The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Thursday, February 05, 2004  

LIE IS A LIE IS A LIE
The Old Heave-Ho

Stop. Enough. No more. Those Americans who are still conscious, or who can at least read, don’t believe you and they would be hard pressed to be convinced by your transparent lies. And if we’re going to have an “independent” inquiry into the matter -- Iraq’s alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and the delivery capability associated therewith -- just shut up in the meantime.

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday said it is “too early to conclude Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons before the U.S.-led invasion last March,” according to a report in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer (“Rumsfeld, CIA: Arms May Yet be Found,” by Drew Brown).

What’s up with this guy? Does he think he’s the only person in the country with a calendar on the wall? It’s February for crying out loud! We’ve been looking for almost a year, and that’s after months of inspections under the auspices of the United Nations.

According to the Inquirer, Rumsfeld believes weapons inspectors “need[] more time to assess what happened to any stockpiles and that weapons may yet be found.”

Wait a second there, Don. Inspectors need “more time”? Why the complacency? Before we started spewing billions down this particular rat hole time was of the essence. And now we need to just “kick back,” as the kids say? Exactly which rocks in Iraq have not yet been overturned?

Almost laughably, Rumsfeld told lawmakers, “Saddam Hussein . . . did not behave like someone who was disarming and wanted to prove he was doing so.” Well, either that or he pulled one over on you, smarty pants.

Ever the master of obfuscation, the defense secretary also said, “As Dr. David Kay has testified, what we have learned thus far has not proven [sic] Saddam Hussein had what intelligence indicated and we believed he had, but it has also not proven [sic] the opposite.”

Known unknowns and unknown unknowns, or something like that I guess.

Look, it’s long since past the time this guy was given the old heave-ho. If President George W. Bush won’t do it, and there’s no reason to believe he will, it’s up to the American people to do it for him, and for us.

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