Former defense secretary William Perry warned that the United States and North Korea are drifting toward war, perhaps as early as this year, in an increasingly dangerous standoff that also could result in terrorists being able to purchase a North Korean nuclear device and plant it in a U.S. city.
“I think we are losing control” of the situation, said Perry, who believes North Korea soon will have enough nuclear warheads to begin exploding them in tests and exporting them to terrorists and other U.S. adversaries. “The nuclear program now underway in North Korea poses an imminent danger of nuclear weapons being detonated in American cities,” he said in an interview.
If it turns out that North Korea is lying, does that mean Rep. Waxman (D-CA) will call Bush a liar again and call for more hearings?
Watcher
Waxman lives in California… why hasn’t he managed to find a plastic surgeon that can fix that pig nose of his?
Brian Linse
No, John, it doesn’t. But what strikes me as worse is the element of the “boy who cried wolf”. What if the NK threat is real, and Bush has trouble selling a new war because so many believe he lied about the last one? Of course, if Bush does lie about NK as he did about Iraq, then I think you can expect Waxman to call him on it. I’m proud to have him as my Rep in Congress, and you must be aware by now that it’s not just the “Fringe Left” that thinks the Bush admin lied to take us to war.
And why do you allow comments like “Watcher’s” to remain on your blog? He can’t refute Waxman on substantive grounds so he attacks his physical appearance? You, John, are one of the original blogs on my roll, and I read you because you back your positions (which I almost always disagree with) with reason and thoughtful arguments.
How ’bout you post a pic of yourself Watcher-dude? You all that and a bag of chips? You don’t even have the sack to use your own name, and your blog is nothing but a cut-and-paste of other people’s work. “Lame” and “cowardly” are two word that come to mind.
Really John, you run a great blog, and it’s a shame to see it cheapened by dipshits like Watcher. This is, unfortunately, one of the reasons I often pass on comments sections (Left and Right) and why I don’t have them on my blog.
John Cole
Brian- I hadn’t read Watcher’s comments, but I let people pretty much say what they want, and let their speech reflect on them, positively or negatively.
I don’t believe Bush lied- I beleieve they may have had some bad intel, but according to the Brits, there is additional evidence to support the claim.
BTW- Many Democrat Senators (including Biden and Graham) have all gone on record to say they do not think Bush lied, so I believe it is mainly the fringe and the same core of Bush haters who do believe he lied.
There is a difference between being wrong and lying, although Democrats seem to have forgotten that- and it was actually quite refreshing to have the White House admit a mistake had been made. Can you imagine the Clinton White House admitting a mistake? They would disparage the reporter, claim he had never said it, then when the video was played back, just claim it was all part of some conspiracy to get Clinton or that we were just all too stupid to understand what he really meant?
John Cole
BTW- I think bad intel is more damning then lying- if Bush wsas lying, atleast they have an objective portrait of what is going on- and they just lied about it.
I don’t think our intelligence services know what the hell is going on, and that is kinda scary. See Korea, North.
Brian Linse
John:
I agree with you 100% on the intel point, and the Dems must soon turn from parsing the language to placing the deception (and I still believe the evidence demonstrates deliberate deception) into a larger context. If Bush was truly relying on foreign intel because ours was inadequate, it should be considered much more damning to his admin than spinning 16 words in the SOTU. Tenet is part of the Bush admin, and any failure of the CIA is a failure of the White House.
The most offensive aspect for me in all of this is that, from the start, the Bush admin has treated the American public like children — if they had spoken honestly about their true agenda in the ME I’d have been willing to listen and perhaps support them. But they seem to have felt that we wouldn’t “get it” unless it was served to us in simple moralisitic terms couched in scare tactics. To have taken such a huge departure in foreign policy as the “Bush Doctrine” of preemtive war represents without engaging in open and honest debate is an abuse of their power. And you can bet that if things continue to turn to shit in Iraq, and if our foreign policy is further damaged throughout the world as a result, the American electorate will “get it”, big time. Had they been honest with the public about the reasons for going into Iraq, the voters would be more willing to accept unforseen problems and consequences, and less likely to feel lied to and betrayed. David Broder’s recent piece must be seen as nothing short of a crisis for Rove and Co. This has legs now, and the tactics that the Bush admin have been using so successfully will no longer work. The press has awakened from their slumber, and the pathetic DNC appears to be growing a pair as we head into ’04.
With body bags coming back from the desert daily, the economy in the crapper, and other geopolitical situations destabilizing, this may turn into an election that is the Dems to lose… which they may magaged to do anyway…
I need a drink.