Will this self-serving flip-flopping ever end?!

[Slightly rewritten by and mostly plagiarized by Jim Warren, from a 9/22/04 piece by Michael Moore, mmflint@aol.com, www.michaelmoore.com .]

1983-88: WE LOVE SADDAM. On December 19, 1983, Donald Rumsfeld was sent by George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan for a friendly meeting with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq. Rummy appeared proud and happy in their photo together. <http://www.virtualtome.org/images/rumsfeld_saddam.jpg>

WMD's: Twelve days after Rummy left, Saddam promptly gassed thousands of Iranian troops. Bush's current Defense Secretary, Runsfeld, then returned for a chummy visit with Saddam's right-hand man, Tariq Aziz, just four months later. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13558-2003Dec18>

The Bush-Reagan administration then used billions of dollars of American tax funds for credits and loans to Saddam, used to buy weapons and chemical agents. <http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/news/opeds/2002/power_icc_wsj_071002.htm>

The Washington Post reported that Bush and Reagan let their Arab allies know that their Republican administration wanted Saddan and Iraq to win, and anyone who helped Saddam invade and take over Iran was a friend of the Republicans. <http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=166>

1990: WE HATE SADDAM. After George H.W. Bush's representatives signaled that we would not intervene if Saddam invaded Kuwait, he then did so. Then Bush and his Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney, flip-flopped and attacked Iraq, in order to return Kuwait to its rightful dictators. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52241-2002Dec29>

1991: WE WANT SADDAM TO LIVE. After the first Bush War, he and Cheney and Colin Powell told the Shiites to rise up against Saddam; that we would support them. Then when the Shiites did so, the Bush administration flip-flopped and decided NOT to help. Thus, they were massacred by Saddam, largely using chemical WMD's.

1998: WE WANT SADDAM TO DIE. In 1998, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and others, as part of the Project for the New American Century, wrote an open letter to President Clinton <http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm> insisting he invade and topple Saddam Hussein.

2000: WE DON'T BELIEVE IN WAR AND NATION BUILDING. During George W. Bush's debate with Al Gore, when moderator Jim Lehrer asked Bush where he stood on using force for regime change, Bush said: "I - I would take the use of force very seriously. I would be guarded in my approach. I don't think we can be all things to all people in the world. I think we've got to be very careful when we commit our troops. The vice president [Al Gore] and I have a disagreement about the use of troops. He believes in nation building. I - I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place. And so I take my - I take my - my responsibility seriously." --George W. Bush, October 3, 2000

2001 (early): WE DON'T BELIEVE SADDAM IS A THREAT. When Bush took office in 2001, he sent Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, in front of the cameras to assure the American people they need not worry about Saddam Hussein, saying: Powell: "We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they have directed that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was 10 years ago when we began it. And frankly, they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors." --Colin Powell, February 24, 2001 Rice: "But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt." --Condoleezza Rice, July 29, 2001

2001 (late): WE BELIEVE SADDAM IS GOING TO KILL US. Just a few months later, in the hours and days after the 9/11 tragedy, Bush had no interest in going after Osama bin Laden. Instead, Bush wanted only to bomb Iraq and kill Saddam <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml> .

Bush then told all of America we were under imminent threat because weapons of mass destruction were coming our way, and Saddam had something to do with Osama bin Laden and 9/11. Without the UN's sanction, Bush broke international law and invaded Iraq.

2003: WE DIDN'T BELIEVE SADDAM WAS GOING TO KILL US. After no WMDs were found, Bush then said we needed to invade and use our military force for regime change, to liberate Iraq and give the Iraqis democracy!

2003: "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" was the banner; a flight suit was the photo op.

2004: MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED:

• Bush flip-flopped to his newest interim dictator after his previous hand-picked favorite was discovered to be a spy for the Iranians.
  
  
• More than a thousand U.S. soldiers have died and thousands more have been wounded, as well as thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, elderly, women and children.
  
  
• The Republicans flip-flopped from their traditional fiscal conservatism. Now, the United States has the most monumental debt in its history, and under Republican control of Congress and the White House, it continues to explode.
  
  
• Hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are going to improve education, healthcare and infrastructure in Iraq, while education, healthcare and infrastructure in the USA decays.
  
  
• Iraq is in a state of total chaos where no one is safe.
  
  
• Bin Laden and Al Kaida have many more thousands of bitter recruits than they could ever have DREAMED of having prior to Bush's unilateral invasions and military occupations, martyrs who are determined to kick the invaders and the puppet-leaders out of their nation and ancestral lands.
  
  
• Bush now calls the Iraq invasion a "catastrophic success" <http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/29/bush.sunday.ap/> .

But the U.S. Army's War College Quarterly reports that, "Western Europe's largest countries believe that US power is a destabilizing, destructive force." <http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/03autumn/dowd.htm>

2005: What new flip-flops will we see from Bush, if the Republicans are allowed to remain in power?

Posted by Jon Lebkowsky at September 25, 2004 10:10 AM | TrackBack