The lies used by those accusing Bush of lying

For anyone still interested in the WMDs issue, and particularly in how the left uses it to express their insane hatred of President Bush, this article by Stephen F. Hayes in The Weekly Standard is worth reading. Hayes critiques an article by Spencer Ackerman and John B. Judis in The New Republic in which—as the below passage by Hayes indicates—the authors grossly distort the record in order to make it look as if the administration was lying about weapons:

Ackerman and Judis also go after Vice President Cheney’s assertion, in a March 16, 2003, appearance on “Meet the Press,” that Saddam Hussein “has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” Indeed, the New Republic authors say that Bush administration officials made that claim “repeatedly.” Here, it seems likely that Cheney misspoke. He presumably meant to echo President Bush, who had said that there was evidence Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program. At least three other times in the same interview—never cited in the New Republic piece—Cheney was clear the worry about nuclear weapons was in the future. Said Cheney: “There’s no question about who is going to prevail if there is military action. And there’s no question but what is going to be cheaper and less costly to do it now than it will be to wait a year or two years or three years until he’s developed even more deadly weapons, perhaps nuclear weapons.” Some deception.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 21, 2003 10:23 AM | Send