BadGimp

Continued Lack of Solid Proof on Weapons of Mass Destruction Remains Serious Danger for Bush
An AP News Analysis By Barry Schweid The Associated Press
Published: Jun 11, 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) - Unless the Bush administration takes definitive action to prove its assertions about Saddam Hussein's destructive weapons, it could sacrifice credibility as a leader in future world crises.
As British and U.S. teams continue their as-yet fruitless searches for proof of Iraq's firepower, and President Bush insists there were weapons of mass destruction, some former officials, experts and lawmakers are seeing potential damage for the administration by the failure to find arms.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser in the Carter administration, suggested that U.S. officials make an effort to determine whether there are residual weapons in Iraq that were hidden but not used. Also, he said, questions must be answered whether U.S. intelligence agencies were misinformed or had been pressured into making exaggerated claims and "whether the top policy-makers knew that they were vastly exaggerating the facts."

"What is clear is that the assertions by our top policy-makers, from the president down, to the effect that Iraq was a powerful threat armed with extremely dangerous weapons, was not accurate," Brzezinski said. "American global credibility has been badly hurt."

Similar sentiments were echoed by others who fear for the future accuracy and believability of the United States.

"If you have a doctrine of pre-emption, which says you can go into a place based on imminent threat, and if the president is serious about that, ... then you really have to be sure that your intelligence is very, very good," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday. "And your intelligence has to stand on its own."

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that the American people need to know how the intelligence was handled regarding Iraq before they can be asked to trust other intelligence as a basis for future military action.

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I could go on about this but I'll let the words of the folks quoted in the article speak for me. They can at least maintain their calm, as where I am so mad I am spittin sparks.

BadGimp

posted by BadGimp @ 11:29 AM