Peggy Noonan: Just the Facts

Opinion Journal ^ | 01/27/03 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

Nothing personal, Mr. President: How to make the case against Saddam.

Nothing is more beautiful, more elevating, more important in a speech than fact and logic. People thinks passionate and moving oratory is the big thing, but it isn't. The hard true presentation of facts followed by a declaration of how we must deal with those facts is the key. Without a recitation of hard data, high rhetoric seems insubstantial, vaguely disingenuous, merely dramatic. Without a logical case to support rhetoric has nothing to do. It's like icing without cake.

[Pokey78]

Pinging Peggy Noonan's list.

[xzins]

Peggy's off form here.

As Rumsfeld would say, as soon as the President says "Violation X is at Point Y" then the Iraqis will move it and claim it never existed.

Far better to put your claims in a sealed envelope and document their existence after you've taken your enemy down.

[goodnesswins]

Somehow, as much as I have like Ms. Noonan's work....I do not think she should presume to tell a President what to put in their State of the Union Address....unless she's asked!

[Mr. Silverback]

Bump to read later

[isthisnickcool]

All I'm saying is give Bush a chance, and stop to constant criticism.

But Bush is STUPID!

That's bacially what Ann Richards, the Texas Dems., the Texas media, the national media, John McCain, Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Paul Begalla, Terry McCauliffe, the Fl Supreme court, Tom Daschle and a lot of Washinton Dems., the Europeans, etc,etc. said!

Oh, George W. Bush oursmarted ALL OF THEM? Nevermind!

[The Great Satan]

Which gets us to tomorrow night's address. What we need this time is something bracing--such as facts, new facts, hard data.

If the American people had the hard data, Miss Noonan, they would understand that a supposedly vanquished pipsqueak Arab dictator brazenly attacked New York City and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, inflicting $200 billion of damage on the US economy and killing 3,000 American civilians in one morning.

If the American people had the hard data, Miss Noonan, they would understand that said pipsqueak dictator has successfully deterred any commensurate retaliation by holding the American people hostage, threatening to unleash biological WMD in our major population centers, should Bush point the finger and attempt to kill him or remove him from power.

If the American people had the hard data, Miss Noonan, they would understand that Saddam survived the Persian Gulf War of 1991 by presenting a credible threat to anthrax the population of Israel, and the United States leadership, then as now, disseminated a variety of cover stories to paper over the fact that it had been successfully intimidated by a vastly weaker, Third World power.

If the American people had the hard data, Miss Noonan, they would understand that we are at least a year, and more likely several years, away from being able to back up our threats against Saddam Hussein with action, and a potentially dreadful war fought with WMDs is a very real possibility in the not-too-distant future.

And thus, Miss Noonan, you can take it to the bank that President Bush's SOTU speech next week will offer only more sanitized evasions and incrementalism, just like, when you really analyzed it, President Bush's speech to the UN last year. The thing is, Miss Noonan, when you're screwed, you are screwed. No pretty words or moral posturing will unscrew you because, at the end of the day, government is about the ability to inflict unacceptable pain on your adversaries, and that is something that our adversary, that tin-pot multi-billionaire megalomaniac gangster in Baghdad, understands very well.

[Utah Girl]

I think Peggy Noonan missed the mark with this editorial. President Bush has been passionate, but just how many times does he need to make his case? It was just six months ago that he gave that great speech at the UN, now we have proof that Iraq has been hiding their weapons, and the US military is moving into place to attack Iraq. I think a lot of the time we as Americans have very short attention spans.

[John Lenin]

The longer the rhetoric and UN nonsense goes on the worse this thing is getting. There is going to be some payback once this starts but it's going to happen sooner or later no matter what.

[lonestar]

Somehow, as much as I have like Ms. Noonan's work....I do not think she should presume to tell a President what to put in their State of the Union Address....unless she's asked!

As many as she has been asked to write, I'm surprised that this column wasn't better. In fact, it's kinda frightening that it isn't more specific.

