Lott: Bush Was Determined To Invade Iraq Before Diplomacy Started
Lott: Bush Was Determined To Invade Iraq Before Diplomacy Started
Yesterday on Meet the Press, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) said that President Bush started lobbying for an invasion of Iraq long before significant diplomatic efforts began:
SEN. LOTT: Well, beginning in August that year and into the fall–in fact, beginning not too long after 9/11–as we had leadership meetings at breakfast with the president, he would go around the world and talk about what was going on, where the threats were, where the dangers were, and even in private discussions, it was clear to me that he thought Iraq was a destabilizing force, was a danger and a growing danger, and that we were going to have to deal with that problem.
DAVID GREGORY: He has described going to war in Iraq as the last resort that was a war of necessity. Are you suggesting here that, in fact, before much of the diplomacy had begun, that the president thought or believed in his mind that war was an inevitability?
[Snip]
SEN. LOTT: …I–but the short answer to your question–I think that he felt like we were going to have to deal with the problem before some of the diplomatic efforts occurred, and I don’t mean that critically. But it was my impression.
As David Gregory notes, this runs completely counter to how President Bush describes the decision to invade Iraq:
“I want to share something with you. Committing troops into harm’s way is — in harm’s way is the most difficult decision a President can make. That decision must always be last resort. That decision must be done when our vital interests are at stake, but after we’ve tried everything else.” [President Bush, 8/5/04]
“The use of force has been — and remains — our last resort.” [President Bush, 5/1/03]
“But a President must always be willing to use troops…as a last resort… I was hopeful diplomacy would work in Iraq… So we use diplomacy every chance we get — believe me.” [President Bush, 10/1/04]
“As a last resort, we have turned to our military.” [President Bush, 4/16/03]
“As a matter of fact, military action is the very last resort for us… this nation is very reluctant to use military force. We try to enforce doctrine peacefully, or through alliances or multinational forums. And we will continue to do so.” [President Bush, 10/28/03]
President Bush keeps saying this because he knows Americans expect him to pursue all other options before U.S. troops are put at risk. If Sen. Lott says is right, President Bush failed to meet that basic expectation.
UPDATE: Watch it on Crooks and Liars.
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It was and is strategic oil reserves. 911 provided the needed cover for this policy to be put in place. Hell, it might even have succeeded if the needed troop levels were used post conflict. They were not, now we have a clusterfuck that may or may not be unraveled. So how do we clean up Bush’s failure?
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:47 amYou know things are bad when you have to rely on Trent Lott for the truth…
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:49 amBush is a LIAR. The whole world sees that, so when are the American people going to stop him? IMPEACH the LIAR!
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:49 amif only it was that easy Mack.the Dems gotta take back congress to even begin to start dreaming about impeachment. thats how are fucked up government works.you cant expect the republicans to be on board with impeachment.
August 22nd, 2005 at 10:52 amThe Bush presidential legacy: Death, Debt, and Scandal. A legacy of greed and hubris so shameful he has guaranteed a place in history books right next to Nixon. Let’s look more closely at the Bush legacy: soaring gas prices, tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (in a time of war), rising interest rates, stagnent or decreasing wages and benefits, no sense of direction or leadership for the Iraq war, and the gradual, but systematic dismantling of the military and intelligence services. Feel free to add the positives the GOP has brought to the USA since Bush took over.
August 22nd, 2005 at 11:00 amDon’t forget all those evil people that hate our freedom! There’s even more of them now!
August 22nd, 2005 at 11:03 amIt’s such a nice, good war, who in their right mind would ever oppose such an undertaking?
August 22nd, 2005 at 11:08 amThis isn’t a surprise to any of us. We saw it & couldn’t believe our bushie coworkers & folks were suckered so completely…
I would think more of Trent if had raised his doubts with bushco’s obcession with attacking Iraq prior to us actually invading Iraq. Maybe if right after 9/11 he might have mentioned “Hey! I thought it was OSAMA that attacked us not Saddam.”
He didn’t say a peep. Sorry Trent, This mea cupa is just a little too late, like maybe 3 3/4 years late.
August 22nd, 2005 at 11:10 amSounds like the Downing Street memo does have some truth to it after all. Now I would like to see Scotty (presidential mouthpiece)McClellan reply to this question..”if as you say, the Administration denies that the intelligence was being “fixed” around the WMD issue to justify the invasion then how does the President respond to Sen. Lott’s comments from Sunday’s Meet the Press”
That question would result in the “Squirm of the Century” and would be funny as Hell to watch.
