A Nation Bamboozled

This week marks the anniversary of one of the most avoidably-idiotic days in American history – the day Republicans shot our country in the face and expected a parade of sweets and flowers for it. It’s the 20th dumbstickiversary of the invasion of Iraq. Seems appropriate to mark the occasion with a reminder of some of the lying and/or moronic statements made by the band of Very Serious People who orchestrated and/or promoted the debacle. Feel free to hurl rotten tomatoes as you see fit ...

“Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” ... “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.”
—Dick Cheney (8/28/02) and (3/16/03)

“Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof—the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
—George W. Bush (10/7/02)

“I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?”

—Bill O’Reilly (1/29/03)

The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of “French fries” to “freedom fries,” in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country’s refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.
—CNN (3/12/03)

“We know where [the WMDs] are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”
—Donald Rumsfeld (3/30/03)

“[T]he antiwar crowd is still spinning a doomsday scenario. But it’s getting harder and harder to take seriously the claim that freeing Iraq will make it harder to win the war on terrorism. Indeed, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary. [...] Who said war never solved anything?”
—Brendan Miniter, The Wall Street Journal (4/8/03, now scrubbed from the site)

“The only people who think this wasn’t a victory are Upper Westside liberals.”
—Charles Krauthammer (4/19/03)

Ted Koppel: “[Y]ou’re not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraqis going to be done for $1.7 billion?”
Andrew Natsios [Agency for International Development]: “Well, in terms of the American taxpayer’s contribution, I do. This is it for the U.S.”
—Nightline (4/23/03 at 2:30 mark)

4,516 American service personnel lost their lives during the war, with another 32,000 wounded. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who died. But, please: do continue telling us why the Bush II administration’s image deserves to be rehabilitated. I’m all ears. (And lest we forget, Lord Dampnut, aka Cadet Bone Spurs, was rah-rah on Iraq, too, until it all went south and he started lying to try and cover for his terrible judgment.)

P.S. Minimum amount of time that U.S. taxpayers will be paying costs associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an AP analysis: 100 years. Only 90 years to go. Yay us.

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Written by Bill in Portland Maine. Cross-posted from Daily Kos.