A Smoking Gun
I am not sure how many times in the past five years I have said to myself or to a longsuffering friend, "that tears it, the Bush administration has got to go." But Frank Rich's op-ed piece in today's NYT (Sunday, Dec. 11) now makes me think it is time to get serious.
On the same day that the President gave his ballyhooed, "Plan for Victory" speech at the Naval Academy, Rich tells us that Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan declared that the simultaneously released "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" document was "an unclassified version" of a strategic document in effect since 2003.
Then Rich reminds us of Scott Shane's article in the Dec 4 NYT, in which he uncovered that the released document was actually authored, according to hidden document information attached to the file on the WhiteHouse.gov site, by Peter Feaver, a political scientist and public opinion expert hired for the NSC in June 2005.
I had seen news articles about Feaver's work and connection with this document, but had not made much of it, taking it as so much Beltway wonkiness. But Rich's column puts in perspective. A really bad perspective.
If all this is true, and if Rich has construed it accurately, then the President and his official spokesman have blatantly lied to the US public. That they have done this before, I have no doubt. But now they have been caught in a lie about a so-called war strategy that has not ever really existed, and only now exists as a PR document (at best: at worst, simply one more piece of false propaganda). How many more American soldiers should die for a war that has no strategy? How many more Iraqis should American soldiers kill for that? I could talk about our national treasure and prestige, as well, but let's just stay with the toll of human life.
This, it seems to me, is a smoking gun. The President has utterly betrayed our troops (his troops) fighting in Iraq, and, of course, all of us as well. No commander should be allowed to order soldiers into the field without a meaningful goal. Mr. Bush should resign; and if not he should be removed from office. It is beyond incompetence and beyond the normal lies of political gamesmanship: it is perfidious, a "high crime", as the Constitution's article on impeachment requires.
I am ready to write my congressional representatives. Am I missing something?
On the same day that the President gave his ballyhooed, "Plan for Victory" speech at the Naval Academy, Rich tells us that Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan declared that the simultaneously released "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" document was "an unclassified version" of a strategic document in effect since 2003.
Then Rich reminds us of Scott Shane's article in the Dec 4 NYT, in which he uncovered that the released document was actually authored, according to hidden document information attached to the file on the WhiteHouse.gov site, by Peter Feaver, a political scientist and public opinion expert hired for the NSC in June 2005.
I had seen news articles about Feaver's work and connection with this document, but had not made much of it, taking it as so much Beltway wonkiness. But Rich's column puts in perspective. A really bad perspective.
If all this is true, and if Rich has construed it accurately, then the President and his official spokesman have blatantly lied to the US public. That they have done this before, I have no doubt. But now they have been caught in a lie about a so-called war strategy that has not ever really existed, and only now exists as a PR document (at best: at worst, simply one more piece of false propaganda). How many more American soldiers should die for a war that has no strategy? How many more Iraqis should American soldiers kill for that? I could talk about our national treasure and prestige, as well, but let's just stay with the toll of human life.
This, it seems to me, is a smoking gun. The President has utterly betrayed our troops (his troops) fighting in Iraq, and, of course, all of us as well. No commander should be allowed to order soldiers into the field without a meaningful goal. Mr. Bush should resign; and if not he should be removed from office. It is beyond incompetence and beyond the normal lies of political gamesmanship: it is perfidious, a "high crime", as the Constitution's article on impeachment requires.
I am ready to write my congressional representatives. Am I missing something?
posted by ChiTom | 1:03 AM
1 Comments:
Not missing anything that I can see. I'm writing too.
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