MIAMI (AP) — Vice President Dick Cheney asserted on Thursday that a report by the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, who found no evidence that Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991, justifies rather than undermines President Bush’s decision to go to war.
The report shows that “delay, defer, wasn’t an option,” Cheney told a town-hall style meeting.
While Democrats seized on the new report by Charles Duelfer to bolster their case that invading Iraq was a mistake, Cheney focused on portions of the report that were more favorable to the administration’s case.
Although it says Saddam’s weapons program had deteriorated since the 1991 Gulf War and did not pose a threat to the world in 2003, the report also says that Saddam’s main goal was to get international sanctions lifted.
“As soon as the sanctions were lifted he had every intention of going back” to his weapons program, Cheney said.
[The Associated Press, October 7 2004]
Well yeah no shit Hussein was trying to get the sanctions lifted. You think he enjoyed them?
But that’s not the point. He didn’t have the weapons that we said he had! How is it that the American public can put any credibility on what these guys say?!?! It makes zero sense to me.
And what a great kicker from the Post:
Finally, Bush said Kerry would increase spending by $2 trillion or more. “That’s a lot of money — even for a senator from Massachusetts,” Bush said, to thunderous applause and laughter, repeating Cheney’s exact words from the night before. What he did not mention is that budget experts say the president has proposed even more additional spending, perhaps $3 trillion.
[“Bush: Kerry Would ‘Weaken’ U.S.” by Jim VandeHei ; The Washington Post ; October 7 2004]
