Enough Spin Already: Bush and Cheney Lied, Iran Didn't

Here's the New York Times frontpage left-hand hed from this morning: "Assessment Jars a Foreign Policy Debate About Iran." Assessment? Jars? Debate? Excuse me?

Here's Gramma Pelosi this morning: "The NIE illustrates the effectiveness of international monitoring and targeted sanctions to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." Effectiveness? Targeted? Proliferation? Excuse me?

There were many other - oh I don't know what's a judicious word - deranged? duplicitous? drugged? - reactions this morning to yesterday's devastating NIE - even to my chagrin in these august columns - spinning as no big deal a watershed moment in the so far wretched history of the 21st century America. Not one of them seemed willing to grasp a very large nettle: the axis of evil that has this great nation in its paws, has been lying about Iran at least since August and probably far longer. Has been lying to us, to our allies, to the world. Again. And not just lying but striving with all their might to nuke - or allow an ally to nuke - innocent people who posed no threat to us.

Here are the salient points from the NIE:

We judge with high confidence that the halt (in trying to develop nuclear weapons, not producing them) has lasted at least several years. (Four to be exact, a lifetime in war and politics).

We continue to assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon. (Or has ever had one).

We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015. (Which Bush - and for that matter Gates - flatly lied about this morning implying that the NIE said they could re-up anytime).

Let's be quite clear how far the men in the White House were willing to go. In the lethal linguistic fog these warmongers and the rightwing quislings who enable them, have plunged us, reasonable people seem to have lost sight of what we're talking about. Nuclear weapons aren't a bigger better version of Daisy Cutters. Nuclear weapons aren't just more bang for the buck. Nuclear weapons are the most cowardly killing devices ever devised by our benighted species. Nuclear weapons are instant genocide. Nuclear weapons are designed to murder as many unarmed noncombatants as possible, by the hundreds of thousands if not millions. Using nuclear weapons - even throwing around the threat to use them - was is and always should be unthinkable. Yet the monsters, yes monsters in the White House were willing to lie through their teeth - again - to get the chance to use them. On innocent people who posed no threat to us.

You say they didn't lie because they didn't have the current NIE? Bullshit. They said they knew that Iran had nuclear weapons, that Iran was about to start World War III. At the barest minimum they knew that was a lie. At the barest minimum they had no evidence to back that up - just as they had no evidence to back up their assertion that Saddam had nukes - yet they said that they did. They said they knew. That's called lying. And they were willing to murder on a monumental scale - again - based on those lies.

In reality - not the barest minimum - it's inconceivable that this intelligence has not been available to them since August, that some of it has not been known far longer. It's inconceivable that Israel which has the most reliable intelligence services in the Mid-East did not develop some intelligence in four long years, that Iran had no nuclear weapons and was no longer even trying to acquire them. It's inconceivable - surely - that if Israel had such intelligence, it would not pass it along. At some point in four long years. To someone in the US power structure.

Waking in New York this morning and reading the responses to this Force Nine news story, I felt as if I should try again to wake myself up. I don't mean that as a figure of speech: it was one of those experiences where you wake up in a dream and then try to really wake yourself up. Reading the New York Times was truly like being a character in a Kafka short story. For a while the world was making no sense. The acceptance of this shattering exposure of duplicity, appeared totally impossible for even well-informed, responsible journalists.

It's plausible that we've reached the point where we just cannot face that Americans, elected Americans, who talk in familiar accents, who grew up in familiar places, who wear familiar clothes and look not terribly unlike us, could be as evil as it increasingly appears George Bush and Richard Cheney really are. Americans simply aren't that evil, are they? They can't be. There must be some good intentions somewhere. But there aren't and there never have been.

And we cannot face the fact that the threat to our security and integrity as a people, is not in Tehran despite the blatherings of its ludicrous (and largely powerless) President, anymore than it was in Baghdad. Nor is it in the gullies, caves, hilltops and villages of the North-West Frontier. Threats from there - hot air and light weaponry - are nugatory compared to one we must now confront.

The threat to America is right here at home, sitting in two chairs in Washington right now, not faces on a screen, not characters in the tawdry television drama we call politics, but two actual human beings, their buttocks warming the leather of their seats, plotting how to cover up their crimes - the ones we don't know about yet - plotting how to avoid accountability for the crimes they can no longer conceal, plotting even now in the fading twilight of their reign of lies, theft and murder, how by any means necessary, they can get still their hands on most of the world's oil and pass the proceeds along to their cronies.

If you won't impeach now Gramma, you're on your way to being as guilty as they. Those who enable high crimes and misdemeanors - including never let us forget, treason - become as culpable as the perpetrators. If you don't impeach now, you will be an accomplice as will be all the others who stand with you - those who voted to declare the nuclear-free armed forces of a sovereign nation 'terrorists' for example, or one of your leading candidates for President who refused to take 'off the table' the 'option' of nuking innocent people who posed no threat to us, just so that she could look as tough as war-criminals.

