The scourge of BDS
Anyone who claims that President George W. Bush lied about Iraq's WMDs and deceived us into going to war is guilty of the exact crime of which they accuse the President: namely, cherry picking intelligence to conform to a pre-determined result.
This hypocrisy - and the gnashing and baring of teeth by the political left which has accompanied it - has recently been recognized as a form of mental illness.
While not yet in the DSM-IV, BDS or "Bush Derangement Syndrome" is a debilitating illness which can quickly reduce normally intelligent, logical people to ranting, foaming-at-the-mouth, hate-filled lunatics.
BDS now afflicts most of the Main Stream Media, all of Hollywood and about 90% of Academia.
It stems from an erroneous belief which is persistently and obtusely maintained about one event: our invasion of Iraq.
Looking back on it, it is clear that there was a dearth of hard, accurate intelligence about Iraq in 2002 during the lead-up to OIF.
The CIA had conflicting intelligence about whether Iraq possessed WMDs, or programs to develop them. The CIA had sources in the Iraqi military that said they did, and other sources who said they did not. We know now that many Iraqi military officials, who thought they knew the situation, didn't really know the truth because other officials, fearing his wrath, told Saddam what he wanted to hear, rather than the truth.
It is quite possible then that in 2002 no single person in Iraq could have accurately answered the following questions:
1. What kinds of chemical, biological and/or nuclear weapons does Iraq have?
2. How many of these weapons does Iraq have?
3. What is the location of these weapons?
4. What is the status of Iraq's WMD development program?
5. Where are these programs located?
When even Iraqis at the highest levels of the military didn't know the truth, how could we have been expected to?
Now it is a fact that the administration of W.J. Clinton believed that Iraq possessed both WMD and programs to develop them. Further, in 2002, the Director of the CIA informed the current administration (as he had the former) that in his opinion, Iraq possessed WMDs.
So, the President, faced with conflicting information had to make this decision: Do we give Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt?
Given Saddam's history, given the assistance which he had previously provided Al Qaeda, given the destructive power of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and given the seeming ease with which terrorists were able to enter our country and carry out attacks - the only sane answer was:
HELL NO !!!!
Once in Iraq we discovered that there were no stockpiles of WMDs. But we did not know that in March of 2003 when we went in. To say “you should have known” is to demand of the President supernatural powers of perception and insight. Such demands are often associated with psychosis. To use information that only became available in 2004 to second guess Presidential decisions made in 2003 is not just unfair, it is quite simply irrational.
BDS is spreading rapidly, but fortunately, truth will both cure and inoculate against it.
This hypocrisy - and the gnashing and baring of teeth by the political left which has accompanied it - has recently been recognized as a form of mental illness.
While not yet in the DSM-IV, BDS or "Bush Derangement Syndrome" is a debilitating illness which can quickly reduce normally intelligent, logical people to ranting, foaming-at-the-mouth, hate-filled lunatics.
BDS now afflicts most of the Main Stream Media, all of Hollywood and about 90% of Academia.
It stems from an erroneous belief which is persistently and obtusely maintained about one event: our invasion of Iraq.
Looking back on it, it is clear that there was a dearth of hard, accurate intelligence about Iraq in 2002 during the lead-up to OIF.
The CIA had conflicting intelligence about whether Iraq possessed WMDs, or programs to develop them. The CIA had sources in the Iraqi military that said they did, and other sources who said they did not. We know now that many Iraqi military officials, who thought they knew the situation, didn't really know the truth because other officials, fearing his wrath, told Saddam what he wanted to hear, rather than the truth.
It is quite possible then that in 2002 no single person in Iraq could have accurately answered the following questions:
1. What kinds of chemical, biological and/or nuclear weapons does Iraq have?
2. How many of these weapons does Iraq have?
3. What is the location of these weapons?
4. What is the status of Iraq's WMD development program?
5. Where are these programs located?
When even Iraqis at the highest levels of the military didn't know the truth, how could we have been expected to?
Now it is a fact that the administration of W.J. Clinton believed that Iraq possessed both WMD and programs to develop them. Further, in 2002, the Director of the CIA informed the current administration (as he had the former) that in his opinion, Iraq possessed WMDs.
So, the President, faced with conflicting information had to make this decision: Do we give Saddam Hussein the benefit of the doubt?
Given Saddam's history, given the assistance which he had previously provided Al Qaeda, given the destructive power of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and given the seeming ease with which terrorists were able to enter our country and carry out attacks - the only sane answer was:
HELL NO !!!!
Once in Iraq we discovered that there were no stockpiles of WMDs. But we did not know that in March of 2003 when we went in. To say “you should have known” is to demand of the President supernatural powers of perception and insight. Such demands are often associated with psychosis. To use information that only became available in 2004 to second guess Presidential decisions made in 2003 is not just unfair, it is quite simply irrational.
BDS is spreading rapidly, but fortunately, truth will both cure and inoculate against it.
posted by Voolfie at 6:41 AM
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