[Mb-civic] Bush, Flip Flop on Iraq

[Michael Butler]

  Go to Original

  Mr. Bush and His 10 Ever-Changing Different Positions on Iraq:
  "A flip and a flop and now just a flop."
  By Michael Moore
  michaelmoore.com

  Wednesday 22 September 2004

  Dear Mr. Bush,

  I am so confused. Where exactly do you stand on the issue of Iraq? You,
your Dad, Rummy, Condi, Colin, and Wolfie -- you have all changed your minds
so many times, I am out of breath just trying to keep up with you!

  Which of these 10 positions that you, your family and your cabinet have
taken over the years represents your current thinking:

  1983-88: WE LOVE SADDAM.
  On December 19, 1983, Donald Rumsfeld was sent by your dad and Mr. Reagan
to go and have a friendly meeting with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq.
Rummy looked so happy in the picture. Just twelve days after this visit,
Saddam gassed thousands of Iranian troops. Your dad and Rummy seemed pretty
happy with the results because 'The Donald R.' went back to have another
chummy hang-out with Saddam's right-hand man, Tariq Aziz, just four months
later. All of this resulted in the U.S. providing credits and loans to Iraq
that enabled Saddam to buy billions of dollars worth of weapons and chemical
agents. The Washington Post reported that your dad and Reagan let it be
known to their Arab allies that the Reagan/Bush administration wanted Iraq
to win its war with Iran and anyone who helped Saddam accomplish this was a
friend of ours.

  1990: WE HATE SADDAM.
  In 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait, your dad and his defense secretary,
Dick Cheney, decided they didn't like Saddam anymore so they attacked Iraq
and returned Kuwait to its rightful dictators.

  1991: WE WANT SADDAM TO LIVE.
  After the war, your dad and Cheney and Colin Powell told the Shiites to
rise up against Saddam and we would support them. So they rose up. But then
we changed our minds. When the Shiites rose up against Saddam, the Bush
inner circle changed its mind and decided NOT to help the Shiites. Thus,
they were massacred by Saddam.

  1998: WE WANT SADDAM TO DIE.
  In 1998, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and others, as part of the Project for the
New American Century, wrote an open letter to President Clinton insisting he
invade and topple Saddam Hussein.

  2000: WE DON'T BELIEVE IN WAR AND NATION BUILDING.
  Just three years later, during your debate with Al Gore in the 2000
election, when asked by the moderator Jim Lehrer where you stood when it
came to using force for regime change, you turned out to be a downright
pacifist:

  "I--I would take the use of force very seriously. I would be guarded in my
approach. I don't think we can be all things to all people in the world. I
think we've got to be very careful when we commit our troops. The vice
president [Al Gore] and I have a disagreement about the use of troops. He
believes in nation building. I--I would be very careful about using our
troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight
and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place.
And so I take my--I take my--my responsibility seriously." - October 3, 2000

  2001 (early): WE DON'T BELIEVE SADDAM IS A THREAT.
  When you took office in 2001, you sent your Secretary of State, Colin
Powell, and your National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, in front of
the cameras to assure the American people they need not worry about Saddam
Hussein. Here is what they said:

   Powell: "We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be
looking at those sanctions to make sure that they have directed that
purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was 10 years ago
when we began it. And frankly, they have worked. He has not developed any
significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is
unable to project conventional power against his neighbors." --February 24,
2001

  Rice: "But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember that his
country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his
country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not
been rebuilt." --July 29, 2001

  2001 (late): WE BELIEVE SADDAM IS GOING TO KILL US!
  Just a few months later, in the hours and days after the 9/11 tragedy, you
had no interest in going after Osama bin Laden. You wanted only to bomb Iraq
and kill Saddam and you then told all of America we were under imminent
threat because weapons of mass destruction were coming our way. You led the
American people to believe that Saddam had something to do with Osama and
9/11. Without the UN's sanction, you broke international law and invaded
Iraq.

  2003: WE DON'T BELIEVE SADDAM IS GOING TO KILL US.
  After no WMDs were found, you changed your mind about why you said we
needed to invade, coming up with a brand new after-the-fact reason -- we
started this war so we could have regime change, liberate Iraq and give the
Iraqis democracy!

  2003: "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"
  Yes, everyone saw you say it -- in costume, no less!

  2004: OOPS. MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED!
  Now you call the Iraq invasion a "catastrophic success." That's what you
called it this month. Over a thousand U.S. soldiers have died, Iraq is in a
state of total chaos where no one is safe, and you have no clue how to get
us out of there.

   Mr. Bush, please tell us -- when will you change your mind again?

  I know you hate the words "flip" and "flop," so I won't use them both on
you. In fact, I'll use just one: Flop. That is what you are. A huge,
colossal flop. The war is a flop, your advisors and the "intelligence" they
gave you is a flop, and now we are all a flop to the rest of the world.
Flop. Flop. Flop.

   And you have the audacity to criticize John Kerry with what you call the
"many positions" he has taken on Iraq. By my count, he has taken only one:
He believed you. That was his position. You told him and the rest of
congress that Saddam had WMDs. So he -- and the vast majority of Americans,
even those who didn't vote for you -- believed you. You see, Americans, like
John Kerry, want to live in a country where they can believe their
president.

   That was the one, single position John Kerry took. He didn't support the
war, he supported YOU. And YOU let him and this great country down. And that
is why tens of millions can't wait to get to the polls on Election Day -- to
remove a major, catastrophic flop from our dear, beloved White House -- to
stop all the flipping you and your men have done, flipping us and the rest
of the world off.

   We can't take another minute of it.

  Yours,

  Michael Moore

 

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