In a recent interview on Face The Nation, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was questioned about the administration’s assertion that Iraq posed an “immediate threat” to the United States, which has been cited as the primary reason for invasion. In this video excerpt of the interview (links to page with embedded Windows Media Video), Rumsfeld denies that anyone in the administration made that claim. However, when the interviewers provide several incontrovertible “citations” (at Rumsfeld’s request) demonstrating otherwise, he futilely tries to backpedal, although it’s obvious he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. I know that this is just a typically revisionist political tactic, but in this case the implications of these assertions are way too serious to just wish away. I’m getting sick and tired of this administration’s political maneuvering at the expense of what is left of our foreign policy, to say nothing of domestic issues.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad that Saddam Hussein has been deposed and Iraq has been liberated. That should have been taken care of over ten years ago in the First Gulf War. However, W squandered the international outpouring of support generated by the tragedy of 9-11. He wasted a golden opportunity to bolster old alliances and forge new ones, spurning the entire world community in his unilateral pursuit of vengeance and focusing the enmity of almost the entire world on the United States. History will show what W has wrought, as the effects of his incompetent administration will reverberate for generations to come.
