Cheers and Jeers: Thursday

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 06:01:52 AM PDT

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...


New York Times columnist Frank Rich Sunday:

If we are really to keep America safe, it’s essential we remember exactly which American politicians empowered Iran, Al Qaeda and the Taliban from 2001 to 2008, and why. History will be repeated not only if we forget it, but also if we let it be rewritten by those whose ideological zealotry and boneheaded decisions have made America less safe to this day.

Tomorrow marks the seventh anniversary of the invasion of Iraq---aka "The 2,557 Day and Counting War." That's twice as long as our involvement in World War II.

Back in 2004 and 2005, when Al Franken was hosting his radio show on Air America, he would often go into his dead-on Dick Cheney impression and growl this quote from seven months before the bombs fell over Baghdad:

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

And then he would let out a heavy sigh of frustration and say (paraphrasing), "Words matter, Mr. Vice President. When you say 'There is no doubt', that means something. 'No doubt' means no doubt. You lied to the American people." (Franken, it should be noted, originally and reluctantly supported the invasion---His words: "I believed Colin Powell"---until it became clear that the justification for it was bogus.)

As the war's architects and cheerleaders try to rehabilitate their images by crapping out error-riddled books sprinked with revisionist fairy dust (Karl Rove's is the latest---Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld's are due soon), let's remember what they and their media enablers really said before and after it all went down. Things like this:

"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."
---Cheney (3/16/03)
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"We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
---Condoleezza Rice (9/8/02)
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"Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof---the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
---George W. Bush (10/7/02)
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My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."
---Colin Powell, United Nations Speech (2/5/03)
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On Sept. 7, 2002, [Judith Miller] and fellow New York Times reporter Michael Gordon reported that Iraq had "stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb." As proof, she cited unnamed "American intelligence experts" and unnamed "Bush administration officials." Subsequently, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Donald Rumsfeld all pointed to Miller’s story as justification for war. On April 22, 2003, she told PBS’s Newshour that WMD had already been found in Iraq: "Well, I think they found something more than a ’smoking gun.’"
---Think Progress (Miller now works for Fox News)
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"[T]he area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
---Donald Rumsfeld (3/30/03)
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"We found the weapons of mass destruction."
---Bush (5/29/03)
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Ted Koppel: [Y]ou’re not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is going to be done for $1.7 billion?
Andrew Natsios [Agency for International Development]: Well, in terms of the American taxpayer's contribution, I do. This is it for the U.S.
---Nightline (4/23/03 Funny how the tea party crowd never uttered a peep as Bush funded his war with borrowed, off-the-books money that added a couple trillion dollars to the national debt.)

Words matter. "No doubt" means no doubt. "We know where they are" means we know where they are. "Facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence" means facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. Write as many books as you want, guys. You'll never sweep your bullshit under the Persian rug.

As we eagerly anticipate the summer withdrawal of our amazing and resilient combat troops from Iraq seven and a half years after they went in, the con artists want you---and everyone---to forget why they were sent there in the first place.

All I can say is: fat chance.