The Lies That Led Us Into War

By Dan Hagen

Sad to say, in 2012, it’s not clear to me that Americans actually care that they were lied into a war with Iraq by the president and vice president within the last decade.

Nor is it all clear that they would even mind being lied into another one with Iran right now — at least until that new unnecessary war wrecks this nation.

Nevertheless, let’s refresh our memories.

“Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

— George W. Bush, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2002-10-07, on evidence for Iraq’s non-existent nukes.

 “The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other.”

— George W. Bush, 2003-03-17

 “Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.”

— George W. Bush, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2002-10-07. These tubes turned out to be nothing more threatening than the tubing used to construct playground equipment.

“We’ve also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States.”

— George W. Bush, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2002-10-07, on Iraq’s nonexistent drones capable of launching an attack on the USA.

 “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.”

— George W. Bush, 2005-05-23, Interview by TVP, Poland. If he found them, what happened to them?

 “Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.”

— George W. Bush, Speech to UN General Assembly, 2002-09-12

 “Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.”

— George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, 2003-01-28

 “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

— George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, 2003-01-28. The documents supporting this lie were crudely forged.

“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.”

    — George W. Bush, Address to the nation, 2003-03-17. Funny how often Bush managed to have “no doubt” about assertions that were factually false.

    “While we were here in this Council chamber debating Resolution 1441 last fall, we know, we know from sources that a missile brigade outside Baghdad was dispersing rocket launchers and warheads containing biological warfare agent to various locations, distributing them to various locations in western Iraq. Most of the launchers and warheads had been hidden in large groves of palm trees and were to be moved every one to four weeks to escape detection.”

— Colin Powell, 2003-02-05. Lies that will hang around Powell’s neck for the rest of his life.

 “We know he has been absolutely trying to acquire nuclear weapons and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”

— Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, 2003-03-16. They shuld have called it “Meet the Liars.”

 “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”

— Dick Cheney, lying to the VFW convention, 2002-08-26

 “For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.”

— Paul Wolfowitz, Vanity Fair Interview, 2003-05-28. A rare moment of truth from the Bush administration — the WMD lies were a PR con job to sell a war.

 “We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”

—  Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, lying that he knew exactly where the nonexistent WMD were. Washington Post, op-ed, 2003-04-09

 “The war could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

— Donald Rumsfeld, 2003-02-07. Apparently not.

“What’s the difference?”

~ George W. Bush, 2003-12-16 in an interview with Diane Sawyer, excusing his lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction by claiming that there was no difference between having weapons and wanting to have them.

Conservatives and Beltway pundits have a name for well-researched, indisputable facts they prefer not to hear or recall. It is "liberal bias."

For example, right wingers branded the few news organizations that questioned Bush's extravagant claims of Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction as guilty of "liberal bias." The fact that Iraqi HAD NO WMD was, of course, a mere irrelevant incidental detail.

As Thommy Berlin put it, “We aren’t ‘blaming.’ We are holding the guilty accountable.”