Remember Where It Started...

As reports are being released and the quality of the intelligence that led us to war in Iraq is coming under fire, it is important for us to remember a few important things.

Most notably, despite what our libby friends would like us to believe, President Bush did not undertake the gathering of intelligence himself, nor did he misinterpret the intelligence. Though we may all be in agreement that the intelligence was bad, it was not the President’s fault that he received bad intelligence.

The President was right to rely on the intelligence provided to him from the CIA, intelligence from the world community, and yes, even intelligence from the UN.

Also, it is important to remember that despite what the liberal media is trying to throw at us everyday, many elements of the intelligence were, in fact, quite true. Also, it is important to remember that the US policy prior to President Bush coming into office was one of containment when it came to Saddam Hussein.

The problem with just holding him at bay was that he was in the midst of beefing up his long-range missile development program and developing long-range missiles with chemical and possibly nuclear warheads. The only thing keeping the Iraqi regime from being nuclear capable was purchasing the material at a time when Pakistan was selling nuclear material left and right.

These were missiles that could have hit Turkey, Israel, Greece, Saudi Arabia and other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations. Intelligence on the missile program came from the UN, so this is not a Bush-led conspiracy, folks.

Another key point to remember as the Democrats in Congress moan about the quality of intelligence that came from the CIA is that it was many of those very same Democrats that supported the Clinton administration and it was the Clinton administration that cut back military and intelligence spending.

It was the Clinton administration who continually robbed the CIA of the hands-on intelligence gathering methods of the Cold War that kept us safe. It was the Clinton administration that put us in a position where we were relying on satellite passes instead of boots on the ground.

And lastly, we still cannot ever forget that it was the Clinton administration that sat back in 1993 and in 1997 and in 1998 when U.S. targets at home and abroad were attacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists.

Michael Moore will point out that the Taliban sent an envoy to the U.S. that was welcomed in Texas, even though they were harboring Osama Bin Laden, but he doesn’t mention that his buddy Willy Jeff refused time and time again to capture or kill Bin Laden himself when the CIA had him in their sights.

Michael Moore will even go as far as to claim that he’s not pro-Democrat, too, but rather an independent, trying to show both sides of the story. Instead of calling our President a liar over botched intelligence, people like Michael Moore should be looking into why the intelligence sucked in the first place...the military cutbacks that liberals demanded.