Bush and Co. pulled wool over own eyes

[RedEarth]

Bush and Co. pulled wool over own eyes

Published on: 11/03/05
Did the Bush administration mislead the American people in order to draw us into war? The short answer is yes.

........

Put less graciously, they were suckered by their own con. As proof:

• They budgeted a total of $1.7 billion to rebuild Iraq — we now spend more than that in Iraq in about a week.

• They thought they could occupy Iraq with a third of the troops that experienced generals told them they needed; today, our troops are getting maimed and killed with explosives looted from Iraqi weapons sites because we lacked the manpower to guard those sites.

• They expected to have the country on its feet and financing itself from oil in 90 days; 30 months later, we are farther from that dream than ever.

Their real mistake, though, was their refusal to trust and respect the American people. They thought we had to be terrorized into war for our own good, and they treated us accordingly. And if today, the American people are getting increasingly angry about that treatment . . . well, good.


— Jay Bookman is deputy editorial page editor. His column appears Thursdays and Mondays.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/bookman/2005/110305.html

[Surya Gayatri]

1. "Refusal to...respect the American people"...

Contempt, disdain and swaggering braggadocio. Yeah, blind-sided by arrogance. SG