More Strong Language
Yesterday I noted the strong language used in a NY Times editorial with respect to the President. After six years of letting the malfeasance of the current administration slide with only the mildest of rebukes, the Times finally came out and called the President a law-breaker. I found another instance of the press calling a spade a spade today, this time in a column written by Mark Seibel of the McClatchy Washington Bureau and published in the Sacramento Bee.
President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements on Iraq. [Emphasis added]
To support his thesis, Mr. Seibel begins by quoting sections of the President's recent speech explaining the need for the "surge" of American troops in Iraq.
"...in 2006, the opposite happened. The violence in Iraq -- particularly in Baghdad -- overwhelmed the political gains Iraqis had made. Al-Qaida terrorists and Sunni insurgents recognized the mortal danger that Iraq's election posed for their cause. And they responded with outrageous acts of murder aimed at innocent Iraqis.
"They blew up one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam -- the Golden Mosque of Samarra -- in a calculated effort to provoke Iraq's Shia population to retaliate. Their strategy worked. Radical Shia elements, some supported by Iran, formed death squads. And the result was a vicious cycle of sectarian violence that continues today."
He then proceeds to point out the errors in the President's time line.
But the president's account understates by at least 15 months when Shiite death squads began targeting Sunni politicians and clerics. It also ignores the role that Iranian-backed Shiite groups had in death-squad activities before the Samarra bombing.
...But the country already had been on a trajectory of rising sectarian violence. U.S. diplomats, reporters and military and intelligence officers began reporting that Shiite death squads were targeting Sunni clerics and former officials of Saddam's Sunni regime at least 15 months before the Samarra bombing. [Emphasis added]
One of the reasons the current administration has succeeded in duping Americans for six years is that the press has failed to note the inconsistencies and lies coming from the White House. The press has neglected its own archives which would have made clear just what was going on. That appears to be changing, finally.
President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements on Iraq. [Emphasis added]
To support his thesis, Mr. Seibel begins by quoting sections of the President's recent speech explaining the need for the "surge" of American troops in Iraq.
"...in 2006, the opposite happened. The violence in Iraq -- particularly in Baghdad -- overwhelmed the political gains Iraqis had made. Al-Qaida terrorists and Sunni insurgents recognized the mortal danger that Iraq's election posed for their cause. And they responded with outrageous acts of murder aimed at innocent Iraqis.
"They blew up one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam -- the Golden Mosque of Samarra -- in a calculated effort to provoke Iraq's Shia population to retaliate. Their strategy worked. Radical Shia elements, some supported by Iran, formed death squads. And the result was a vicious cycle of sectarian violence that continues today."
He then proceeds to point out the errors in the President's time line.
But the president's account understates by at least 15 months when Shiite death squads began targeting Sunni politicians and clerics. It also ignores the role that Iranian-backed Shiite groups had in death-squad activities before the Samarra bombing.
...But the country already had been on a trajectory of rising sectarian violence. U.S. diplomats, reporters and military and intelligence officers began reporting that Shiite death squads were targeting Sunni clerics and former officials of Saddam's Sunni regime at least 15 months before the Samarra bombing. [Emphasis added]
One of the reasons the current administration has succeeded in duping Americans for six years is that the press has failed to note the inconsistencies and lies coming from the White House. The press has neglected its own archives which would have made clear just what was going on. That appears to be changing, finally.
posted by Diane at 10:14 AM
1 Comments:
i dinna know wha's o'ercome yon McClatchys...
not at all characteristic of the owner-class...'
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