August 22nd, 2005 at 11:59 amWhat other options were there? Let sactions end so Saddam could reconstitute his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons?
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:00 pmColt, the option was finish the job in ‘Stan, catch bin Laden, and promote democracy in the more moderate neighboring states.
Eternal vigilance is the other option. Are you suggesting we can leave Iraq and not watch them, and trust they won’t do anything like that again?
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:09 pmDavid Gregory is a partisan who hates Bush. Of course, you’ll hang onto every word he says rather than explain why Democrats like Hillary and John Kerry supported the war and claimed Hussein had WMD if Bush is such a liar.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:09 pmJunior’s ability to even show his scum-bag face in public is drawing to a close. He will now only be seen on t.v. surrounded by paid for supporters. His nose grows longer with each passing day. Impeach the bastard, we might gain back some much needed credibility with the international community.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:13 pmKeith – good luck. After we take more seats in 2006 and the White House in 2008, will you then leave for Canada you treasonous scum!?!?!
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:14 pmNED, do you not believe the well documented facts surrounding the fixed intel?
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:15 pmThat’s funny NED, gain more seats in ‘06 …lol.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:16 pmYou got us beat, NED. Your Iraq policy is working so well that I’m sure you’ll be rewared in ‘06.
What can we offer except the same old boring peacetime economic expansion of the nineties?
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:19 pmDilEnema & Colt,
Just admit Bush hoodwinked you, rather than selling your soul and any last bit of credibility or decency you may yet possess.
Gregory hates Bush? Finally someone call BS on Bush in the MSM.
Reconstitute his WMD program? Saddam? He was having a miserable time even trying to get back to step one! And WE KNEW THIS!
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:26 pmHil, Kerry and the rest all received the bogus/fixed intel, thats why DilEnema.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:27 pm#17 – puh-leeze!!! That is an outright LIE. Kerry had claimed for years during Clinton’s term that Hussein had weapons. You are a LIAR who refuses to accept defeat. At least have the decency to chide your own party if you think it was a big sham. God, you people hate America!! YOU DO! IT’s sickening.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:33 pmOf course all of us will want to leave for Canada, if the Republicans gain seats in Congress in ‘06 and win the Presidential election in ‘08. Our only problem will be if Canada will have us. You know they do have immigration standards too and taking in people from a country like ours with a reputation for making war may violate their standards of decency. The biggest immigration problem of the 21st century may not be Mexicans trying to enter the U.S, but U.S. citizens trying to cross the border into Canada.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:37 pmNeD, I am convinced you don’t believe half the crap you spew. You like to anger folks and talk about all of the “sickening” crap around here, but, yet, you cannot stay away. Again, you couldn’t be so stupid. I’m starting to get the “act” though. Really, God you people hate America?? You couldn’t be that stupid and be able to turn on a computer. If, by some remote possibility, you are for real, than you have to come up with some new material. I really think your mantra is old hat. We win, you lose, you hate America. Saying something so ridiculous is juvenile. Just purely elementary, you hate America. You REALLY believe that? I can’t possibly believe, for one second, that you are THAT ignorant. So what gives? Tell us what you really think.
August 22nd, 2005 at 12:49 pmHow many times do you all have to see that talking to ned does nothing. He always changes the subject and throws the word hate around and acts like he’s been victimized.
Marginalize the trolls by not even acknowledging them being there. No offense ned but you are a waste of good bandwidth.
Colt. Facts, you remeber what those are don’t you? You WON’T find them on phaux news. We have found that the sanctions were indeed working against Saddam. He was toothless for all practicle purposes. The only thing he WAS able to do was give the families of Palestinian terrorists money after their suicides. While we don’t support that, I don’t think there are any americans that would sacrifice their children in a poorly concieved and dishonest war about it.
August 22nd, 2005 at 1:01 pmHere’s the video: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/08/21.html#a4551
August 22nd, 2005 at 1:31 pmN.E.D., why do you and the other neocons always try to equate debate about America’s involvement in Iraq with treason and hating America? The highest form of citizenship is questioning your government. It’s clear your tactics are designed to squelch debate and any second-guessing of our Exalted Leader. Think of all the good men and women who died in the service of our nation so that a bulletin board like this could exist and that people would be free to openly question the president. You are making a mockery of their sacrifice by beating down dissent with the flag that they fought under. (See, the left can play the “I’m more American than you are” game too!)
