Susan Rice's statements on Benghazi ... or Condi Rice's statements on Iraq?
Consider this ...
Cokie Roberts: Susan Rice didn't put the whole Benghazi attack 'on the video'
politifact.com; May 4th, 2014 in comments on ABC's "This Week"
[...]
We excerpted each interview at the bottom of our report. Here are the main points:
* Rice referred to the video as the source of the conflict in all five interviews.
* On Fox and ABC, she said the attacks were not pre-planned but rather were related to the video protest.
* She mentioned "extremists" on CBS, CNN, NBC and ABC, but again connected them to the protest of the video and implied the uprisings were not planned as an act of terrorism. On CNN, for example, she described the attack as a "horrific incident where some mob was hijacked ultimately by a handful of extremists."
* She mentioned al-Qaida only on CBS and cautioned that she wasn’t sure they were involved.
* In no interview did she use the word "terror" or any variation.
Four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya --
BEFORE these Television statements.
Now consider this ...
OpEd: References to mushroom clouds incited Iraq War
ontheissues.org
With false and distorted claims after 9/11, our new political leaders misled the US Congress and the American public into believing that Saddam Hussein had somehow been responsible for the dastardly attack on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon, and that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons & posed a direct threat to the security of America.
Although the deceptiveness of these statements was later revealed, most of our trusting citizens were supportive of the war. Exaggerated claims of catastrophe from nonexistent WMDs kept the fears alive, with V.P. Cheney repeatedly making false statement, such as, "Instead of losing thousands of lives, we might lose tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of lives in a single day of war." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice backed him with horrifying references to mushroom clouds over the cities of America. There is little wonder that, at least for a few months, fearful American citizens and members of Congress supported the unnecessary war.
Source: Our Endangered Values, by Jimmy Carter, p.150-151 , Sep 26, 2006
4489 Americans died (32021 wounded) in Iraq since the war began -- BECAUSE of these Television statements.
As of Jan 2014, civilian death toll due to the Iraq War has reached 500,000.
Which Misstatements had the greater consequence?
Especially when you consider, the following additional Fact Checks ...
Those dire WMD warnings don't look so hot -- in the cold, rational, smokeless light of day ...
Iraq war: the greatest intelligence failure in living memory
by Peter Taylor, telegraph.co.uk -- 18 Mar 2013
[...]
Much of the key intelligence that was used to justify the war was based on fabrication, wishful thinking and lies -- and as subsequent investigations showed, it was dramatically wrong. Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
But crucially, there was intelligence that proved to be right. And, as a forensic, six-month investigation we conducted for BBC Panorama has revealed, it came from two highly-placed human sources at the very top of Saddam’s regime.
Both said that Iraq had no active WMD. Both were ignored or dismissed.
[...]
And this, from our side of the conflict pond ...
National Intelligence Estimates
by Greg Bruno, and Sharon Otterman, cfr.org -- May 14, 2008
[...] In July 2004, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee found that “most of the major key judgments” in the 2002 Iraq NIE -- which were cited by President Bush and other policymakers in their case for war -- “either overstated, or were not supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting.” [...]
And
which mis-stater --
Susan Rice or Condi Rice -- is NOW being subjected to the greater AFTER-the-fact
Congressional heat?
Just because Susan Rice didn't use the
word "terror" often enough !?
Imagine that Condi ... the consequences of using such restraint.