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July 15 - 31, 2003 |
VOL. 1 ISSUE 7 |
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“NATION AFTER NATION AFTER NATION IS JOINING OUR ‘COALITION OF THE WILLING.’” As Grievous As Lying About WMD’s To Scare Us Into War Was Lying About The Fact That We Would Be Alone By Betsy R. Vasquez |
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July 16, 2003 – The nation was leery. Even if Saddam posed an imminent threat – which the President was asserting with more than just “16 words” of claims about al Qaida links and weapons programs – the people of America preferred, by large majority, that the President not send us to war alone.
The people wanted other nations with us, U.N. support if possible. On February 24, 2003, ABC News reported, “56 percent say it's more important for the United States to keep trying to persuade the Security Council, even if that means moving more slowly against Iraq.”
As the time for President Bush’s pre-scheduled war drew near, it was clear to all impartial observers that it was nobody but us and the British going into the this endeavor alone.
So President Bush and his administration resorted to their usual game of tell a lie, tell it big, tell it often.
“We now have coalition of the willing that includes some 30 nations,” said Secretary of State Colin Powell, as quoted by the BBC on March 16, 2003.
Clearly, as our troops sit out there alone getting shot at on a daily basis, we see this was a lie by the President and his administration, used to trick us into supporting his war. The WMD’s were not as he said, and there was no coalition of the willing. This lie about a “coalition of the willing” did not involve just 16 words, nor was it limited to one speech.
Just a few days later, on March 20th, 2003, President Bush declared, “Over 40 nations now support our efforts,” as quoted by CNN.
Ari Fleischer: “"Every major race, religion and ethnic group in the world is represented. The coalition includes nations from every continent on the globe.” March 20, CNN
The President wanted the war and he wanted it on the schedule he had set many months before. So, to get people to back his ridiculous rush into a war that there was no need to rush into, he did what he had done to get people to back the war in the first place: lie, lie, and lie again. He and his colleagues began trumpeting on a daily basis the Karl Rove crafted buzz phrase lie of the day: “Coalition of the willing.”
The nation would not have wanted to go to war if they didn’t think Iraq had WMD’s that posed an imminent threat, and so the President had lied, exaggerated, and misled.
By the same token, the people did not want to go to war alone.
As our representatives in the Congress and Senate and the press now kick over whether or not the President lied to lead us to war, I think they should listen to exactly what the Bush/Limbaughians are saying: The Niger uranium claim was “just 16 words in one speech.” Dwell on these words, as well you should, but do not ignore the other, completely, inescapably dishonest hundreds – indeed, thousands upon thousands – of words the President and his administration uttered to trick a nation into agreeing to a war they wouldn’t have supported on a schedule they wouldn’t have agreed to. |