Facts and quotes since 1990

Greyhawk at the Mudvillegazette has compiled an important piece of evidence regarding the war against Iraq — A Brief History of a Long War (Iraq, 1990-2003)

Perhaps it has become too much for them to bear, this great and terrible burden of leadership, though stepping aside and letting those of stronger, more determined convictions carry on might be even less palatable to them. Thus history is being rewritten, and free speech is being cheapened by some who employ it the most and cherish it the least – even as Americans fight and die to uphold their rights to do so.

One of the most blatant – and most effective – examples has been the highly successful propagation of the idea that the war in Iraq began as a misguided result of the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11th 2001. To achieve this feat of near-universal denial requires the dismissing of over a decade of real history – years in which a handful of Americans drew a line in the sand on distant shores – a line crossed repeatedly and re-drawn too frequently by too many hands to be forgotten so swiftly.

To read and understand the facts and quotes laid out by Greyhawk, and to then still cling to the Bush lied meme and to contend that there “were no weapons of mass destruction”, that Saddam did not present a threat to the United States, or that Saddam did not have any ties to al-Qaidea — well, to believe all of that in the face of overwhelming and irrerefutable proof to the contrary—you would have to be delusional, or just so overwhelmed by your hatred for the President of the United States that you don’t care about the truth.

“As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.

— Representative Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), 1998

So, to believe that President Bush lied to Nancy Pelosi about Saddam having weapons of mass destruction, you’d have to believe that he did so from the Governor’s Mansion in Texas.