Why Think When You Can Google?

A new meme for countering claims of Bush deception re: pre-war intelligence is  "Just Google It".  It's a pathetic dodge,  since showing that Clinton supported military action against Hussein's WMDs does not counter any points regarding Bush misleading the country into war.  Clinton's comments were made based on intelligence estimates of Iraq's WMD capabilities in 1998.  Then Clinton started Operation Desert Fox, which was designed to "degrade Saddam Hussein's ability to make and to use weapons of mass destruction".  In Operation Desert Fox, US and British forces struck over 100 targets, weakening Hussein's ability to manufacture WMDs.  After the attack, Hussein's ability to produce WMDs was diminished. 

So Hussein's capacity to create WMDs changed after Operation Desert Fox.  Now did Hussein reconstitute his WMD programs enough to be a grave threat by 2003?  Clinton's commentary and actions in 1998, before Operation Desert Fox, isn't relevant to this question.  That's where the intelligence in 2003 comes in.  And, as we now know, the Bush administration failed to report many claims that downplayed Hussein's threat in 2003 while trumping up questionable evidence.

Taking quotes from Clinton's WMD assessments in 1998, before military action taking Hussein's WMDs out, and then using them to defend Bush's assessments in 2003 is just another desperate attempt to deflect attention from the legitimate question regarding manipulation of pre-war intelligence. 

UPDATE: I didn't notice the Tech Central Station article by Bryan Preston on the same subject.  Here's a passage from the article:

For the "Bush Lied" mantra to have any logical or factual force, one must believe that Desert Fox not only destroyed every single WMD Saddam had, but also cowed him sufficiently that he never built a single WMD or lab in the five years that remained of his rule. And that knowing all of this, Bush took us to war anyway. No serious person believes that.

No.  This is completely irrelevant.  Hussein may or may not have developed WMDs by 2003.  That's where examining intelligence to see if Hussein has successfully reconstituted WMD programs comes in.  And when the Bush administration did this, they selectively pushed intelligence (some knowingly flawed) that supported their claims while downplaying intelligence against it.  If the Bush administration exaggerated Hussein's threat with access to contrary evidence, then the administration misled the American people.

Comments

[C. Mathers]

Llama School, you Godless hippy,can't you see you're hurting our troops? You are.... just... Dark-sided!