posted on August 27, 2004 09:30:14 AM new
I guess President Bush feels it's time to finally publicly admit a few things that others have known for a long time?
Fri Aug 27, 8:20 AM ET
WASHINGTON - President Bush said for the first time on Thursday he made a "miscalculation of what the conditions would be" after U.S. troops went to Iraq, The New York Times reported. The insurgency, he maintained, was the unintended result of a "swift victory" that led to Iraqi troops disappearing into the cities and mounting a rebellion.
Bush also told the newspaper he did not believe his Democratic opponent had lied about his time in Vietnam. The group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has aired advertisements challenging John Kerry's account of his service, and claiming Kerry lied about circumstances surrounding his war medals. Kerry has accused Bush of using the group as a front to run a smear campaign.
"I think Senator Kerry should be proud of his record," Bush said. "No, I don't think he lied."
Public opinion initially favored Bush's decision to go to war but, after months of casualties and chaos, the public is evenly divided on the subject now.
posted on August 27, 2004 09:51:10 AM new
I think we're seeing some desperation from Bush. In the past few days we've seen:
1. an admission--albeit a weak one--of a "miscalculation" in Iraq. Though, really, to blame the problem on us "winning the war" too fast is hysterically funny.
2. an announcement that Kerry served honorably in Vietnam as well as an effort to distance himself from the Swift Boat liars--as soon as the evidence of their, uh, "miscalcualtions" started coming to light.
posted on August 27, 2004 10:58:58 AM new
What's next?
Since some that post here seem to go along with whatever President Bush says, will that now mean that they will also agree that the war was a miscalculation and that Kerry didn't lie.......
Uhhhh..... that means that they will agree with what some others have said here all along.....
And if they don't agree with them, it means they disagree with President Bush....
posted on August 27, 2004 12:34:20 PM new
I like how he used the word miscalculation.
Not a mistake or an error to go to war. Nor was it poor planning from the military nor did the military underestimate the Iraqi resistance. Rather is was a miscalculation.
I think I will have to try that excuse when I file my taxes with the IRS.
I wonder if Bush would like the media to use that term on election day. Sorry we miscalculated the election returns. You (Bush) would have won if we calculated correctly.
Let's have a BBQ, Texas style, ROAST BUSH
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YOU CAN'T HAVE BULLSH** WITH OUT BUSH.
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We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union....
.....one Nation indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for ALL.
posted on August 27, 2004 12:42:45 PM new
I dont know where you read desperation from, the guy is riding on a bigger wave than kerry could ever get - except from his hair!
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~~ Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues(forces)of life..Proverbs 4:23~~
posted on August 27, 2004 04:42:36 PM new
I think that it would be a mistake to find Bush guilty of calculating anything. Based on the insecure situation that this country is facing today in Iraq along with enormous debt and a failed economy, it can reasonably be concluded that there is no thinking going on.
posted on August 27, 2004 07:05:12 PM new
You can bet this "admission" right before the convention wasn't miscalculated...
___________________________________
Our `neoconservatives' are neither new nor conservative, but old as Bablyon
and evil as Hell." --Edward Abbey
posted on August 28, 2004 06:25:41 AM new
Almost half in a poll taken this week say they think the president's campaign is behind the ads that try to undercut Kerry's medals for heroism while just over a third think the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an independent group according to the National Annenberg Election Survey.
So apparently over half in a poll think the president's campaign is not involved with the Swift bunch.
With that in mind, isn't it frightening to consider George Carlin's remark..."Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that"
posted on August 28, 2004 06:58:31 AM newWith that in mind, isn't it frightening to consider George Carlin's remark..."Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that"
Yup, and over half the people that watch FOX News think that Iraq was directly involved with 9-11.
4 more years of Bush may very well spell the end of America.
posted on August 28, 2004 08:38:48 AM new
Oh reamond - Here's the other side to that story....and 'story' it is. It comes from a very left leaning group of sponsors.
