The Spin is Spun

The Roanoke Times headline writer tagged the Associated Press story on the NIE revelation that Iran poses no immediate or mid-term threat to the US (at least until about 2015) as a “setback.” Most reasonable folks would see such news as a good thing. But not many in the bellicose, salivating press. And certainly not those who've drunk the hegemonic Kool Aid. Indeed some media outlets tried to up the ante by pitching the threat deadline at 2009. This ignores that there's a huge difference between enriching uranium and weaponizing it. It really is disgusting to observe the spinners and provocateurs still lusting for war. Meanwhile, those who heard the latest unclassified version of the NIE Report here results and thought “I told you so” (that Iran didn’t have a current nuclear weapons program), waited for the other administration shoe to drop. Surely, the administration had yet to pounce on some vague language to justify its disingenuous fear-mongering concerning Iran. Surely, it had an Act Two. Surely, the administration hadn’t drawn on its best Dana Perino spin. Nor had the Decider weighed in. That was about to change.

Then came Bush’s Tuesday press conference to illustrate how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone. Says the selected president:

"I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program, they halted the program," Bush said. "The reason why it's a warning signal is they could restart it."

But of course. Even as Iran was no threat to us, Bush fear-mongered. Has he no shame?

Seymour Hersh reports that Bush knew of the contents and even briefed Ehud Olmert on the contents two days before Bush claimed he was briefed on it. Read it here.
And the "resident" Quick Draw McGraw claimed that he didn’t’ know any of the facts of the NIE until last week!!!!! Read more here. However, it is now clear that Bush knew he was misleading even as he beat the drums for war with Iran. Read the excellent commentaries here and here.

As a predictable touch, Bush also laid claim to a victory, of sorts, when he asserted that his approach is working. As if...

One thing is clear, it is long past time to open impeachment hearings. It doesn’t matter that this is late in the process. What matters is that future miscreants who try to abuse power need to know Congress does its job. So, Congress, how bout doing it? And if it doesn’t, then it aids and abets abuse of power, and much more. It's the principle of the thing.