Today\’s quote comes to us from NBC\’s Kristen Welker.
During this morning\’s report on The Today Show, which discussed several Republican Presidential candidates, Ms. Welker had this to say about Jeb Bush, who attacked Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for allowing ISIS to grow to its current massive strength:
“In his first major foreign policy speech, Bush blamed the rise of ISIS on President Obama and, by extension, his former Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton).
“The strategy is a risk for Bush, whose brother started the Iraq war…”
There you have it, folks. The 12 year old “it was Bush\’s war” mantra, repeated again – the implication being that our invasion of Iraq was solely Bush\’s baby – that others did not want it, but Bush forced it on us all.
This is a lie.
When President Obama bombed Libya for over 6 months, without bothering to ask for the constitutionally required congressional authorization, that was “Obama\’s war”.
When Bush decided we should go into Iraq, he did no such thing. He went to the U.S. congress and asked for authorization.
He got it (more on this in a moment).
Then he went to the United Nations for authorization.
He got it.
Only then did Bush go into Iraq — along with dozens of other countries from around the world as allies.
Does that look like Bush unilaterally started a war to you?
Not incidentally, this painstaking effort to do it the right way took about 6 months – more than enough time for saddam to hide, export or destroy the WMDs that intelligence agencies around the world – not just ours, but Britain\’s France\’s Russia\’s and Israel\’s all agreed he had. Which means that claims that Bush lied about there being WMDs, as if no one elso said so and he just made the whole thing up, is, itself, the real lie.
And then there was this little issue of who voted to authorize the war in Iraq. suppose I told you that 58% of the U. S. Senate voted to do so. Would you agree that constituted a majority?
Well, please be advised that the 58% approval was not from the entire U.S. Senate. It was only among Democrats, who voted 29 – 21 in favor. In other words, if only Democrats – no Republicans at all – had voted on the Iraq war resolution, it would have passed, with plenty of room to spare. “Bush\’s war” my ass.
And that\’s not all: guess who two of the “yea” votes came from?
John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, that\’s who. So two of the most vociferous “opponents” of the war – to hear them tell it now – actually voted in favor of it. You want dishonesty? Hypocrisy? Try that on for size.
Oh, and then there is this little matter of what Kerry and Clinton said about Saddam\’s WMDs. Here is each person\’s verbatim quote on the subject:
“I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force – if necessary – to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”
Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002.“In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including
al Qaeda members. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.”
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002“We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction. “[W]ithout question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime … He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. And now he has continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction … So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real …
With the above in mind, I award Kristen Welker Quote Of The Day honors, for – in the spirit of Kerry and Clinton – so blithely, so dishonestly, carrying forward a complete lie that she, or any of her fellow liars, could debunk by spending maybe 1 – 2 minutes of fact-checking on the nearest computer.
Way to go, Kristen. I\’m sure your bosses at NBC are very pleased with your “journalism”…and the Hillary Clinton campaign is deliriously happy altogether.