August 22nd, 2005 at 1:32 pmYou know, Proud Lib, that is exactly what George Washington said. He said it would be unpatriotic NOT to question our president.
August 22nd, 2005 at 1:40 pmNeD just needs attention. And the more silly he acts, the more attention he gets. Sound familiar?
Kindness,
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:06 pmI must correct you again. Dr. Kay’s team has established that the Iraqi regime had the production capacity and know-how to produce a great deal more chemical and biological weaponry when international economic sanctions were lifted, a policy change which was actively being sought by France, Germany and Russia. Kay also believes that a large but undetermined amount of the former Iraqi regime’s WMD program had been moved to Syria shortly before the 2003 invasion.
From Baghdad the long struggle to outlast the containment policy of the United States imposed through the UN sanctions seemed tantalizingly close. There was considerable commitment and involvement on the part of states like Russia and Syria, who had developed economic and political stakes in the success of the Regime. From Baghdad’s perspective, they had firm allies, and it appeared the United States was in retreat. The United Nations mechanism to implement the Oil For Food program was being corrupted and undermined. The collapse or removal of sanctions was foreseeable. This goal, always foremost in Saddam’s eyes, was within reach.
Charles Duelfer
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:16 pmSpecial Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence
Baghdad, September 2004
This is just a little truth telling from Lott to stick it to Bushie. He’s pissed because he thinks he was unfairly ousted for his racist comments. He’s also pissed at Frist who stabbed him in the back.
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:23 pmNice guys, those Republicans, racists, back-stabbers, liars and thieves.
His comments, thowever, do add another voice to those who say a war in Iraq was a foregone conclusion, they were just waiting to gather “facts” to support it.
NED, you just can’t take the truth can you?
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:25 pmBlame David Gregory for Trent Lott’s admission?
Why not blame Clinton – both of them?
Jeez, is the truth that hard to face?
NED, even if you stupidly believe that Hussein had weapons, it is against all laws to invade a sovereign nation because you don’t like them!!
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:27 pmThe war is ILLEGAL!!
Oh okay, now it’s chemical weapons. Dig dig dig that hole.
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:31 pmAnyone see “Dead Wrong” on CNN? Certainly not known as a “liberal” channel the expose` on the run up to the Iraq invasion was pretty incriminating.
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:33 pmJust another example of what we all have been saying for years — the war is wrong, based on lies — Paul O’Neill, Richard Clarke, Downing Street minutes, and many others who have been freed to talk all sing the same song — The intel was “fixed” to fit Bush and the Neocon’s policies.
Bush/Neocons = Liars, thieves, criminals, and killers – all!
It was a brilliant strategic move by Bush. Saddam was just waiting for sanctions to be lifted. Read my report.
August 22nd, 2005 at 2:40 pmKeith – good luck. After we take more seats in 2006 and the White House in 2008, will you then leave for Canada you treasonous scum!?!?!
Comment by The Northeast Dilemma — August 22, 2005 @ 12:14 pm
It’s a date, NED. I know I’m your type. I was gay. Be here in 2006 to eat those words, and my generous offering.
August 22nd, 2005 at 4:00 pmAmerica today: the same people having the same argument no matter what the actual topic is.
Who’s angrier, liberals or conservatives? Apparently everyone is equally incapable of staying on a single topic. It’s funny how Bush supporters successfully bait Bush critics and distract everyone from the actual Bush criticisms, over and over.
Returning to the actual post- it’s not just that Americans expect leaders to try diplomacy before resorting to the use of force, although common sense would dictate this. International law governing the use of force requires an attempt at diplomacy before the use of force. See the U.N. Charter (largely written by the US State Department), Preamble, article 1(1), and article 2(3) and (4), available at http://www.un.org.
August 22nd, 2005 at 4:53 pmMyriad of Musings on A Monday
Choice blogging from The WB42 5:30 Report with Doug Krile.
August 22nd, 2005 at 4:57 pmSteed – your claims mean nothing by themselves. You are repeating stuff that hasn’t been coroberated anywhere but continues to be repeated by you bushies.
Give us links from reasonable sources to back up your claims Saddam was making Chemical/Biological weapons.
I haven’t seen that claim verified anywhere, and I’m reasonably widely read.
August 22nd, 2005 at 5:29 pmI’m sorry, folks, but NED is right on the politics. In 2002 we all knew, or should have known, if we saw what was going on and thought about it more than five seconds, that Bush was predisposed to invading Iraq, with full Dem compliance.
