Ten years ago today, I saw something on television that changed the way I think.
Flipping through channels, I landed on C-SPAN and saw a strange little man, waving what I thought was a letter, and telling an empty House of Representatives that every single Congressman had been told by the CIA that Saddam Hussein is not a threat to us or even his neighbors unless we back him into a corner. Which Bush admin policy promptly proceeded to do. I wrote about it five years later in one of my early incarnations on this site: "Is that a Constitution in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?". (Thank You, Kestrel9000!) I once had a UID in the high 59,000s but found out the hard way what it means to be thought of as a troll for saying something unpalatable to some dkos readers. Later I was thrown off again for admitting that I had found my way back again, but hopefully the rules have loosened about that or else this will be my last hurrah here.
It took me until just last week to finally find the video of what it was that I saw, and I think it is important to take another look at it today, especially because of even more recent info that has come to light. I had my suspicions at the time that Operation Iraqi Liberation was, in fact, all about the O.I.L., [interesting how the search term "Operation Iraqi Liberation immediately morphs back to the plain words "Iraq War" on wiki...] and I had somehow somewhere already seen the map dividing up the expected spoils, and I believed Scott Ritter and Hans Blick at the time. But there came an instant when I said to myself- "He can't say that! Unless it's true..." And I still hold it against Hillary (at least she admitted it) that she didn't trot her ass across the way for one afternoon, to read approx. 99 pages of the actual NIE, which some of us understood without being privy to, while she had that thing called "plausible deniability" since she didn't know 'exactly' what it said. I think she abrogated her job in that instance, but I have since forgiven her as she makes an excellent Secretary of State. Meanwhile:
Who was I seeing and what did he say? Look for the answer in the space below the lovely sunset cloud.
The Iraq War Resolution a point/counterpoint for peace by Rep. Denis Kucinich.
VOTE NO ON THE IRAQ WAR RESOLUTION from the House session Oct 3rd, 2002 archives at C-SPAN. The only way I can seem to link it is here.