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 A history of the Iraq war, told entirely in lies.2004-01-04 14:11
11 comments
by Flemming Funch

Via Metafilter, this article from Harpers. The text is pieced together verbatim from statements given publically by senior Bush Administration officials and advisers. Rather chilling, actually, as these are very blatant lies, given by people who probably hoped they were true, but at best didn't bother to check. And yet they're given with the most absolute and certain words possible.
We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. And we found more weapons as time went on. I never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country. But for those who said we hadn't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they were wrong, we found them. We knew where they were.
For any of you who maybe hadn't paid attention: that is completely false, even though they tried very hard to find anything, anything at all. As is the rest in the article.


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11 comments

4 Jan 2004 @ 22:16 by jstarrs : Good!
This needs to be reiterated again & again & again until people, especially those who support the Bush government, realize the serious consequences of these blatant lies.  

5 Jan 2004 @ 11:31 by Bruce Kodish @24.205.69.22 : No Sources, No Context
The Harper piece provides no sources, no names, no context for any of these alleged quotes.

Don't be so damned sure what's "completely false" my friend.  

5 Jan 2004 @ 14:53 by ming : Sources
Some detailed and complete sources would have been good for that article. But, just as a test, I looked up the first two sentences I quoted above, and you'll find {link:http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/iraq/5980577.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp|here} that George W. said those himself, together, in an interview on Polish TV in May 2003. A bunch of the other statements from the article can be found with sources {link:http://healthandenergy.com/lies_and_lying_liers.htm|here}.  

6 Jan 2004 @ 14:13 by bkodish : Lying About Bush's 'Lies'
Here's an article on {Link:http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10602|Lying About Bush's 'Lies'}

You may disagree with his policies but I personally think that building a case on doctored quotes (doctored by the Harpers writer) is not very convincing.

The full 'quote' that was in the Harpers piece (not attributed to Bush) is different from the fragment in the first article that you link to immediately above.  

6 Jan 2004 @ 15:39 by ming : Bush Lying
Well, that's a particular laughable article to present if you want to challenge the statement that Bush is lying. As it just repeats some of the same statements and says it is wrong that they're wrong. Like the thing about whether they ever said that Iraq was an imminent threat. The whole point was to present Iraq as an imminent threat, as that is the only situation where a pre-emptive strike against another country can possibly be acceptible by international law. They made their case, and it was later found not to be true. The case was presented with a lot of double-speak. And, yes, the two sentences I started with "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories." was exactly what Bush himself said. And we can go on with a "You are wrong!", "No, you are wrong!" kind of approach. Doesn't really change the situation. Lies don't become true just by denying them or changing the story. And it is not just a matter of different preferences of politics.  

6 Jan 2004 @ 17:59 by bkodish : Lies Are Lies Are Lies....etc.
The Miami Herald story (posted on their site May 31, 03) that you link to can be interpreted as you do as Bush lying or as I do--that Bush, unfortunately, 'jumped the gun' i.e., spoke too surely too soon since the mobile weapons labs that had been found were not the chemical and biological weapons they hoped to find. By mispeaking as he did Bush opened himself and his administration to those like you, who very much because of their political preferences (in my opinion), prefer to see him as a "liar." Well you haven't convinced me.

By the way, as the article which you find "laughable" points out the search for the actual weapons is far from over with many potential weapons-dump areas still to be investigated.

So the lies you seem so sure of don't seem so sure to me.  

7 Jan 2004 @ 02:08 by ming : Lies
Heheh, yes, it probably says different things to different people, depending on existing political biases. For some the picture is that it probably was a good thing to invade Iraq, regardless of whether they found any chemical or biological weapons, and the details don't matter too much. Which matches with Bush's statement of "what's the difference?". I personally don't agree. And I don't expect to convince those. Neither is that my plan.  

7 Jan 2004 @ 11:01 by Bruce Kodish @24.205.69.22 : Lies
Your views have helped me re-evaluate and dig deeper into my own. That seems the main thing.  

7 Jan 2004 @ 11:34 by E_Johnson @69.33.46.10 : Hiding behind pleasant euphemisms
What you call "jumping the gun" is more than "unfortunate" (in my book.) Let's not be afraid to call things as they are. Such behavior is either alarmingly irresponsible for people in such position of power, or perilously close to treason (in my book) depending on what level of actual wishful thinking vs. what amount of duplicity on the part of Bush and his administration was actually involved.  

7 Jan 2004 @ 11:37 by James @69.33.46.10 : Treason doth never prosper...
as anyone who does any political reading knows, the rest of the couplet goes:

"...what's the reason? If treason doth prosper, none dare call it treason."  

7 Jan 2004 @ 11:40 by E_Johnson @69.33.46.10 : The full epigram is worth recalling
"Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
— Sir John Harington (1561-1612)

This was a distinctly risky joke to make at the time.  

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