Ok, so that's a paraphrase of what former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neil said about President Bush. The real quote was more along the lines of "the President is like a blind man in a room full of deaf people." To me, this says that the President is completely unable to communicate with those around him, and they are unable to communicate with him. Needless to say, this is hardly a good scenario for the American people.
Secretary O'Neil had several other things to say about the governing methodology of the current administration, particularly as applied to the conflict in Iraq. The most important items here are that planning for an invasion of Iraq began just ten days after President Bush's inauguration, and that there was never any evidence of a current Iraqi arsenal of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons presented to the Cabinet. These revelations provide lots of ammunition for the President's detractors (like me) and conspiracy theorists alike.
And it isn't just Secretary O'Neil making the accusations. Colin Powell admitted last week that there was no hard evidence that Iraq had ties with al-Qaeda despite his claims to the UN that there were. To be fair, Powell still insists that the possibility of an Iraq/al-Qaeda connection were good enough that it had to be taken seriously.
More critical of the President and his advisers are the Carnegie Institue for Peace and the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute. Carnegie's report claims that the President and his staff systematically misled the American people about both Weapons of Mass Destruction and Iraq's links to terrorist organizations. Carnegie's findings are that all of Iraq's WMDs had been destroyed by 1991. The full report can be found here.
Carnegie's allegations have been corraborated by the Washington Post, which reported that since the eary 1990s Iraqs weapons development program existed solely on paper. Chemical weapons that exist only as paper reports, ideas, and diagrams are not exactly an immediate threat to the United States -- or anyone else.
After reports of Secretary O'Neil's comments surfaced, President Bush finally admitted that his goal was to remove Saddam Hussein from power from the very beginning, and that planning to do so through military means began almost immediately upon his election. The events of Sept. 11th, 2001 merely gave him the tool to bring his plans to fruition.
All of this raises serious questions about the man who leads this country and his advisors. They blocked the democratic process in Florida to get into office, they lied about when planning for the Iraq campaign began, they lied about Iraq's weapons programs, and they lied about Iraq's ties to al-Qaeda. In order to pursue the President's personal goals in Iraq, they have dismantled our efforts to pacify and rebuild Afghanistan. They have given Saudi Arabia a pass, rather than demanding that the Kingdom end its support for al-Qaeda. They have systematically and deliberately taken measures to remove our protections as American citizens.
It is time to take a close look at the President and his policies and determine whether he is fit for office. American blood and treasure have been spent on the Administration's schemes. It is time to find out why.
Posted by Chris at January 12, 2004 02:17 PM