Fatal Sound Bites

[Atman]

Troops die from fatal sound bites

By Tom Blackburn, Palm Beach Post Columnist
Monday, December 22, 2003



"If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would be in power today, not in prison."

<snip>

The "if he had his way" formulation is Sen. Lieberman's stab at evening things up with Dr. Dean. But how would Dr. Dean get his way? As a senator, he might have voted against the war resolution, but that would not have done the trick. We know now that he would have been on the losing side, with Rep. Kucinich. We also recall that Mr. Bush was making noises about using his commander-in-chief hat to attack Hussein regardless of how Congress voted.

<snip>

The point: Saddam Hussein is in prison, not in power, because George W. Bush, alone among electable Americans, wanted him there. Anyone else, as far as we can tell, would have tried conventional diplomacy to remove Hussein, and -- if we accept that the coalition of the unwilling would have remained unwilling -- would still be on a diplomatic path today.


To put that point another way: If Secretary of State Colin Powell had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power, not in prison.


To amplify the point: North Korea's Kim Jong Il is in power, starving his people and threatening his neighbors with nuclear-tipped rockets. He is not in prison because President Bush chose to take out Saddam Hussein first.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/auto/epaper/editions/monday/opinion_f35eac293786f1f910a0.html

[Cocoa]

1. excellent article

Lieberman was actually asked to elaborate on that soundbite, on Hardball I was shocked that he was asked, and also a little bit surprised how Joe totally couldn't do it. He had nothing. And the audience sat there shaking their heads while he babbled.

It was actually pretty reassuring, like this article is. It's good to see nonsense once in a while not getting swallowed.