People have such short memories, which is why the media gets away with such incredibly slanted “news”. As I’ve stated more times than I care to count, I am no fan of George Bush’s war of constant redefinition. However, I am perplexed by this refrain from the lunatic left that “Bush Lied, People Died”. It’s such a childish battle cry. The reason for going into Iraq was based on intelligence that I still believe was accurate, that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons, which he was required under several U.N. resolutions to disclose. He was also required to allow weapons inspectors into the country to prove compliance. There really was no reason to believe that he was being honest with the rest of the world when he claimed to have gotten rid of them. To this day, there is plenty of evidence that those weapons were trucked into Syria prior to the invasion of U.S. ground forces. The intelligence reports that were coming in and used to justify invasion were also reviewed by the Legislative branch of the Federal government, which voted overwhelmingly to authorize military action (though they should have done it right and formally declared war). Not only that, but much of the western world agreed that Saddam had WMDs, including many countries that refused to support the invasion in word or deed. Whether or not the intelligence was correct, much of the world believed it. The essence of a lie is that one does not believe that which one is saying. As much as I am no fan of Bush, there is no reason to believe that he did not believe that Saddam actually did have WMDs. So the claim that he lied is obsurd.
Furthermore, if we are to apply the same standard to Clinton that is applied to Bush, the same could be said of him, if not more so. Clinton claimed that Serbia was engaging in mass genocide against the people of Kosovo, and that America needed to enter the civil war there to end it. He claimed that there were mass graves of Holocaust proportions, and that Milosovic was on par with Hitler in slaughtering innocent people. Somehow the silence in reporting mass grave locations and Kosovar stories of genocide once the hostilities ceased went unnoticed. The entire story of cities being wiped out by evil Serbs was made up. It caused the American people to support unnecessary military action in the Balkins, be it active or passive support. We had soldiers that died. Thus: Clinton lied and people died! Not only that, but the lunatic left loves to lament the hypothetical civilian that is killed in a bombing attack. Not only was that just as likely to have happened in Serbia as in Iraq, but the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed out of existence on May 9th, 1999, killing people that had nothing to do with the conflict.
In addition, I want to know why the Left wants us out of Iraq so badly, but there is silence about bringing our boys home from the Balkans. Yes, we still have troops in the Balkans!
So next time a Leftist says “Bush Lied, People Died”, remind them that the stained dress was not the only thing that Clinton lied about, and that his lies led to people’s deaths as well.
Hi. I just want to say that the part where you say there were no mass graves of Kosovoars is a lie, not true. And the entire towns and primarily villages were indeed wiped out. And yes by Serb forces, however not “evil Serbs” as not all Serbs can be blamed for all the shit that happened in Kosovo (as well as Croatia and Bosnia). Mass graves of Kosovoars were found not only in Kosovo, but in the vicinity of the Serbian capital Belgrade (!) to where they were transported by trucks, buried and covered by old car tires and other trash (check: Batajnica). Around 2,000 of Kosovars are still missing, their bodies still in mass graves waiting to be exhumed. So next time you claim something please check your facts, out of respect for the victims – no matter of what ethnicity. Regards. mile
The total number of Albainian Kosovars found dead amounts to around 5,000 people, mostly in individual graves. However, Madeline Albright and Bill Clinton claimed that between 100,000 and 200,000 people were slaughtered and buried in mass graves. A Canadian group that investigated the claims in an attempt to nail Milosivic in his war crimes trial in the Hague found that the massacres never happened..
Similar disinformation was fed to us to get us into the civil war in Bosnia just a few years before that.
Thanks for the comment, miles, but I stand by the post.
“When Clinton lied, no one died?” Bzzzzt, wrong! Thanks for posting this! Another debunking is here.
Thanks for the comment, but did you read my post? I contended that the “Bush lied, People died” cry cuts both ways. I agree with Savage.
When people start getting mad because only 5000+ people died instead of 200,000, I understand it only up to a certain point. Would you be as angry, if say 500,000 people died in the WW2 Holocuast instead of 12,000,000? Lets not forget the 20,000,000 Russians who died for you in World War 2, as opposed to the less than half a million brave American soldiers. When people die IT’S SAD. PERIOD.
Sure, but does that justify military action? Saddam had his rape rooms and torture chambers. People were killed all the time. He gassed thousands of Kurds.
The point is, and always has been consistency. Thousands (millions?) of liberals decry us being in Iraq, while at the same time decry us for NOT being in Darfur, and supported Clinton’s various military escapades.
I’m not a big fan of our continued presence in Iraq, but I am also not a big fan of our continued presence in Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, Japan, Germany, and a whole host of other countries.
I wasn’t making a point about military action. My point was aimed at the people saying that there were only 5000 some odd people killed as opposed to 200,000. Numbers being used by people who are talking about deaths due to military actions. Figures in the WWII Holocaust range from 5-12 million. My point was, and only was, what does the number have to do with massacre? Or whether you should even CALL it a massacre? But I will grant you your point about decrying a military presence in one place and not caring about it in another. I think liberals PERHAPS decry our presence in Iraq because of the incredibly potent political ramifications of that region. But I really don’t know.