Billmon’s triumph
Who would have ever guessed that something as simple as keeping a record of public statements would have had this effect? Billmon has sparked a lot of attention for this post, which documents the Bush administration’s bold assertions about the existence of WMD and the subsequent backpedaling that has ensued now that the war is over and none have been found.
It’s really quite good. It all starts back in August…
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
Dick Cheney
Speech to VFW National Convention
August 26, 2002
Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.
George W. Bush
Speech to UN General Assembly
September 12, 2002
Then it gets a bit more insistent as war looms on the horizon.
We know for a fact that there are weapons there.
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing
January 9, 2003
Then falls back to a less insistent—but still confident—posture.
Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we’re interrogating, I’m confident that we’re going to find weapons of mass destruction.
Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NBC Today Show interview
May 26, 2003
Then, not with a bang but simply a whisper, admissions of truth start to come forward.
They may have had time to destroy them, and I don’t know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations
May 27, 2003
For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.
Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview
May 28, 2003
Billmon’s list is, of course, much longer and more detailed (and people are contributing even more good quotes in the Comments section), so be sure to get it from the source.
Sigh. If only our mass media would do their job, Billmon wouldn’t have to.
