Another typically thorough probing of the public record at the Daily Howler, this time showing how Joe Wilson's injudicious overstatements (claiming to know something he could not have known--after all, how could he know that Iraq never sought--not obtained, which they clearly had not--yellowcake uranium) have distracted people from the real issue at hand: the overall weakness of the intelligence used to trump up the case for war in Iraq.
I never claimed to debunk Bush's claim, Wilson says. We warned you about this last year:
"...Wilson's loud, dramatic overstatements distracted Dems from stronger pursuits. Bush's 16-word statement was always a relatively weak example of the Admin's pre-war embellishment. Yes, Bush's statement was poorly founded; he had to rely on British intelligence because our own intel was inconclusive. But other examples of dissembling were much more clear; Admin officials often said things in the run-up to war that were, as a matter of fact, baldly wrong. No matter! Loudmouth Wilson kept banging the drums, leading us down that Niger road. Now, he's being called the latest liberal liar, and the charge is close enough to true so that, in part, it's going to stick. Lord Butler said Bush's claim was well-founded--and Wilson admits he can't debunk it! Given those facts, many American are going to wonder why Bush was trashed for those 16 words. This was always a weak side road, with Wilson the piper who led Dems down it...."
different voices
10 years ago