Saturday, May 06, 2006

weapons of mass destruction

According to a story published today in the San Francisco Chronicle, Donald Rumsfeld has been caught contradicting himself about the rationale for the Iraq war. Rumsfeld attempted to deny having said, on several occasions, that the Bushites were certain that Saddam Hussein had "large stockpiles" (Rumsfeld) of WMDs. But, as the story points out, in fact he did say that, on several occasions. In interviews after it became clear that there were no weapons to be found, Rumsfeld attempted, as he continues now to attempt, to deny having said anything as firm, direct, and categorical as every statement he had made. Frankly, he looks an ass doing that.

Now, he could have said, "well, I was wrong." He could have told the truth and said, "well, I was pushing a political agenda and didn't care what I said as long as it achieved the predetermined goal of attacking Iraq." Or he could have said, "ha ha ha! We lied! And you all bought it! Suckers!"

Or, and this is a strategy I hardly dare mention, for fear of its coming into favor, he could have responded thus:

"No, you see, I mispronounced a key word there. My assertion was actually about the appalling condition of public health measures in Iraq under Hussein. I meant to say 'wee-upons of mass destruction.' Honestly, you've never seen a urinal so filthy. Our intelligence indicated that restroom facilities there were unhygienic to the point of being serious hazards not only to Iraqis, but to the world."

2 comments:

Bob Kirkman said...

And to think all of this happend in little old Atlanta. Who knew it could be such a hotbed of radicalism?

(Of course, most of the crowd there at the time applauded Rummy a little too loudly, and tried to drag his accuser from the room.)

Bobo the Wandering Pallbearer said...

Yeah. I tried to be gratified by the whole Rummy-gets-caught-in-a-lie part, but I was too demoralized by the fact that the meeting took place, apparently, at the Greater Atlanta Assholes Conference. "Yeah!"

Even worse, people I used to work with might have been there. "Yeah!"