Enough. This is the moment of enough. This is the moment where we lose or win back what was once and still can be again a great nation. Use the Constitution or lose the Constitution.

Comments

[23000Days]

If we are lucky, maybe one of the ongoing court trials against telecom eavesdropping will find the telecom guilty.
When that happens it will imply guilt of the bush administration as well, making it very difficult for congress to avoid investigations leading to impeachment.
Otherwise, we're SOL!

[SilverBurlap]

Good article. I think I see who you like for president, or at least who you don't.

What really kills me lately is the way Bush shows up at these press conferences. The way he smiles when he walks in. The way he completely ignores everything thats going on around him. Yesterday, when asked how he felt about the way he and his administration might look now that their past accusations have lost all credibility, his response was that he was feeling "pretty spirited...pretty good about life". Mark Silva, the Chicago Tribune reporter who Bush was responding to, made an earlier comment about Bush's body language being so surprisingly cheery, amid the bad news.

I think that this, more than anything else, is what I've always hated about these people. Throughout his presidency, throughout all of the bad shit that is going on with our country, Bush seems to think that everything is going perfectly OK. We are at war, New Orleans is a mess, the economy is getting worse, most everyone in the world hates us, his cronies are under fire for corruption, treason and other scandals, he has no credibility, no respect - and all he can do is smile. Its absolutely nuts.

Oblivious to himself and the world in general.

[MaxD]

Sadly,
I do think that the dishonesty of this administration has been terrible for this country and the prosecution of our enemies. I am happy that Iran seems more amenable to reason than originally suspected. I'm not yet willing to drop our country's guard on them. The notion that Iran's president is largely powerless is an interesting one, but also I've not seen proof of the assertion offered in this article.
Iran does appear to be causing problems in Iraq if the commanders on the ground there are to be believed. I think military leadership has been right about the situation more often than it has not. Sadly it is often ignored by the Admin.
The casuality of our current course is that it puts american credibility on its heels. By refusing to come to the table we marginalize ourselves and limit our diplomatic options. I suspect if we were at the table we'd find much of our suspicions about Iran's leadership true. We are denied the opportunity to be pleasently surprised by other possibilities though by our current course.
Having said all that, lets not get all gushy, touchy feely about leadership in Tehran. It is a dangerous, dishonest and ideologically misanthropic.

[pizzmoe]

These guys are nothing but war profiteers, period. Their only interested in starting wars for their own (and their friends) personal gain. Why do you think Bush looked so bored and disconnected with Olmert and Abbas? Peace doesn't interest him.

[lastams]

What, you call this spin?
You gotta remember that these are the folks that convinced a large percentage of the American Public that a playboy draft dodger was a war hero and a genuine war hero was a traitor.
Spin?
Hell, this is a walk in the park.

[KoolBreez]

Bush and Cheney lied: Iran didn't..Well, neither did Iraq. They didn't have WMD. (Not that it is a crime to have WMD, we do.)

[Not Blind]

Bush & Cheney had no factual evidence of WMD's in Iraq, yet talked about mushroom clouds, preemptively attacked Iraq, without letting the U.N. weapon inspectors complete their job. They knew nothing would be found, but once there, the blame went to "faulty" intelligence, and heads rolled at the CIA and other agencies. Now perhaps, the agencies are tired of being scapegoats, and went public with their assessments, to preempt Bush from being able to launch an attack on Iran, and then blame them when no nuclear weapons were found.
While the President gets briefed daily by the CIA, NSA and FBI, he's claiming he had no knowledge of the NIE report until last Tuesday. While being grilled by reporters, he still insisted that Iran is a threat, and having any nuclear capabilities is an inherent danger to the world.
Bush & Cheney, along with their PNAC, the AIPAC and circle of "friends," including Wolfowitz (one of the master-minds of the Iraq war) are the real threats and terrorists in this world. By taking impeachment off the table, and giving Bush & Co. everything they want, as they whine about not liking it, the Congress has become enablers, supporters and co-conspirators in the reckless and dangerous policies of this administration.
Were Rove still around, this NIE report would not have made the light of day, or those who wrote it would have been fired and publically discredited before it came out.
Between the loss of civil and legal rights and freedoms, suspension of Habeas Corpus, illegal warrantless surveillance on citizens, the control of our free press and media (beholding to their stock options, controlled by either political allies or loyalists), illegal indefinate detentions of foreign nationals, condoning and utilizing torture, giving immunity to highly-paid mercenaries who recklessly kill innocent civilians, not to mention the administration's personal obscene profiteering from this war, the claims of national security, unitary privilege, the secrecy, fabrications, and obstruction of investigations, I don't know what more the Congress needs to stand up to this despotic dictator and hold him accountable.

