Ethics

Pre-War Rhetoric on Iraq

By Ed Brayton

Balko has a terrific post on the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq pulling together a huge number of quotes from the Bush administration prior to the war, all assuring the American people that the war would be swift and easy, that we'd be greeted with flowers and kisses, that it wouldn't cost us much because the Iraqis could pay for their own reconstruction, and so forth. That list of quotes could have been much longer. I especially like this one:

"Well, the Office of Management and Budget, has come up come up with a number that's something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question."

-Donald Rumsfeld, January 19, 2003.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 21, 2008 (boomark / email).