recognize as being similar to a theory from a certain long haired weirdo's livejournal...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4244033/

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Between that and the recent Molly Ivins column (http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv), darlin', I think you've got some pretty good backup for the next (*ahem*)hole who challenges your theory.

Re:

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Depends on what the theory is/was. If the theory is that a number of folks stumbled and wound up believing Saddam Hussein's own disinformation, yes. But to move beyond that to Ivin's apparent assertion that the a demonic administration made up facts to suit their theory, I can't go there.

Folks can screw up royally because they trusted the wrong information, trusted their instincts, overestimated their own intelligence. That makes them screw-ups. It doesn't necessarily make them cheats and liars. Preconceptions can contribute to a suspension of disbelief which is troubling, dangerous, and in dire need of correction, but I am balking at the demonization coming from both camps these days. (I'm trying to explain that distinction to a number of my colleagues on the board of a community organization where any stumble is seen as part of a sinister plot to steal the organization, the neighborhood, or both.)

There's also a certain mordant irony to the notion that Hussein's regime made up stories about their weapons to scare everybody away and wound up invaded instead.

Re:

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

"Demonic" administration I don't go for, either, but I do have some scorching words for their honesty.

Tenet's admitted that there was no imminent threat, and that he'd never said there was; Bush used the notion of an imminent threat to drive the war.

I can actually understand, to some degree, Bush's decision to act when he did. He might well have been afraid that to wait longer would have meant that the inspectors would have found nothing, and he'd lose his chance to act. I don't approve, but I understand... even if the inspectors were already showing that Saddam may have disarmed for purely pragmatic reasons.

And, I can understand that the joke about "how do you know when politicians are lying? Their lips move..." is generally accurate even about 'good' politicians, so you have to grant them a bit of dishonesty out of habit. I can forgive, for example, "they're fighting the terrorists in Iraq to keep them from coming to the US" (Though I think that deserved the response from Doonesbury, "You think Baathist extremists would attack South Dakota?")

But this war wasn't fought based upon "Damn it, we are *right*!"

It was fought based upon "Damn it, *they* are *wrong*!"

Blix was an incompetent bungler; the security council isn't competent to enforce their own resolution; France (who, some may recall, has a vested interest in not having a world body fail to prevent wars after what happened the *last* time a massive failure occurred) is nothing but a bunch of Saddam-loving frogs who have been bought and sold by Iraqi oil money....

Let's remember that France, after being slapped in the face over reconstruction contracts, *still* maintained willingness to forgive some Iraqi debt, so they apparently have some strong desire to do what's right. (Frankly, though, if I had my way, and were in charge of France, any debt forgiveness would wait until Bush was out of office, or the US was out of Iraq, whichever came first.)

Anyway... I can forgive the "we are right!" declarations the administration made prior to the invasion , but I can't forgive the "they are wrong" ideas they expressed.

Herm. Only other thing I want to mention is, my view (and I think the view expressed by the article above) is *not* that Saddam used threats of banned weapons to scare people, but that he was using leaked intelligence of them to get the US to look that much worse when nothing showed up. He placed much too much faith in the UN to protect him, and assumed that, sooner or later, inspectors would return, find nothing, and make the US look bad.

If that was what he was doing, he's succeeded to some degree.