Selective Memory of David Brooks

Date: November 5th., 2005
Sent to but not published by NewsHour

Comment on Brooks and Shields, November 3rd. 2005
Your commentator, David Brooks, did us all a disservice in his, almost hysterical, diatribe against Democrats for their insistence that Bush led us into a war under false pretences. He said that everybody -- former President Clinton, the French, the Germans, etc --knew that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction.
That was true in September-October 2002 when negotiations for the return of Weapons Inspectors to Iraq were under way. The Iraqis were stalling and proposing unacceptable exceptions to the reach of the inspectors until the passage of the War Resolution by Congress on October 10th 2002. That gave the President the leverage he (and the United Nations) needed. Within six weeks the inspectors were in Iraq on the ground with no restrictions on their movements. By February 2003, the inspectors reported that they had found no evidence of a large scale WMD program. The causus belli was shattered.
That did not impede the Bush administration's inexorable rush towards war and hostilities began on March 20th.
Mr. Brooks failed to mention this complex exercise of realpolitik. Nor did Mr. Lehrer or Mr. Shields point out this omission. They should have.
The American (and British) mistake was not to call for a second Congressional (Parliamentary) resolution about Iraq once it became clear from the weapons inspectors that the initial intelligence was probably incorrect.
NewsHour owes us an amplification.

Forgetfulness of McCain and Collins

Date: September 9. 2004
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

Ben DeLorio had it right about Senator Susan Collins (Boston Globe, Sept 1.) and David Claffey (Boston Globe, Sept 2.) had it right about John McCain. Frankly I had expected better from these two moderate Republicans.
Collins forgot to mention that from October 2001 until June of 2002, President Bush soundly resisted the call for a Department of Homeland Security. It was only through pressure from the Democrats and especially from the families of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks that President Bush reluctantly adopted the idea in June of 2002.
McCain forgot to mention, in his exuberant defence of the Iraq war, that Saddam was in fact highly constrained because of the UN Sanctions on Iraq; the inspectors on the ground; and allied air patrols in the air
It just goes to show that in an election year, being Republican trumps everything; even the whole truth!

Susan Collins' amnesia about DHS

Date: August 29th., 2004
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

I am surprised that Senator Susan Collins would exhibit such amnesia in her statement that President Bush “called for the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.” (Boston Globe, August 29, 2004).
Let me refresh her memory. From October 2001 until June of 2002, President Bush soundly resisted the call for a Department of Homeland Security. It was only through pressure from the Democrats and especially from the families of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks that President Bush reluctantly embraced the idea in June of 2002.
The creation of that Department was by no means a Bush initiative!

PS
If you can't publish this letter -- and you just published one of mine -- I would ask you to call Susan Collins to account and have her publish a correction to this statement. Yet another political use of the "big lie."
As George H. W. Bush said during his campaign -- the lie is on the front page, the retraction is on the inside page; only the lie gets noticed.