July 18, 2004

Bush Can Say ‘Liar, Liar, Your Pants Are on Fire’

Radlib Dems are tizzified over revelations of truth in the final report of the Senate Intelligence Committee On Prewar Intelligence.

To wit: "The Committee did not find any evidence that Administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, ranking Democrat on the committee, acknowledged the findings were unanimous but managed to squeeze off a couple of weak yes-buts.

But, what, is not clear. His lament seems to be: "Your mother wears army boots."

Rubbing salt into liberal wounds is a similar report three days later by the British House of Commons "Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction."

To wit: "We conclude that the (16-word) statement in President Bush’s State of the Union Address of 28 January 2003 – ‘The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa’ -- was well founded."

In other words: neither Bush nor Blair lied --as averred by their partisan enemies.  

Both committees couched their findings in diplomatic simile. The blunt translations better describes anti-war doves: "Liar, liar! Your pants are on fire."

The two reports expose the specious allegations by Joe Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to Niger in west Africa. He was sent there in Feb. 2002 to investigate an alleged Iraq connection.  

After 11 days in Niger – "sipping coffee in cafes and talking with the Niger president" – Wilson reported that Iraq had simply tried to "open trade negotiations."

Iraqi letters suggesting an interest in uranium was "forged" declared Wilson.

Shortly thereafter, columnist Robert Novak reported that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA agent, arranged the Niger visit.

Wilson and Plame angrily proclaimed she had not been involved. However, the U.S. report discloses that Plame did recommend her husband. Both are known as anti-Bush liberals,

The British report says the Iraqi letters have been confirmed authentic by other European intelligence agencies.

No matter. The important facts are that

1. Saddam had weapons of mass destruction
2. used them with deadly effect on his own people and neighbors
3. wouldn’t account for them
4. refused unfettered access for UN inspectors and
5. harbored terrorists.

If it quacks like a duck, etc.

The civilized world has tolerated terrorism for too many years. The hope was that terrorist attacks were an aberration that would wilt away. One or two massacres a year is more acceptable than fighting back.

The list of atrocities against the United States, alone, is shameful to recall:

• 11/4/79 – Iranian students invade U.S. embassy and hold 52 U.S. citizens hostage for 14 months.
• 4/18/83 – Hezbollah suicide bomber blows up U.S. embassy in Lebanon, killing 17 Americans.
• 10/23/83 – Hezbollah bombs U.N. "peacekeepers" barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. Marines.
• 11/20/84 – Truck bomb explodes outside U.S. embassy in Aukar, Lebanon, killing 24.  
• 10/17/85 – Libyan terrorists invade Italian cruise ship and demanded release of Palestinian terrorists worldwide. U.S. passenger in a wheelchair is thrown overboard to drown.
• 2/23/88 – Bomb placed aboard Pan Am Flight 103 by Libyan terrorists explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
• 2/26/93 – Car bomb explodes in parking basement of the World Trade Center killing 7 and injuring hundreds. Cyanide gas device failed.
• 10/12/93 – Terrorists trained by bin Laden, shoot down two U.S. helicopters on a humanitarian mission in Somalia. Bodies of 18 U.S. troops are dragged through the streets.
• 11/13/95 – U.S. guard center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, bombed. 5 U.S. personnel killed.
• 6/25/96 – Truck bombing of Khobar Towers military housing for Americans in Saudi Arabia. 19 killed.
• 8/7/98 – Simultaneous car bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by Al Queda kill 224 people.
• 10/12/00 – Suicide bombing of U.S.S. Cole refueling at Aden, Yemen, kill 17 U.S. sailors.
• 9/11/01 – Al Queda suicide squads hijack four airliners simultaneously, crashing two into the Twin Towers and one into the Pentagon. Brave passengers overpower fourth hijackers to crash plane destined for the U.S. Capitol. 3,000 people killed – more than at Pearl Harbor. 60,000 wounded.

* * *

The world owes Bush and Blair apologies and heartfelt thanks for finally taking a stand against cowardly terrorism.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at linwms@lindseywilliams.org