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Friday, September 07, 2007
(Via Michael Silence) Joe Lance, a blogger in Chattanooga, writes of his transition, mainly due to this Sidney Blumenthal piece in Salon, from Bush defender to his endorsement of impeachment of our current president,:
I want to make it explicitly clear that I don't take this lightly, and that I am not advising impeachment in the sense of "Go Democrats!" or "Bad Republicans!" This is not some trivial game for partisan gain. I am an independent. I have somewhat of a split political personality, and I have reached this conclusion from my right side as well as from my left.
The President apparently lied to Congress and the American public (not to mention our allies — don't forget Poland!) in order to lead the country into a war that has been staggeringly expensive in all kinds of horrific ways. Impeachment proceedings are the available and necessary tool to exercise due diligence in finding out for sure, in the legal sense.
My response:
Let's contemplate a few things here before this rush to judgment.
First of all, remember the climate of the days after 9/11, where the great majority of the voting public wanted a scapegoat for the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
Consider also that intel was flying at the executive branch in heaps, and that neo-conservative hawks that wanted a rush to war would certainly filter that intel through their prism.
Take into consideration also that President Bush had to make a reasonably quick call as to how his office would proceed as regarded the prospect of war with Iraq.
And finally, recall that (like it or not) Iraq did have WMDs at one point and had, quite visibly to the world, used them on their own people (on more than one occasion - see here and here).
Now, Blumenthal certainly is no unbiased reporter, and I have no doubt that he could find any number of senior CIA deputies with an ax to grind. All of this is to say that, 1) I do not believe President Bush was willfully ignorant of the circumstances and the evidence, 2) I believe he, and the United States Congress, took the facts as presented to them and considered them accordingly, and 3) world leaders have to make tough decisions, and President Bush did just that.
I am not a Bush lover, nor a hater. I think he has been an average President who happened to be in office during a very significant moment of our history. I believe he has erred on a great many things. I do not, however, believe Iraq was one of them.
.: posted by
Dave
2:46 PM
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