REVISIONISM REDUX

Yesterday, Charlie Gibson interviewed George W. Bush about his term as President, one highlight as follows:

GIBSON: You've always said there's no do-overs as President. If you had one?

BUSH: I don't know -- the biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn't just people in my administration; a lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence. And, you know, that's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.

How does an “intelligence failure” explain the administration’s attempt to discredit and smear former Ambassador Joe Wilson, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, former anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and other critics of administration policy?

How does an “intelligence failure” justify the 50,993 Iraqi civilian casualties (as counted by the Shiite government since April 2005)?

How does one explain “intelligence failure” to the 30,634 wounded soldiers now neglected by a government-on-the-cheap, just like the Vietnam era vets who were abandoned a generation ago?

How does an “intelligence failure” explain why our government failed to secure 250,000 tons of missing ordinance spread around Iraqi weapons sites … veritable shopping malls of explosives left for looting by would-be insurgents?

What intelligence justified the dismissal of 350,000 Iraqi Army personnel who, after being turned out of their jobs and unemployed, had little recourse but to join the ranks of the insurgency?

How can one so easily dismiss the “tactical errors, thousands of them,” admitted by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during a visit to Blackburn England in 2006?

How can one justify the loss of 4,207 American lives since the beginning of the Iraq War? On screen, the number 4,207 looks something like this:

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m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m

After the WMD argument proved bogus, the Bush administration advanced yet another false premise to justify themselves: The “pied piper” argument. The one that states: “We are fighting terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” When intelligence fails, “staying the course” is the cowardly way to avoid owning the mistake.

Overall, the Administration rushed our soldiers into an ad hoc, itchy-trigger-finger war predicated on false intelligence, errors in judgment, gross mismanagement, and no exit strategy. When citizens demanded truth and accountability, the administration countered with subterfuge and smear.

Finally, here is George Bush at a White House Correspondents Dinner in 2004 cracking jokes about his “intelligence failure:”

"Those weapons of mass destruction gotta be somewhere. Nope, no weapons over there. Maybe under here."

Only a roomful of sycophants and sociopaths could find this amusing.

Now the War-Criminal-In-Chief intends to spin his own history. Over my dead body!