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JANUARY 9, 2004 – The date was December 16,
2003. Saddam Hussein had just been captured. President
Bush was feeling his oats, invincible at the moment, redeemed and
propelled by the recent events.
It was in this context that he stepped up, more
boldly and brashly than ever, and let down his guard to show his
true feelings. And what resulted was one of the brashest, most
horrendous commentaries ever made by a US President, and the whole
incident was caught on tape by ABC News.
It was during an interview with Diane
Sawyer. She opened an exchange with the President regarding
his WMD claims and the lack of evidence that has turned up to back
them up so far.
DIANE SAWYER: Fifty percent of the American
people have said that they think the administration exaggerated the
evidence going into the war with Iraq, weapons of mass destruction,
connection to terrorism. Are the American people wrong?
Misguided?
The President hemmed and hawed a bit, trying to
avoid answering, but Diane pressed the issue.
DIANE SAWYER: …When you take a look back,
Vice President Cheney said there is no doubt, Saddam Hussein has
weapons of mass destruction, not programs, not intent. There is no
doubt he has weapons of mass destruction. Secretary Powell said 100
to 500 tons of chemical weapons and now the inspectors say that
there's no evidence of these weapons existing right now. The yellow
cake in Niger, in Niger. George Tenet has said that shouldn't have
been in your speech. Secretary Powell talked about mobile labs.
Again, the intelligence — the inspectors have said they can't
confirm this, they can't corroborate.
Once again the President, I guess used to being on
FOX News and getting only interviews by people who don’t demand
actual answers, hemmed and hawed and tried to avoid answering.
Diane asked again:
DIANE SAWYER: Again, I'm just trying to
ask, these are supporters, people who believed in the war who have
asked the question.
The President made one more feeble attempt to
avoid answering, giving just another of his Rush Limbaugh like
non-answers that work on talk-radio and with Bush/Limbaughians, but
not in the real world. But at last, when Diane pressed him one
more time, he let down his guard, lost his temper, and let out his
true feelings with a horrific admission.
DIANE SAWYER: (You) stated as a hard fact,
that there were weapons of mass destruction as opposed to the
possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons still —
PRESIDENT BUSH: So what's the
difference?
“So what’s the difference?” if he lied, said our
President plainly. “So what’s the difference?” if hundreds of
our sons and daughters are dead and still dying, if we killed
thousands of Iraqis, if the American taxpayers have spent over $100
billion dollars, sending the nation even further into massive
debts. “So?” “So what’s the difference,” if it was all
just a trick and a bunch of lies on his part?
Diane, as you could expect, was flabbergasted, and
could only get out:
DIANE SAWYER: Well —
The President had become the arrogant gangster
boss who just told the chief of police, “Yeah, so what if I’m
running a drug cartel – what are you going to do about it?” In
reality, what could Diane do – she had done all she needed to,
capturing the President’s confession on video tape.
The President, emboldened by Diane’s momentary
stunned stammering, cockily set back into trying to feed Rush
Limbaugh lines, as if nothing had just happened. That is the
typical follow-up of any abusive addict or criminal type. They
say something so heinous, challenging you to do something about it,
and then act is everything is still just normal and go on again as
if you have no reason to be startled or take action.
“Yeah, so what if I’m lying?” the belligerent,
wife-beating husband tells his wife. And then, figuring she
will not have the courage to respond or take action, he acts as if
what he said was no big deal and goes on like everything is normal
and he never said what he said.
In this manner, the President fed Ms. Sawyer
another Limbaugh line, but Diane was tough as nails and refused to
back down
DIANE SAWYER: But, but, again, some,
some…
Notice how she had to fight just to speak.
But she continued…
DIANE SAWYER: But, but, again, some, some
of the critics have said this, combined with the failure to
establish proof of, of elaborate terrorism contacts, has indicated
that there's just not precision, at best, and misleading, at
worst.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah. Look — what — what we
based our evidence on was a very sound…
He must have felt he was back in his old partying
days with people who would let him get away with saying obvious lies
weren’t lies. Diane didn’t.
