If you can rely on the accuracy of the Washington Post, then the Quote is accurate, while the statement is not.
If it is an accurate quote, then I expect that over time, it will be brought back to haunt him. You can bet the Democrats will keep it alive and well, just as the Republicans did with the quotes from his predecessor. Strange, though, a lie about the justification for going to war, was last used by a Democrat; i.e. Lyndon Johnson who relied on his Secretary of Defense, McNamara, who just before death admitted he lied. Will Rumsfield eventually do the same? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Ousterhout" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Community" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 5:36 PM Subject: RE: Bush does it again :-) | While I haven't seen this yet, perhaps it will be on the news tonight, I | would need to understand the context prior to forming a judgment. For | example, what question prompted this answer and what was the complete | answer. I am very wary of any single sentence quotes. It is too easy to | misunderstand what was actually communicated. | | And maybe, just maybe, the reason almost nobody quoted him was that it | wasn't newsworthy. | | -----Original Message----- | From: Angel Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 3:05 PM | To: CF-Community | Subject: Bush does it again :-) | | | "July 15, 2003 | A "darn good" quote that almost nobody quoted | "We gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let | them in." | George W. Bush uttered that amazing sentence yesterday to justify the | war in Iraq, according to the Washington Post. | | What? Yes, I promise that's what the man said. (And by "him," the | president clearly meant Saddam Hussein -- not Kim Jong Il, who actually | has refused to let international inspectors into North Korea.) | | Now a presidential statement so frontally at variance with the | universally acknowledged facts obviously presents a problem for the | White House press corps. He wasn't joking, and he didn't sound | disoriented or unwell. Although Dana Priest and Dana Milbank wrote the | story as delicately as they possibly could, they couldn't make it seem | less weird: | | "The president's assertion that the war began because Iraq did not admit | inspectors appeared to contradict the events leading up to war this | spring: Hussein had, in fact, admitted the inspectors and Bush had | opposed extending their work because he did not believe them effective." | | Appeared to contradict the events leading up to war? Indeed, that's an | exceedingly mild description of what Bush said. There's no plausible | explanation, unless the president suddenly flashed back to his Yale | sophomore philosophy seminar, grappling with the argument that | everything we perceive is mere illusion. | | For the moment, however, let's just assume reality does exist. What | possessed the president to make an assertion that everyone on the planet | knows to be untrue? And who is going to take the responsibility for this | one? Did George Tenet vet Bush's statement? Do the British have a secret | dossier proving that Saddam never actually admitted Hans Blix and the | UNMOVIC teams? Will Condi Rice or Donald Rumsfeld show up on Fox News | next weekend to explain why Bush's statement is "technically accurate," | even though he shouldn't have said it? | | As hard to explain as what Bush said is the press corps' failure to | report his stunning gaffe. The sentence quoted above doesn't appear in | today's New York Times report, for example. Yet there is no question | about what he said -- undoubtedly to the amazement of both Kofi Annan, | who was sitting beside him at the time, and the dozens of reporters who | were present during their brief joint press conference. | | Anyone who doesn't believe me (or the Post) can watch Bush say the exact | words quoted above here, toward the end of the White House's own | videotape of his remarks, under the headline "President Reaffirms Strong | Position on Liberia." | | Another recent president once said something that was blatantly untrue, | if fairly trivial, and the videotape of his statement was replayed | again, and again, and again, and again ... | | -Joe Conason" | | -Gel | | | | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
