Some might recall that Jessica Mathews authored a paper that received quite a lot of attention during the run-up to the pre-emptive strike on Iraq.
A New Approach: Coercive Inspections
I happened to catch Mathews, Cirincione and Perkovich on C-Span yesterday discussing the report WMD IN IRAQ Evidence and Implications and taking questions from reporters.
Mathews fielded the question regarding possible alternatives to the pre-emptive strike. She also joined Perkovich in repeating more than once that Saddam ‘kicked the inspectors out’ in ’98. Apparently CEIP isn’t completely intolerant to employing propaganda if it suits a yet-to-be-revealed purpose they have an interest in promoting?
Who would be harmed if this falsehood was finally laid to rest?
This man for one:
LISBON (AFP) – Former US president Bill Clinton (news– web sites) said in October during a visit to Portugal that he was convinced Iraq (news– web sites) had weapons of mass destruction up until the fall of Saddam Hussein (news – web sites), Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said.
“When Clinton was here recently he told me he was absolutely convinced, given his years in the White House and the access to privileged information which he had, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction until the end of the Saddam regime,” he said in an interview with Portuguese cable news channel SIC Noticias.
Clinton, a Democrat who left office in 2001, met with Durao Barroso on October 21 when he travelled to Lisbon to give a speech on globalization.
I don’t expect the Bush administration to call for clarification of the issue.
What I continue to find incredible is the about-face taken by all of those very angry [change ‘quick’ to ‘archive’ in the search engine if you access that last link] people who once accused Clinton of wagging the dog.
Today they’re busy sending copies of Clinton’s ’98 Iraq speech to their liberal friends as proof of George’s honesty.
What they’re proving is that those “who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it.”
How does CEIP expect their goals will meet a different fate if they refuse to address inconsistencies no matter which party persists in perpetuating them?
Updated 11/14/05 to access template changes to blockquote feature.