Question about Wilson.

[July]

Since I broke down and turned on the TV yesterday, I've heard Wilson described several times as a critic of Bush/the Iraq War. I didn't interpret his op-ed as "criticism," per se, but as a means to setting the record straight.

Is he described as a critic because of the op-ed, or because of previous statements?

[mmonk]

1. Anyone who questions

gets smeared as doing it for partisan reasons. He helped with the Kerry campaign AFTER his wife was outed. He was a critic on the intelligence used for the reason for war because he knew it was false and said so.

[July]

3. Second part of your answer --

That is my take on the op-ed. What I'm not getting is why he is not described as a "diplomat" or "ambassador," rather than a critic. They make it sound as if he was a vocal opponent of the war before writing the op-ed, which I don't remember. I keep saying to my husband, "telling the truth about Niger makes him a 'critic'?" It strikes me as a rather insidious way to discredit him by impugning his motives.

[mmonk]

5. It's just politics. It plants the idea

that Wilson did something just because he was a critic of the war.

[mmonk]

2. also

he was not a critic of bush 1 and he helped negotiate the release of American hostages from Hussein. He was the last American diplomat to have contact with the dictator before the 1st Gulf War and obviously thought Hussein was a threat for many years.

[July]

4. I'm aware of all of this, Wilson doesn't need defending as far as I'm

concerned. I'm trying to understand if the op-ed defined him in Bushco/MSM minds as a "critic," or if he had spoken out about the war previously. I am sure that at least one person I heard yesterday implied that he was a longtime critic of the war (which I don't remember), and I questioned that in my own mind as an attempt to devalue his views and comments.

[mmonk]

6. No, he wasn't nor started out as a critic of the war.

You've got it right.

[johnnydrama]

7. wilson

He was a critic of the way the war was being sold.

I believe he wrote his op-ed because of continuing misstatatements about the Iraq/Niger connection.

[Neil Lisst]

8. Former Ambassador to Iraq under Bush 41, Joe Wilson ...

is who Joe Wilson is.

He was in Iraq when the finals days before the war in 1991 occurred.

[July]

9. I don't understand how this addresses my question.

I know Wilson's history. See my posts above; I am trying to understand why the talking heads keep calling him a "critic," which doesn't fit with what I know of him.