Administration's Message on Iraq Now Strikes Discordant Notes

[Elwood P Dowd]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/politics/07ASSE.html?th

The strut is gone. Shrub and the boys are in trouble.

[eileen_d]

1. My, that was an enjoyable read.

Here's a funny-if-it-weren't-so-sad bit:

At moments, Mr. Bush and his national security team — badgered for explanations about whether the country would have gone to war if it knew then what it knows now — have sounded as if these days, it is every warrior for himself.

Rather than uniform and disciplined, their answers have been ad hoc and inconsistent. And the result is that the president appears very much on the defensive just at a moment when his aides thought he would be reaping the political benefits of ridding the world of Saddam Hussein.

"It's been a bit of a cacophony," one national security official at the White House acknowledged Friday. "Maybe the naming of the commission will smooth it out."

What a joke!

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. Don't you feel their pain?

Their brave and fearless warlord has trouble sleeping at night. He's killed all these people and destroyed all these lives, and this is the thanks he gets. I'm going to cry :nopity:

[Cat Atomic]

2. Well he certainly looked bad this morning.

He's always inarticulate when speaking on anything unrelated to killing, but this mornong he was particularly bad. I also noticed that the television news seemed to play the 4 seconds or so where he looked nervous and afraid over and over. They'd do their brief reports over that video clip again and again.

They usually play to a caricature whenever possible, and I think Bush's previously heroic caricature has recently done a 180.

[Hekate]

5. Not that I think his handlers will allow it...

...but it really would be good if he could crack up on national television. It would be hard for true believers to keep on believing in the faux cowboy.

"He's always inarticulate when speaking on anything unrelated to killing..."
Yeah. I've noticed the same thing, right from the start. I wonder if it goes back even further than his days as gov in Texas, when he presided over more death penalties than any other governor in history? And mocked Karla Fay Tucker, the born-again murderess who appealed for clemency. But I didn't see those for myself, just read about them courtesy of Molly Ivins et al.

What I can't forget was the way he told the nation and the world about bombing Afghanistan and scooping up lots of Taliban. Okay, US troops captured a lot of Taliban. Good thing. (But isn't there a Geneva Convention set of rules for POWs? Apparently not in Dubya's world.)

Then Dubya leaned against the podium and said of those who had not been captured, "Heh heh Let's just say heh heh they're no longer a problem. "

He likes telling people to kill others at his behest. Goes to character. Brrr.

Hekate

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." ~Donald Rumsfeld

"But why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many,
what day it's going to happen, and how many this or what do you
suppose? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my
beautiful mind on something like that?" ~Barbara Bush

"I guess they live in an alternate universe." ~Hekate

ARLINGTON WEST, SANTA BARBARA CALIF.
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Default.htm
click on the large photo of AW to go here:
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Arlington_west_121003.htm
Scroll down the page for all the photos...

[fearnobush]

4. The Chimp has no honor.

Iraq "is a grave and gathering danger," Bush told the United Nations on Sept. 12, 2002. At the White House two weeks later -- after referring to a British government report that Iraq could launch "a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order" is given -- he went on to say, "Each passing day could be the one on which the Iraqi regime gives anthrax or VX -- nerve gas -- or someday a nuclear weapon to a terrorist ally."

Three weeks later, on the day the NIE was delivered to Congress, Bush told lawmakers in the White House Rose Garden that Iraq's current course was "a threat of unique urgency."

On Thursday, summarizing the NIE's conclusions, Tenet said: "They never said Iraq was an imminent threat."

WP today.

[aquart]

6. So Bush gave a secret private briefing and LIED.

God, how the in people hate that. Their status and self esteem depends so much on knowing that they know more than the rest of us know.

And now it turns out that any peasant protestor in the streets knew more.

The mood must be ugly in DC.

[Karenina]

10. Feast your eyes

Beetwasher posted a "what he said" thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1091703

Pssst... the *guy fronting for this clusterfuck was *aWol. Pass the word.

[rumguy]

7. The article notes that Bush looked "unusually ill at ease"

That was my impression too...he was just quickly reading through the statement...he looked pissed off or something...

A little boy forced to admit he was wrong...

[izzie]

8. Did your Mother or Father ever tell you to say you were sorry?

And mean it and that was the really hard part. We do know that no one is going to fall on his dagger, so to speak, for this man. He is number one and does not seem to care about others. Hell he did not even stick around when his daughter was in the hospital, he went fishing. These men around him will protect them selfs. Most did not get where they were buy being walked on and I will bet they will save them selfs first.Congress will be the most fun as when one Republican thinks he may not get back in, the colors will change. Statesmen we do not have. Only a few can say this is how I am, take it of leave it. Kennedy is one.

[Jose Diablo]

9. There is blood in the water

The feeding frenzy should start very soon.

The CIA "chumming" with Plame, then Tenet claiming the CIA intelligence couldn't determine if Iraq had or did not have WMD, then Kay.

And now the latest, another committee to investigate intelligence using rabid uber conservative judge Silberman.

I doubt *Bush has it in himself to survive what is getting ready to happen. He needs those cheers from the crowd. He is very insecure personality wise. He will crack like an egg.

Get your popcorn and beer, this should be good.