No WMD's here

Nice editorial from Editor and Publisher. Link:

I remember being very bothered by this incident. Some of the so-called "conservatives" I know found it charming that the President could be so self-effacing.

How many times can we say it? There were no WMD's. There was no link to Al-Quaida. There was no "imminent threat". Every single justification for the war turned out to be a lie, used to rationalize their already planned invasion of a soverign nation.

What there is, is over 1700 dead American service members, and tens of thousands of dead Iraqis.

And a lot of you voted for him knowing that. What does that say?

Oh.. but he's "family values". Well, fuck family values when the bodies start piling up. K?

It occurred on March 24, 2004. The setting: The 60th annual black-tie dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association (with many print journalists there as guests) at the Hilton. On the menu: surf and turf. Attendance: 1500. The main speaker: President George W. Bush, one year into the Iraq war, with 500 Americans already dead.

Now you may recall what happened. President Bush, as usual at such gatherings of journalists, poked fun at himself. Great leeway is granted to presidents (and their spouses) at such events, allowing them to offer somewhat tasteless or even off-color barbs. Audiences love to laugh along with, rather than at, a president, for a change. It's all in good fun, except when it's in bad fun, such as on that night in March 2004.

That night, in the middle of his stand-up routine before the (perhaps tipsy) journos, Bush showed on a screen behind him some candid on-the-job photos of himself. One featured him gazing out a window, as Bush narrated, smiling: “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere.” According to the transcript this was greeted with “laughter and applause.”

A few seconds later, he was shown looking under papers, behind drapes, and even under his desk, with this narration: “Nope, no weapons over there” (met with more “laughter and applause”), and then “Maybe under here?” (just “laughter” this time). Still searching, he settled for finding a photo revealing the Skull and Bones secret signal.