Seriously.
This editorial tears President Bush a new one.
Here's the opening paragraph
President Bush was beyond pathetic on the issue of Iraq during his press conference this week. If he and his handlers expected an upward blip in the polls from a week of presidential statements and speeches devoted primarily to Iraq, they're in for a major disappointment.
More below.
There is not one positive for Bush (nor indeed 95% of the White House Press Corps) in this editorial. It's blunt, straight-forward, and a very good read.
Bush apparently would like you to forget, and you shouldn't, all those breezy predictions from administration officials before the war that Iraq would be a breeze for U.S. troops. They would easily crush armed resistance, be welcomed with open arms and flowers, seize Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, stabilize the country with minimal troops, quickly get Iraq on its feet and able to rebuild itself with oil revenues, then leave. No one mentioned being in Iraq in 2005, let alone 2009.
So far they're just speaking truth to those who need to hear it. A short while later, though (emphasis original to article)...
The administration frequently has changed its story on why we went to war, but the strangest yet came in Bush's answer to Helen Thomas, the octogenarian journalist who has more courage in her toe than is evident in the entire White House press corps combined. Bush invaded Iraq because the Taliban in Afghanistan provided safe haven for Al-Qaida. Following Sept. 11, Bush said, part of his job was to "make sure that we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy. And that's why I went into Iraq. ... The Taliban provided safe haven for Al-Qaida."
I'm too tired and jet-lagged to provide more comment or analysis. All I can say is go, read, enjoy. Bask in the liberal goodness.
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