No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

The Incompetent Bush Administration

One defense frequently heard for the lie about Iraq trying to buy uranium in Africa in the State of the Union speech has been "British intelligence *still stands by* the intel referenced by Bush."

Let's look first at the process by which it was included in the speech. British Intelligence reported that they had concluded that the statement was true, and I am told still (publicly) stands by the Intel. Our intelligence disowned it, and had in the previous September advised the British that it was a bad conclusion. Who was George Bush going to go with? We can ignore his advisors. Bush gave the speech and he had the final say regarding everything that went into it.

Well, The Africa uranium story was the only publicly uncontested evidence that Iraq was a threat to the US at the time of the SOTU speech, and Bush needed to get the nation behind him for the war he had already - for other reasons, possibly including orders from God - decided to take us in to. ~Our~ Intelligence Agencies are ~not~ giving the answers we want, but Bush had the report from the British that said what he wanted. He decided to say the British 'have recently learned' that Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa. He used it ~knowing~ that it was doubtful, since our Intelligence professionals could not find support for it. That is lying to the public. Plain and simple. Bush and his crew ignored the Intelligence process to present the information that they political needed to present.

As for the British ~still~ standing by it, the issue is no longer relevant to MI6. No one needs their new opinion on Iraqi WMD because anyone can now just go over there an look for themselves. So there is no need to update the earlier report. Since Blair is in hot water over the war, for the MI6 to gratuitously issue a changed report that no one needs would only add to the problems Blair already has. No civil servant in his right mind is going to do that. If asked on the subject, they will most likely simply answer "Our last report said...." and quickly move to a safer and more current subject. They aren't so much standing by the report as simply not updating it with later and more reliable information.

In short - Bush lied. He did it to get the war he wanted before he took office.

Tell me - are we any safer now than we were before Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield invaded Iraq? If we are, it isn't because of the preemptive invasion of another country half-way around the world last Spring.

At the same time, the issue of the lie in the SOTU speech simply points out one more place in which the Bush administration has operated incompetently, as the entire diplomatic effort before the war (especially Turkey, but also the UN and NATO) and as the absence of any reconstruction plan for Iraq after the war both clearly demonstrate. India and France have both refused to send troops to Iraq, so our guys are still there and will be for the foreseeable future. This is a ~direct~ result of the Bush diplomatic ineptitude and the absence of post-war reconstruction plans.

They have gotten the Iraq war totally wrong (saved militarily by our superbly trained and equipped military - dating from the Clinton era because Rumsfield certainly had nothing to do with training and equipping it.), they have gotten the economy wrong, and they refuse to release the completed study on what the Federal Government did or failed to do that might have effected 9/11. If it had contained any news that put this administration in a good light, it would have been released last December when it was completed. This administration has proven its utter incompetence in everything it has touched.

The Bush administration is not just a failed Presidency. It is very likely the single worst Presidency the US has ever had of all 43.
posted by Richard at 11:09 AM