[geeks] Religion and the Presidency

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
>Date: 2008/05/30 Fri AM 07:52:23 EDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Religion and the Presidency

>Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> He said there were WMDs in Iraq because he believed it to be true, as 
>> did almost every elected official that saw the top secret breifings.
>
>Well, yeah, but that's because that's what they wanted the briefings to 
>show.  Every time someone tried to present some evidence that the claims 
>of WMDs in Iraq were false, the entire administration stuck their 
>fingers in their ears and shouted "LA LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
>
>> That there weren't WMDs doesn't make his decision a mistake or wrong - 
>> it makes the info he and others in gov't got wrong... There is a 
>> difference.
>
>It does if the whole WMD story was a deliberate fabrication, which is 
>what all the available evidence suggests.  They weren't looking for a 
>*reason* to invade Iraq; they were looking for an *excuse*.

I don't see it - if his evidence said it existed, and he trusted those 
sources, he did the prudent thing (<dana carvey>at that juncture</dana 
carvey>. The whole "nasty letters from the U.N.-thing" didn't really seem to 
make a difference, and other world leaders were also convinced (not enough to 
participate in meaningful numbers in many cases, but they were convinced).

Until I see a video of senior whitehouse staff with their fingers in their 
ears going "LA-LA-LA-LA-LA" while someone disagrees with them, we'll have to 
agree to disagree...

Lionel