Day: September 19, 2003

A post on the WyethWire mocking Instapundit as an adherent of Newspeak made me think a little bit about some of what we’ve seen this week. After months of statements calculated to link Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq to the 9-11 attacks, President Bush stated that there was “no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th.” Isn’t that just a little bit like “No, we’re not at war with Eurasia”?

Interesting that the confession, which has long been obvious to most people who paid attention to the fact that the 9/11 hijackers were Al Qaeda and not Saddam’s imperial guard—and led by Osama bin Laden (gee, whatever happened to him? Haven’t heard Bush say his name since, oh, last year some time), was made in response to a comment by the VP on Meet the Press that Iraq was the “geographic base” for the 9/11 terrorists. No, Dick, that would be Saudi Arabia…

Would it be too much to ask for an administration that would tell the truth?

Update: Ted Kennedy calls BS on the president. About time.

Former Senator Max Cleland, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, drops the V-bomb on the Bush administration with a stinging editorial that points out not only the damning parallels between the Vietnam War and our current extended occupation in Iraq, but the damning fact that “the people who drove the engine to get into the war in Iraq never served in Vietnam.” Former Senator Cleland should know on both counts, since he lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam.

Side note: his attack was remarkably factual and even-tempered from a man who was smeared with Republican 2002 campaign ads accusing him of being on the side of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden because he voted against Homeland Security legislation that denied civil service protection to the employees of the new Homeland Security administration.