DIANE SAWYER: Nothing should have been more
precise?
PRESIDENT BUSH: What — I, I — I…
Now the President was stammering. He was
beginning to realize he had just been caught on tape with a horrible
confession.
PRESIDENT BUSH: What — I, I — I made my
decision based upon enough intelligence… Saddam Hussein was a
threat...
Desperate and pathetic. He used “enough
intelligence.” “Saddam was a threat.” Like the
belligerent teenager caught with a bag of dope, he tries to shift
focus to any unrelated thing he can. Mom has to drag him back
to the actual question, not does his friend Bobby smoke dope, not
about if his grades in school are good or not, but is he using drugs
and stealing money.
In this case, the question wasn’t if Saddam was a
nice person who his father should have been friends with or not, and
the question wasn’t if he had ever read any intelligence
reports. The question was, “You just looked America in the eye
and said, “So what’s the difference,” if all your claims which you
used to get us to agree to the war were based on lies. You and
your administration said clearly and repeatedly that Saddam had lots
of weapons of mass destruction right now and was an immediate danger
to American because of this, and this was why we had to go to war
now.
DIANE SAWYER: …If he doesn't have weapons
of mass destruction? [inaudible] —
Finally, President Bush decided to, even though on
video, just tell yet another flat out lie. In desperation, he
said:
PRESIDENT BUSH: I made the right decision
for America because Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction
(in 1986, using helicopters my father gave him with US taxpayer
money, and not once since then), invaded Kuwait (over a decade ago
and has since withdrawn and never invaded anyone else)…
Yes, this is the lie the President now tells over
and over and over, completely without conscience. “So what if
everyone is fighting and dying because of my lies? Even more,
so what if they keep dying because I’m still lying now? I lied
and will continue to lie all I want, and “So what” who dies or what
it destroys or costs the nation.”
Now you have yet more clear evidence as to why no
good American can support President Bush. Everyone knows his
State of the Union speech and dozens of other speeches by him and
his administration did not say, “We must go to war because in 1988,
when my father still sent taxpayer money to Saddam and called him an
ally, Saddam used chemical weapons on his own people – and has never
ever used them since, or because Saddam invaded Kuwait over a decade
ago and has since withdrawn and never invaded anyone else.”
Everyone knows he said Saddam was a threat now, had lots of WMDs now
– the President knows this. And yet he, completely without
conscience, not even changed or affected by the fact that so many
people are directly dying because of his lies, continues to add lie
upon lie upon lie.
His brainwashed supporters will say, “He didn’t
lie,” even as they see it here in quotes again, “I made the right
decision for America because Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass
destruction (in 1988 on his own people using helicopters my dad gave
him,) invaded Kuwait (over a decade ago, and has long-since
withdrawn for there)…”
This is why any true patriot despises this man and
knows the most important lying tyrant America must deal with is
President Bush. And yes, we put in the information in the
parenthesis in that last quote above because, unlike the rest of the
media, we refuse to allow people to use our space to air their
lies. No one ever should let the President tell the lies he
does without inserting correcting information and pointing out
clearly that he is lying. The rest of the media may fall prey
to this game that has been the backbone of the Bush/Limbaugh rise to
power – the, “You have to air our lies or you are partisan,” game –
but not us here at The Moderate Independent.
You Bush/Limbaughians don’t like it? "So,
what’s the difference?"
The most shocking thing about all this, of course,
is that this hasn’t been top news all over the press.
Honestly, they were so busy kissing the President’s butt at that
point because Saddam had just been caught that they, once again,
gave him a free pass. I guess that’s why M/I now exists, to
air actual news and not just right-wing, Bush/Limbaughian PR about
fake Latino initiatives and space programs.
Don't be surprised if this video footage ends up
in a campaign ad for one of Bush's rivals.
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REFERENCE:
ABC NEWS Prime Time Live Interview, December 16,
2003. | 
