BCT Editorial – 9/15/05

This page was last updated on September 17, 2005.

Timing; Editorial; Beaver County Times; September 15, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The fourth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, brought a series of news reports looking back on the tragic day.

“Included in the mix was a rehash of the Bush administration’s push for the invasion of Iraq. The Times published an in-depth Associated Press story on the matter on Sunday.

“Much of the focus was on the administration’s insistence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction as the main reason for the invasion. Of course, it turned out that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

“But as the administration’s defenders rightly point out, Bush and his underlings weren’t the only ones who believed Saddam possessed WMDs. So did many U.S. allies; so did many arms experts; so did the Clinton administration. So in a sense, the WMD argument is moot. The consensus was that Iraq had WMDs.”

[RWC] Given the Times incessant rants against the Iraq War, this admission had to hurt – real bad.

“However, what should be looked into is the timing of the Bush administration’s push to invade Iraq. Why did Iraq’s repeated violations of U.N. mandates suddenly become intolerable to the United States? White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. told The New York Times in September 2002 that the administration had waited until then to start selling the public on the war because ‘from a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.’”

[RWC] I don’t know if the editorial writer is feigning ignorance or not.

Regarding the question about the change in attitude toward Iraq, 9/11 changed it. Though no one claimed Iraq played a role, we finally realized we couldn’t tolerate countries like Iraq having WMD. After all, Iraq had used WMD against enemies (Iran) and citizens alike. Further, Iraq was a terrorist playground and it was reasonable to expect these terrorists would come into possession of Iraqi WMD.

Regarding the comment about August, that’s in reference to most of the U.S. government being on vacation in August. With most of Washington’s elected officials on vacation, it made no sense to start a major information campaign during that period.

“Forget the WMDs. The timing of the Bush administration’s path to war is everything.”

[RWC] You’ll note the editorial provides no explanation of why the author believes “the timing of the Bush administration’s path to war is everything.” I guess we’re supposed to be mind readers.