Did Paul O'Neill betray Pres. Bush?
Jan. 12, 2004, Monday
To vote, click here. Some background: “From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a
bad person and that he needed to go,” Paul O’Neill told CBS’s “60 Minutes.” The
interview aired Sunday just ahead of publication of a new book, “The Price of
Loyalty,” in which O'Neill describes his two years in the Bush administration.
The book was written by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind.
In the book, O’Neill says he was surprised nobody on the National Security
Council, of which he was a permanent member, questioned the president as to why
Iraq should be invaded.
“It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it,” said
O’Neill. “The president saying ’Go find me a way to do this.”’
The official U.S. government stance on Iraq, dating to the Clinton
administration, was that the United States sought to oust Saddam. However it did
not include the idea of a pre-emptive strike until Bush articulated that in June
2002 following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "Last time I checked the dictionary, to tell the truth is not a betrayal,"
reacts MSNBC's Bill Press. "Paul O'Neill didn't betray the president. If had not
told the truth, he would have betrayed the American people."
What do you think?
To vote, click here.
To e-mail us your
thoughts, click here.
More fallout was expected Monday from claims by
President Bush's first treasury secretary that the president and top aides began
laying the groundwork for an invasion of Iraq soon after taking office in
January 2001 — before the Sept. 11 attacks that led to the U.S. military
response in Afghanistan and later Iraq.
Click
here to read more on this story.
To e-mail us your
thoughts, click here.
_______________________________________________ Sndbox mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://a8.mewebdns-a8.com/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net
