‘That case never changed’

May 19, 2006

[tag]Helen Thomas[/tag] asked [tag]Scott McClellan[/tag] the same question for several years, but never got an answer. Today, she gave it a shot with [tag]Tony Snow[/tag].

Q: The new Italian Prime Minister says that the President’s invasion of Iraq was a grave error. As the new kid on the block, can you give me the latest [tag]rationale[/tag] the U.S. has for invading [tag]Iraq[/tag]?

Snow: There has only been one rationale, as you know, Helen, and this that Saddam Hussein had resisted — what is the proper number, 17 United Nations resolutions — and had refused repeatedly to permit weapons inspectors to do their work, and consistent with that. And also we had cited other concerns in terms of democracy and human rights. That case has never changed.

As Salon’s Tim Grieve noted, “one rationale” is a little on the low end of the count of rationales. OK, more than a little.

As a student researcher at the University of Illinois found a couple of years ago, the Bush administration advanced more than 20 different justifications for the [tag]war[/tag] in Iraq between 2001 and 2002. One that [tag]Snow[/tag] didn’t mention, at least explicitly, today: The threat, described by the president in his September 2002 speech before the U.N. General Assembly, that [tag]Saddam Hussein[/tag] was going to give the [tag]weapons of mass destruction[/tag] he didn’t have to al-Qaida terrorists with whom he wasn’t working.

It’s hard to deny that Tony Snow, as a professional communicator, is more articulate and confident than Scott McClellan ever was. But after just a few press briefings, Snow has already made clear that he has a McClellan-like approach to the truth. The more things change…

It’s all part of the GOP approach to the truth: fantasy buttressed by unembarrassed resort to unchallenged power.

  • And we were expecting what??? Full and complete honesty? No spin??
    Come on, It’s the Bush Administration. They could not tell the truth if it was handed to them and put on a teleprompter.

  • The press ought to keep after Snow in the Helen Thomas mold, but only to expose the administration’s lack of credibility. I don’t expect anything from Snow or anyone else who holds that job because it is impossible to defend the indefensible. One rationale — right!

  • When I hear, see, read stuff like this I just want to tie these assholes to their chairs and make them watch video clips of themselves until they spontaneously combust.

    Yeah, we invaded Iraq because of their appalling record of human rights abuses. All that stuff about smoking guns and mushroom clouds was just a drug-induced dream I had…if only.

  • “If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another…after the war is on.” ~ Robert LaFollette 1917

    Damn. That LaFollette guy was good. He nailed the Bushies before they were born.

  • that Saddam Hussein had resisted — what is the proper number, 17 United Nations resolutions — and had refused repeatedly to permit weapons inspectors to do their work

    Not only is the “one” rationale too low of a count, but the rationale stated above is patently false. Sure, Saddam had denied weapons inspectors on a number of occasions, but ultimately there were weapons inspectors inside Iraq months before we invaded. Granted, they weren’t finding anything, but that’s only because there was nothing to find.

    Perhaps Tony Snow should talk to Hans Blix.

  • Sweet! Someone quoting fellow Wisconsin native Robert LaFollette.

    Though I’ve settled in Minnesota and had to deal with Norm Coleman lucking into Wellstone’s Senate seat, it’s good to know that the state of my birth and childhood has Russ Feingold carrying on LaFollette’s legacy.

  • And LaFollette was a Republican to boot! Which means he’ll be called a traitor any time now.

  • Hearst to his reporter in Cuba: “You provide the photos [of supposed Cuban atrocities], I’ll provide the [Spanish-American] war.” I’m sure, if I cared, that one could dig up a similar rationale for the Athenian attack on Sparta.

    The Italian sociologist/economist argued that our “explanations” for our actions were almost never the “cause” of those actions. Much more often than not, they were made up, after the fact, as a “rationalization” of those actions.

    A notable exception to this sweeping generalization, in my humble opinion, was the Kennan-Truman “Containment Policy” which, beginning in 1947, actually guided our foreign policy for many years. LBJ, and the last three GOP presidents, made a mockery of this policy by returning to after-the-fact reconstructions (lies) to justify attacks already decided upon.

  • Beep52 has it right!

    I’m surprised — no, I mean I’m really surprised — that anyone would have thought Snow would do anything other than continue the pettifoggery McClellan (and Fleisher) made a tradition. Really. I don’t have TV and maybe Tony Snow is a charmer or something and his fans had high expectations. But one needs to realize that, once he’s signed on with the Administration, he’s agreed to leave both scrotum and cerebrum at the door.

  • “Snow: There has only been one rationale, as you know, Helen, and this that Saddam Hussein had resisted — what is the proper number, 17 United Nations resolutions — and had refused repeatedly to permit weapons inspectors to do their work, and consistent with that. And also we had cited other concerns in terms of democracy and human rights. That case has never changed.”

    So…would it then be reasonable to say that, after all the human-rights initiatives ignored by Kid George…that an invasion of the United States would be also deemed “justifiable?”

  • Yep, Snow is a hypnotist.

    “and consistent with that.”

    And consistent with *what*? That phrase is a fucking non-sequitur. It is a hypnotic suggestion. CONSISTENT. We are being consistent. We’re being so consistent, we’ll throw the word in where it doesn’t belong, just to get it out there. The rationales have always been consistent. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. “That case has never changed.” Move along, move along.

    Maybe after he hugs the tar baby a few more times, he’ll start spluttering like Scotty. But I doubt it. The man has been to NLP training.

    UN inspectors were wandering around Iraq until *we* asked them to leave– for their own safety, because the bombing was about to start.

    So now, instead of Scotty throwing random shit out there, from Tony we will get consistent, confidently-stated, patently-false lies. Great, just like the old days of Ari Fleischer.

    Hug the tar baby, Tony. Hug the tar baby.

  • It amazes me that lefties still spout the lie about, “Bush Lied”. You know as well as the right does that there is a difference between a lie and being misled. The only people who sort of believe “Bush Lied” are the ones who work real hard to stay deceived. Bush Didn’t Lie About WMD’s!
    – The left has no solutions. – Keep grumbling and whining. That will assure the Dems loose the elections.

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