I thought it was kind of funny, and kind of scary, in July 2003 when Bush said Saddam Hussein refused to allow U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq, which then led to the war.
Bush said, “[W]e gave [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power.”
It was one of those bizarre moments that lead me to wonder if Bush is even aware of the most basic developments in current events. It’s as if the president was completely unaware of the fact that UNMOVIC inspectors were in Iraq for three months, searching for WMD, before Bush told the inspectors to leave because we were about to invade. The disconnect between Bush’s comments and reality suggested that the president was embarrassingly clueless.
As disconcerting as Bush’s comments were, I’m just as troubled by Sen. Pat Roberts’ (R-Kan.) similar take on UNMOVIC over the weekend.
As the Progress Report’s “Daily Grill” noted yesterday, Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was on CNN on Sunday parroting Bush’s bizarre line.
“[I]n regards to Saddam Hussein, if in fact he didn’t have [WMD], why on earth didn’t he let the U.N. inspectors in and avoid the war?” Roberts said. “That is a real puzzlement to me.”
No, the “real puzzlement” is why the chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee was suggesting on national television that Hussein didn’t let U.N. inspectors back into Iraq to search for WMD when the opposite is true.
Of course, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who was interviewing Roberts, ignored the comment and chose not to follow up. It was just the kind of hard-hitting interview I’ve come to expect from CNN.
It’s just bizarre. I don’t expect much from Bush, so when he appears to have no idea what’s going on in the world, I’m not terribly surprised. I don’t mean to sound picky, but shouldn’t Sen. Roberts know better?