We know that SH was involved with the Clinton era Twin Tower bombing. It is frightening to me that things have been too quiet here at home. We could have all kinds of attacks all over this country when we attack Baghdad. I hope they have some National Guards on duty and ready to move here at home if needed.

Terrorists are like cockroaches.

It scares me that Dubya has trouble sleeping. At least we can sleep better knowing Algore isn't in the WH. I don't even like to think about that!

[Porterville]

It scares me too; bad things are a foot.

[The Great Satan]

I'm going to refer to a private conversation about another conversation, I hope in a good cause. Four months ago a friend who had recently met with the president on other business reported to me that in conversation the president had said that he has been having some trouble sleeping, and that when he awakes in the morning the first thing he often thinks is: I wonder if this is the day Saddam will do it. "Do what exactly?" I asked my friend. He told me he understood the president to be saying that he wonders if this will be the day Saddam launches a terror attack here, on American soil. I was surprised. We know of the arguments that Saddam is a supporter and encourager of America's terrorist enemies. We know the information that has been made available. But the president has not to my knowledge said in public that he fears Saddam himself will hit us hard on the ground in America, and soon. Maybe my friend misheard, maybe something was misunderstood. But my friend is a careful man, and I suspect he heard exactly right. Which begs the question, what does Mr. Bush know that he hasn't said about Saddam's intentions and ability to strike America?

[Russell Scott]

Many women get squishy with the idea of war. That's why in this case Peggy needs to go bake some cookies, and let President Bush, the Commander-in-Chief, handle the dirty boy in the Middle East.

[Lion's Cub]

I think you are too pessimistic, GS.

Yes, I believe that Hussein was behind WTC I&II, as well as OKC, and probably TWA 800, among other things. And I think he has indeed threatened us with WMDs--which are probably already here.

But so are our scientists--and they are top rate. They've been working on these problems for a while. If our casualties were going to be unacceptable, we wouldn't be making noises and moving our forces.

I agree that Bush has been playing the facts close to his vest because the public outcry would have demanded action before he was ready. And the facts--at least some of them-- will be given to us when he's ready to strike--and that may be when the strike has already commenced.

I don't know why Noonan is calling for this. The fact is that anyone who wants to understand whether the attack is justified or not can look at the information that is already in the public domain. There is more than enough out there to understand that going after Hussein is necessary and worth the risk. It's too bad that the pundits don't bother to do the research before they complain.

[LonghornFreeper]

I think you guys are all taking this article the wrong way. She supports Bush, and the war, and never in the article does she question that Iraq has WMD, or that Bush has evidence of it. We have all heard rhetoric, we have all heard about Halabja (spelling not certain), it is time to show us evidence of why we are going to war. I don't doubt for a minute that Bush has it, but it is time for us to see it.

[Nogbad]

Ping

[Travis McGee]

How about polaroid photos sent to the White House showing grinning jihadis standing in front of famous US landmarks holding up glass jars full of white powder?

[The Great Satan]

I do agree with Noonan that ringing rhetoric is probably not what's needed this time around. It doesn't feel right. If, BTW, Bush has solid intelligence assessments that show that the Atta-al-Ani meeting in Prague is a myth, and/or that the anthrax came from a rogue US bioweapons scientist -- and I cannot believe he doesn't have the answers to those questions, given the stakes involved and the time that has passed -- then he should clean those things off the table once and for all, so we can make an obective decision on whether an attack on Iraq is justified on purely preemptive grounds. However, I can virtually guarantee you that the reason those two issues have been left ambiguous in the public mind is precisely because Bush does know the answers, and they amount to some very bad news for the United States.

[RJCogburn]

Noonan is right on here. Bush still has not yet made a good case that many 'average Americans' accept. Facts, as she suggests, should do that and I anticipate Bush will be more convincing tomorrow.

Mr. Bush, as president, knows things we don't know.

I don't find that helpful one bit....the same old LBJ argument.