R.I.P. Statesman Powell

Now that we are frantically combing Iraq to find those dreaded chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, a little light has been shed on one nagging question. Given all the intelligence the administration claimed they had regarding these weapons, many wondered why they didn't share it with the UN inspectors while they were here. Most assumed it was because if the inspectors actually found anything, it would prove the inspections were effective and would blunt Bush's drive toward invasion. But now, it is pretty clear why they didn't share their intelligence: they didn't have any. None. Nada. Just like the vaunted Saddam-al-Qaeda link, there isn't any "there" there.

Now, I believe fully that they thought the weapons were there, but all the satellite photos and secrets they couldn't share to protect their sources have turned out to be pure bullsh*t. Even if the weapons are there, we don't have the first idea where they are, despite Rumsfeld's claim that we knew they were "east, west, south, and north" of Baghdad and Tikrit. I'm amazed that Gore somehow got tagged as "the liar" in the 2000 race. Bush and his minions are mendacious to a level heretofore unseen in American politics outside of Lyndon LaRouche. Bush stated during his "48 hour" ultimatum that "[i]ntelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." Atrios muses that it could be true depending on your definition of the words "intelligence," "gathered," "doubt," "possess," "conceal," "some," "most," "lethal," and "devised." Even the surrendered Iraqi scientists who headed the former programs, who now have no reason to lie about it, insist that the programs were dismantled already.

[Aside: Collegiate Times speculates that all the "missing" stocks that Bush listed during his State of the Union address could well have been the result of the producers having their thumbs on the scales in order to skim the profits. Feasible, but conjecture all the same.]

Colin Powell now has zero credibility in my eyes for taking part in this charade. He is either a rank liar or a dupe, and I don't think anybody believes he could be duped by the likes of Bush and Cheney. He was the one person in this administration who had any integrity to hold up and now I wouldn't vote for Powell for anything higher than a county school board. To have sacrificed the staggering amount of respect and honor he had from the American people for the likes of the current administration tells me one thing: both the man and his judgment are manifestly untrustworthy.