The Dems caved. WMDs or no, we were not threatened. And don’t you think the Israelis would have known if Saddam really had WMDs? Even with all their nuclear warheads (which don’t threaten anyone) they would have taken action.
Remember this piece of paper signed by Bill Clinton? — “Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 – Declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government.”
Remember how the Dems fell in line on the Senate vote, without debate?
See how the Dem leadership is STILL out of step with the grass-roots? How they STILL countenance illegal imperialism? How NONE of them have endorsed Cindy Sheehan?
Russ Feingold, the only Dem senator with a human pulse. As NED says, it’s a big sham and we ought not to defend them.
August 22nd, 2005 at 6:20 pmDon Wrote:
See how the Dem leadership is STILL out of step with the grass-roots? How they STILL countenance illegal imperialism? How NONE of them have endorsed Cindy Sheehan?
Comment by Don — August 22, 2005 @ 6:20 pm
Hey Don, check this out.
http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/05/08/ale05114.html
August 22nd, 2005 at 7:20 pmAfter 911, everyone in Washington, was scared to death they would be labeled unpatriotic. They wrote Bush a blank check, and agreed like sheep with what he wanted to do. It didn’t matter whether it was Republican, or Democrat, they climbed over each other, scrambling to show how patriotic they are. It was a brillant plan, to set the stage ahead of time, so that your opponents are forced to follow your lead, or be ostracized for not going along. I do believe, one or two people stood up and voted no. One was Dennis K (can’t remember his last name).
August 22nd, 2005 at 7:26 pmWhen the USS BUSH was riding high, Republicans thought they died and went to Heaven. Now that the USS BUSH seems to be slowly sinking, out comes the water wings, life preservers, and life boats.
Both sides have to take responsibility for this mess, some more than others. Washington has gotten so far away from the people, too many spend time fattening their own pockets than the lives of their people.
Nancy L., I think that is about the most rational, succinct, and honest interpretation of the present situation I have heard.
And it’s Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland, OH.
August 22nd, 2005 at 8:30 pmProud Lib – thanks, yes, Dennis Kucinich, he talked about it during his run for nomination. Wish more of Washington had the courage of their convictions, but for some reason, many, many people became deathly afraid of this administration.
August 22nd, 2005 at 9:00 pm#38, Keith H.,
Hey Keith, check this out:
Tell me how many members of the Dem Leadership you see on this list of Cindy Sheehan Letter signers:
Signers of Cindy Sheehan Letter
John Conyers, Jr.
August 23rd, 2005 at 12:38 amGeorge Miller
Maxine Waters
Corrine Brown
Dennis Kucinich
Carolyn Maloney
Jim McDermott
Jim McGovern
Barbara Lee
Zoe Lofgren
James Oberstar
John Lewis
Bernard Sanders
Bob Filner
Mike Honda
Raul Grijalva
Jan Schakowsky
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick
Frank Pallone
Major Owens
Xavier Becerra
Lynn Woolsey
Danny Davis
Jerrold Nadler
Elijah Cummings
Hilda Solis
Gwen Moore
John Olver
Pete Stark
Sam Farr
Julia Carson
Sheila Jackson Lee
Diane Watson
Chris Van Hollen
Lloyd Doggett
Betty McCollum
Henry Waxman
[...] I don’t quite know what to make of it, but two different customers came in today, both middle-aged, well-heeled Republican women, came in to buy Trent Lott’s book Herding Cats today. Both of them mentioned the decision to close of the Naval Air Station in Pascagoula, and both insisted that it was political payback by Bush. According to them, Lott wrote something that insulted the Bush camp in his book. (I’m wondering whether it might have something to do with what he said on Meet the Press Sunday, or whether he knew the closure was already in the cards, and decided to start laying some framework for future attacks.) It must have been mentioned on local radio, but i neglected to ask where this theory came from. Both women were quite unhappy about the closure, and obviously with Bush as well. [...]
August 25th, 2005 at 8:43 pmJust letting you know – your site is fantastic! Steal Chips is very good Soldier: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm , White is feature of Astonishing Cards when Cards is Corner it will Hope Round , Astonishing Girl Destroy or not Good is feature of Faithful Girl
December 4th, 2005 at 2:48 pmDon’t forget all those evil people that hate our freedom! Some of them are 1/2 of our Democratic Congress
September 29th, 2006 at 3:07 pm