Misguided Policy Quotes

Republican members of Congress have been publicly calling Democratic Presidents nasty names at several times in History. When President Barack Obama was called a liar at his State of the Union Message, to most people’s shock and distaste, it was following a history of such insulting behavior. In this instance, everything that FDR had predicted for the Dam turned out to be not only true but was an understatement of the economic benefit. It was finished just in time to power the new Aluminum industry that made all the super-bombers and 750 major ships in WWII. Congressman Kulkin was a minor figure in American history who never accomplished much as a Congressman other to insult the President and question his motives.

In 2002, President George W. Bush, determined to invade Iraq and bring democracy to the Muslim Middle East, reported that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and were very close to a nuclear bomb. They had even used biological weapons against Iran and the Kurdish minority in Iraq. The president claimed that the evidence was incontrovertible and removed those generals who questioned the wisdom of an Iraq invasion and besmirched the character and patriotism of those civilian officials and figures who questioned the evidence or its sources. After the invasion, it turned out that there were not only no stockpiles of WMD but there was no capability to manufacture WMD as had existed before the Gulf War. Bush claimed he was misled by the CIA and other intelligence operatives. It turned out that the Vice President and other administration officials only examined the intelligence which supported their justification for war.

The facts given by the administration to justify the preemptive invasion of Iraq turned out to be wrong. Moore who is usually not very circumspect in his accusations delicately used the term “misled” as the major debate became one or whether 1) the wrong intelligence was given to the President and his administration and they unknowingly used and reported the false information to the public. 2) the uncertainty of the intelligence accuracy and the contrary evidence was given to the administration which had a predisposition to believe one scenario and the deluded themselves and our allies and the public. 3) The decision to invade Iraq was made with full knowledge that the intelligence was wrong in some areas and weak in others and some administration members pressured the intelligence agencies to make the kind of assessment they administration wanted. “Misled” covers all 3 possibilities.