Underestimate

May 29, 2003

I’m not sure how I feel about this, but I have learned one important lesson: never “misunderestimate” the level of corruption and duplicity in the Bush government.

Rightwingnuts take note: I gave the Bush administration “the benefit of the doubt”:http://www.thudfactor.com/wordpress/2003/05/01/conspiracy-theory/. I said:

bq. Did we invade Iraq just to save face? Is this our way of pretending “US out of Saudia Arabia” is our idea? To be honest, I don’t think so. It’s a tempting connection to make, though. One to keep your eye on.

But I got pointed to an interesting story from BBC News by from Mike-Who-STILL-Needs-A-Weblog.

At first I thought it was just another discussion of the WMD argument being a “bureaucratic emphasis” (read “cynical, constructed, hyped-up marketing message to scare the American Public into supporting an unjust war”), “something I wrote about on April 30″:http://www.thudfactor.com/archives/001961.php.

But the article also contained this gem from Paul Wolfowitz:

bq. Picking weapons of mass destruction was “the one reason everyone could agree on”, he says in the interview. The other factor he describes as “huge” was that an attack would allow the US to pull its troops from Saudi Arabia, thereby resolving a major grievance held by al-Qaeda. “Just lifting that burden from the Saudis is itself going to open the door to a more peaceful Middle East,” Mr Wolfowitz is quoted as saying. ["Entire Article":http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2945750.stm]

Is that sickening or what? Anyway, I was right but I was wrong at the same time. My conspiracy theory — which I thought was too low even for the Cowboys Next Door — turned out to be real. Am I pleased to be vindicated?

Given the circumstances, what do you think?

Posted in Archived Unsorted