(from http://www.questarian.com/)
Never give up, never surrender.
Posted on 07/26/2003 11:31:01 AM PDT by jocon307
16 Words
From the July 22, 2003 Dallas Morning News: Maybe there is a reason Bush won't retract the sentence.
by Terry Eastland
SNIP
As all the world knows by now, it was during his State of the Union address that Bush, in an effort to highlight Iraq's nuclear ambitions, spoke this 16-word sentence: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Earlier this month both CIA Director George Tenet and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the evidence wasn't good enough to support that sentence.
At the press conference, a reporter asked: "Mr. President, others in your administration have said your words on Iraq and Africa did not belong in your State of the Union address. Will you take personal responsibility for those words?"
It was fair to think Bush would say "yes." Surely the time for "closure" on a story dominating the news for two weeks had arrived. Somehow or other he would admit a mistake--that being, oddly, the only way to "take personal responsibility" in Washington.
But Bush didn't. "I take responsibility," he said, but it was "for putting troops into action" and "for making the decision . . . to put together a coalition to remove Saddam Hussein."
And there Bush stands. He won't disown the uranium-in-Africa sentence.
Is he simply being stubborn? Or is his refusal to concede error justified?
SNIP
The latter must be judged a strong possibility. On Friday, the White House released portions of October's intelligence summary on Iraq's nuclear weapons. The consensus document--a national intelligence estimate--said that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure uranium ore" in Somalia and Congo and Niger. The State Department's intelligence arm dissented from that proposition, but it was in the minority.
SNIP
...the speechwriters did attribute it to "the British government."
And what do the British have to say?During the press conference, Blair emphasized that his government's intelligence on the uranium allegation is "genuine," adding, "We stand by it." And so, it is apparent, does Bush.
Notably, Blair, directing his comments to people "who think that the whole idea of a link between Iraq and Niger was some invention," said that "in the 1980s we know for sure that Iraq purchased round about 270 tons of uranium from Niger." Not "we believe," but "we know for sure," and not "sought" uranium from Niger, but "purchased" it.
SNIP
And what is obvious is that the Democrats, eyeing the 2004 election, are seizing on the sentence as key evidence in their case that Bush misled the public. Indeed, one presidential hopeful, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, has even gone so far as to raise the specter that Bush should be impeached. Could it be that the Democrats are the ones going too far?
(Excerpt) Read more at theweeklystandard.com ...
Sorry if this post is a dup. I searched but did not see it.
Shhh This is the third war we got you into in the last hundred years. You are getting the cuts of a thousand battles.
BLAIR: You can count on us.
Pretty soon your Country will be like ours. It's called King George's revenge for dumping our tea.
The big thing about finding them is to destroy them....not to satisfy the droolings of the anti-Bush folks.
Are you seriously saying that we got you into Iraq?
Just asking, as it's certainly an interesting point of view.
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