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Anti-Bush Press Eats Crow
By Cliff Kincaid | May 19, 2004
The Sarin discovery was a setback to the anti-Bush press.
The reported discovery of Sarin gas in Iraq has shaken the media establishment, which has been highlighting the failure to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as proof that President Bush lied to get us into the war.
The legitimate issue has always been what happened to the WMD, not whether the U.S. lied about their existence.
Rather than look for the weapons, the media would rather blame the Bush administration—not Saddam—for their disappearance. The fact is that Bush, John Kerry, many in the media, and even the U.N. had agreed that Saddam had the weapons. It was his failure to account for them that was a major factor in the U.S. invasion.
The Sarin discovery was a setback to the anti-Bush press. But in a May 6 lecture on journalism "ethics," John S. Carroll, editor of the Los Angeles Times, put an even larger foot in his mouth, not only attacking the rationale for the war but the people who believe it was justified.
In an arrogant and self-righteous speech that ended up demonstrating his own ignorance of the facts, he denounced the rise of "pseudo journalism" and Fox News.
Carroll claimed there were several "misconceptions" about the conflict, including that "links had been proven between Iraq and al Qaeda." Citing a study from last October, Carroll said false information about a proven Iraq-al Qaeda link had been accepted by an alarmingly high number of viewers of Fox News. By contrast, he said, those who watched CNN and public broadcasting did not buy into the claim. He said other "misconceptions" were that "Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction had been found" and that "world opinion favored the idea of the U.S. invading Iraq."
Carroll said, "Among people who primarily watched Fox News, 80 percent believed one or more of those myths. That's 25 percentage points higher than the figure for viewers of CNN—and 57 percentage points higher than that for people who got their news from public broadcasting."
The lesson is that Fox News is misleading people. But CNN and public broadcasting are more reliable.
The trouble for Carroll is that his information is false, and the study he cited is itself misleading.
It was not Seymour Hersh but Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard who published a November 24, 2003, story that included excerpts from a classified Defense Department memo outlining an operational relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda from the early 1990s to 2003. Hayes reported that Under Secretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith sent the memo to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in October 2003.
There is no dispute that this memo exists. The only dispute is the reliability of the information cited in the memo. Carroll dealt with the memo by ignoring it.
Leaving this memo aside, CIA director George Tenet had sent an October 7, 2002, letter to Senator Bob Graham, providing evidence of the Iraq-al Qaeda connection. The press subsequently published the letter.
Tenet said, "We have solid reporting of senior level contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda going back a decade. Credible information indicates that Iraq and Al Qaeda have discussed safe haven and reciprocal nonaggression. Since Operation Enduring Freedom, we have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad. We have credible reporting that al-Qaeda leaders sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire W.M.D. capabilities. The reporting also stated that Iraq has provided training to al-Qaeda members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs."
Carroll's source for his claim about public misunderstanding of an Iraq-al Qaeda link was a study issued by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, a project of the University of Maryland. It is dated October 2, 2003, a year after the contents of the Tenet letter were publicized.
edited to add: Program on International Policy Attitudes is sponsored by the following groups:
Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Tides Foundation
[right a bell with anyone? ]
Ford Foundation
German Marshall Fund of the United States
Compton Foundation
Carnegie Corporation
Benton Foundation
Ben and Jerry's Foundation
Americans Talk Issues Foundation
Circle Foundation
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Carroll apparently did not analyze the dubious claims in the study. Flatly contradicting the Tenet letter, it says that the "consensus view in the intelligence community" is that Saddam Hussein "was not even working closely with al Qaeda." At another point, it makes the bold claim that "no evidence of any links" between them "has been found." On this basis, the study depicts those who believe in an Iraq-al Qaeda link as uninformed.
It is Carroll who is in error and uninformed. He made serious mistakes of fact while delivering a lecture on ethics. In trying to diminish the importance of Fox News, he made a fool of himself and his paper. He emerges as the "pseudo journalist" he tried to expose.
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