another smoking gun

[chelidon]

Do you think the U.S. news media will bother to cover this at all? Is there any chance that the U.S. population at large will ever wake up and realize what was completely obvious to those of us on the "fringe" all along, that we were being fed a pack of lies from Bush & Co from beginning to end, and that war with Iraq was inevitable the moment the Supreme Court gave Bush the presidency? Stay tuned...

I seem to remember that the former president Clinton was brought up on impeachment proceedings for perjury, specifically for lying to Congress about having received oral sex from an intern. Seems to me that evidence is swiftly mounting that Bush and his administration lied to the U.N., to the American public, and not least of all, to Congress, about a far more serious issue -- promising flat out that every alternative short of war with Iraq would be attempted, and that taking this country and its citizens to war was an absolute last resort. From the British memos (and endless thanks to whatever warriors for truth across the pond are finally leaking these documents), proof is emerging that the U.S., far from making any genuine attempt at peace, was cynically using the U.N. as a tool all along to try to instigate war. Where are the demands for an investigation of Bush for this blatant perjury, and the calls for his impeachment?

Not to be paranoid, but one thing that does scare me is that, if not for the necessity of British involvement in the Iraq war, and the paper trail that involved, none of this information would be coming out now. In other words, within the U.S. government itself, there was not one single person with integrity to be found who had this information and felt morally compelled to release it at any point over the last three years. It makes you wonder what other such dishonorable strategems the Bush administration has planned and is planning.

Excerpt:

Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’

MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.
The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.

...

Comments

[contentlove.livejournal.com]

No surprise, as you say, just confirmation after the fact, much like spit in the ocean.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

I used to think that folks calling for Bush's impeachment were way out in left field, as it were -- impeachment is one of those tools that should only be used for issues of great seriousness, and that's one of the reasons I was so outraged when the Republican attack dogs trotted it out as just another tool to use against Clinton. But if it can be proven that Bush lied to Congress about his plans for going to war, that does seem to me to be a genuinely impeachable offense, and one serious enough to pursue. How much more serious an issue could there be than taking your country to war, costing thousands of American lives, tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi ones, not to mention hundreds of billions of dollars?

[contentlove.livejournal.com]

But if it can be proven that Bush lied to Congress about his plans for going to war, that does seem to me to be a genuinely impeachable offense, and one serious enough to pursue.

Yep. I haven't really taken that kind of talk seriously, much the way I didn't take the Clinton impeachment effort seriously, although for slightly different reasons ;)

[eeedge.livejournal.com]

NPR reported this in excruciating detail a few weeks ago. So, not a lot of American media, and one pretty heavily branded as liberal, but media nonetheless.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Did they? Brilliant, if so. This story was about an additional memo, beyond the first one that I've seen (minimally) reported upon, and it just adds further evidence that the sham process leading to war was just that-- the minimum time and effort devoted to smoke and mirrors that Bush & Co thought they could get away with in order to pursue what they'd planned all along.

One thing that does give me hope is that no matter how sneaky, how devious, how cleverly deceptive a group of honorless rogues as Bush & Co, such folk almost always sooner or later make some mistake born of pure arrogance. As happened with Nixon, so, perhaps, we shall see with Bush & Co.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Surprise, surprise.

That's what governments do.

I'm just grateful they aren't committing wholesale genocide against Arab-Americans or something equally horrible. They could be a lot worse.

Lying and manipulation is just like breathing for those in power. It's almost a natural law.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Lying and manipulation is just like breathing for those in power. It's almost a natural law.

No kidding. That doesn't surprise me. But the fact that the system is so corrupt doesn't make me less intent on holding our leadership accountable for their decisions, particularly when those decisions are so horribly expensive, in terms of lost lives, wasted resources, and creation of a world environment which will make the world a significantly more dangerous and less hospitable place for my kid(s) and their kids.

And I guess that's part of the game, too. Say one thing, do another. But then don't expect not to be held accountable if and when the facade finally slips and the truth peeks through.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Of course. Thank God for a scandal-sniffing press. If there's something bad to report, someone somewhere will get it.

Two things I saw in USA Today that suprised me:

The debate on global warming is over. The headline indicated that even the fundies got global warming through their thick skulls.

The other thing was that 59% of the American public supports troop cuts in the Iraqi war. Maybe the American public will get pissed off enough to yell.

Oops. I am contributing to the problem by being so damned pessimistic. I should be adding my voice to the angry voices, instead of just thanking God that it's not worse.