Flexible Truths

For Bush, Facts Are Malleable
Presidential Tradition Of Embroidering Key Assertions Continues

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 22, 2002; Page A01

President Bush, speaking to the nation this month about the need to challenge Saddam Hussein, warned that Iraq has a growing fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used "for missions targeting the United States."

Last month, asked if there were new and conclusive evidence of Hussein's nuclear weapons capabilities, Bush cited a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the Iraqis were "six months away from developing a weapon." And last week, the president said objections by a labor union to having customs officials wear radiation detectors has the potential to delay the policy "for a long period of time."

All three assertions were powerful arguments for the actions Bush sought. And all three statements were dubious, if not wrong. Further information revealed that the aircraft lack the range to reach the United States; there was no such report by the IAEA; and the customs dispute over the detectors was resolved long ago.

While we are getting the 24-7 treatment of the sniper story, news such as that above is getting pushed off of the front page and out of the headline summaries.  Yet the news above is what will have a greater impact on far more Americans than the DC sniper ever will.

As far as I've been able to determine - and it is always possible that I've missed a few things along the way - not one of  Bush's excuses for attacking Iraq, with the possible exception that this is the guy who tried to kill his Dad, has stood up to scruitny.  In addition to the claims and refutations listed above, Bush claims he's concerned about their weapons of mass desctruction - which have yet to be proved to exist - yet has not indicated what, or even IF, he has any plans for dealing with North Korea's nukes.

The article also lists several items from Bush's October 7th speech in support of the idea of a war with Iraq and provides counter-arguments to each, and looks at some other statemens he's made during his presidency and the problems with them as well.

There's no doubt that the deaths of 10 individuals in the Washingtion DC area is horrific and tragic, or that the families of all those assaulted have bee changed forever.  What concerns me, though, is that because of the wall-to-wall coverage of the sniper case, we're not hearing about these distortions.  If we do get involved in a shooting war, there will be a lot more than 10 people killed.