A few weeks ago Hakan mentioned some Fairy Tales he thought were appropriate to the present situation. He didn't mention what I thought was perhaps the most appropriate one, which is "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" or, in what may turn out to be this case, "The POTUS Who Cried WMD". In the end, the Wolf is a serious threat, but if the credibility of the watch-officer is hurt, the ability to stop the Wolf, when it really comes, is impinged.
This is not to say that some evidence mightn't still yet be found, or that there weren't other reasons for opposing the Iraqi Regime. But it does appear that the evidence presented by the Administration was partly fudged. I spoke harshly to someone on this board a few months back, insisting that failure to see the threat of WMD in Iraq was foolish, and so I apologize. Although the final verdict is not yet in as to the extent (or lack) of WMD threat from Iraq, there does appear to have been sufficient reason to call into question the evidence of serious WMD threat from Iraq. The threat seems more obvious from some other countries, and yet now that so much credibility has been damaged, I hope they are not allowed to make too much headway in developing WMD. On Sat, 05 Jul 2003 02:13:49 -0500, you wrote: > Published on Wednesday, July 2, 2003 by OneWorld.net > > Credibility of Administration Iraq Policy Substantially Eroded, Polls Find > by Jim Lobe > http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0702-05.htm > > WASHINGTON - The credibility of the Bush administration's pre-war claims > about Iraq has eroded > substantially over the past two months, according to two new polls that could > signal political trouble > for the U.S. president. > > Solid majorities of the public now believe that the administration's claims > about Iraqi > weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and alleged links to Al Qaeda amounted > either to > ''stretching the truth'' or deliberate falsehoods, according to a detailed > survey > carried out by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy > Attitudes (PIPA). > http://www.pipa.org > > <snip> > > The PIPA poll found that only 32 percent of the public thought the > administration was > ''being fully truthful'' about WMD in Iraq, while 52 percent said that it was > ''stretching the truth, but not making false statements,'' and 10 percent said > the government was ''presenting evidence (it) knew was false.'' > > In a finding that is likely to put Republican lawmakers on the defensive, 63 > percent of the public > said Congress should ''investigate'' the issue. The Republican leadership > has so far resisted > even using the word ''investigation,'' although they have gone along with > Democratic calls for hearings. > > Surprisingly, the PIPA poll found that 23 percent of the public believes WMD > have already been found > in Iraq. Kull said he thought such a notion may be partly ideologically > driven, because significantly > higher percentages of Republicans said they believed this, particularly > ''Republicans following Iraq > news closely.'' Eighty percent of respondents said they depended more on > television and electronic > media for their news, and a particularly high proportion of Republican > respondents cited ''Fox-TV,'' > which has been especially jingoistic in its war coverage, as their main > source. > [more] > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Biofuels list archives: >http://archive.nnytech.net/ > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Save on Coral Calcium. Get Better Health and Stronger Bones. Seen on TV http://www.challengerone.com/t/l.asp?cid-2805&lp=calcium2.asp http://us.click.yahoo.com/9gf46B/EfUGAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