[mike53]

Thought liberals didn't trust the CIA? Or do you trust them when they say what you want to hear?

You may find this hard to believe but there are some very partisan liberals in the CIA. Would not be the first time a liberal put his own agenda ahead of his own country.

[Mark701]

"It's plausible that we've reached the point where we just cannot face that Americans, elected Americans, who talk in familiar accents, who grew up in familiar places, who wear familiar clothes and look not terribly unlike us, could be as evil as it increasingly appears George Bush and Richard Cheney really are."
Tony, you hit the nail on the head. I've been saying this ever since the lead up to the Iraq war. Americans can't get their arms around the fact that these two losers are as crazy as they seem for a couple of reasons. Despite the fact that many Americans are morons, we are fundamentally a good hearted people. When confronted with real evil, especially with evil that Americans are responsible for putting in power the natural response is disbelief and denial. Imagine the psychological barriers that have to be overcome to admit that, unlike all previous administrations, this one really doesn't give a rats ass about the Constitution or the American people. To acknowledge that we've placed people, who in any other setting, would be viewed as hooligans and criminals, in charge of the most powerful nation on earth. It must be like waking up from a drunken stupor only to find out you ran over someone with your car. Some people will start drinking again to avoid facing responsibility for their actions (die hard Republicans) others work through their guilt, acknowlegde their responsiblity and work to ensure it will never happen again. From my perspective it's never really been about Bush or Cheney, but us.

[CSE]

The question that must be posed - that the powers believe the average American cannot answer is, "how do we go about positioning ourselves to INSURE access to decreasing reserves of resources as the number and wealth of nations competing for those resources increases?"

What assets does America have that can INSURE the continuation of our access to more scarce resources and are these assets decreasing in value as I write this?

Uh-oh, did anyone pay attention to reasonable long term strategies for finite resources or were we more interested in short term profit - more interested in propping up and arming a small number of rulers at the expense of the masses?

The Jesus people may be right - you reap what you sow.

[lucnyc]

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Period. All I can say is that this administration is the most corrupt, most incompetent and difinitely the most smug, that I can remember in a long time. They give new meaning to the word "Organized Crime"

[Overd0g]

But wait. I thought our intelligence was always wrong. After all, didn't they say that Iraq had stockpiles of chem weapons? Can't have it both ways, numb-nuts.

[travelingtrav]

Oh, and here is the other thing. Impeach, do you think the congress would NOT impeach? There is no crime committed here. Oh Bush this and Cheny that... It took the VOTE of the CONGRESS OF AMERICA to declare WAR. That means A students, that a whole lot of men and hillary's (that had the SAME) information that the President had, voted for WAR. If your not knowledgable to understand that, go find a website that will translate the Constituion for you. Silly silly sillyness prevades the land.

[LutherBrixton]

Spin?

George W Bush was a pom-pom cheerleader at Harvard while John Kerry was a decorated veteran who fought against unimaginable hell in Viet Nam. And in bizarro world (the MSM) - Bush is the "tough guy" and Kerry was "weak".

George W Bush and Dick Cheney were at a minimum accomplices, if not directly responsible, for outing a covert CIA NOC while America was at war, the full weight of the damage done by that act of treason is yet to be known or documented. And in bizarro world - The Republicans are patriotic and "pro-America" and the Democrats are weak and can't be trusted on national security.

George W Bush intentionally lied to the American people and the world, over and over and over again in 2002-2003 about the bogus "threat" Iraq posed with throughly discredit "intel" his administration cherry-picked, and rushed recklessly into an illegal war where thousands of Americans have died in vain, and over one million innocent Iraqis have died, and which daily erodes American security, and bankrupts this nation to the tune of several TRILLION dollars. Yet in bizarro world - Bush is still listened to, he is still in office, his words are still given credibility by the press, while the Democrats "can't be trusted with national security", despite the enormous number of respected veterans that make up that party, and Democrats are "tax and spend liberals" despite being the only fiscally responsible party that can leav office with a federal surplus.

It's way beyond "spin" at this point. Unlike George Bush's thoroughly cynical & meaningless "Christianity" which the media completely buys (Bush is the only president since Reagan not to attend regular church services, but the press ignores that), it's an unshakeable belief by the media that Republicans are ALWAYS correct, upstanding citizens, & honest (despite reality, the massive loss of life, the serial lying, the towering incompetence, the astronomical debt, and the astonishing number of sexual freaks and criminal perverts that make up it's office holders) and Democrats are ALWAYS wrong, and promiscuous, and hippies, and can't be trusted on "serious matters".

[Canukistani]

This has all been about whether Bush and Cheney could put America in a position to get whatever it wanted in the world by substituting bullying and intimidation for enlightened diplomacy. Now that their character and competence (or the lack thereof) has been made too obvious to ignore the question is, will America learn something from this or will it continue to be a dangerous rogue nation.