Then and Now
Last October, I [Radley Balko] wrote:
What’s most troubling about the CIA report, however, is not the contents of the report itself, but the Bush administration’s attempts to squelch it. Immediately after it was released, the Bushies sprang into action, twisting arms at the CIA to discredit its conclusions. Sure enough, the White House wheeled CIA director George Tenet out before Congress a few days later in an attempt to discredit the report. Still not content, the Bushies then set up their own, separate “task force,” one that might come up with its own “conclusions,” and one that’ll likely get more attention, given that it will have the Pentagon and White House megaphones ready to trumpet its findings.
The lust for war I think has blinded many libertarians of their natural distrust for government. Why are blogosphere libertarians suddenly so quick to believe the Bush administration when it says “we’ve got the evidence…trust us?” Why aren’t we demanding to see it? Have we already forgotten that our government has – in the past, on occasion, from time to time, in matters of war – lied to us? Aren’t we at least a little troubled when a report comes out of the CIA that draws conclusions counter to the war effort is suddenly played down by that agency’s politically-appointed director, under pressure from the White House? Where’s the healthy skepticism?
The White House now admits that the claim that Iraq was attempting to purchase enriched uranium from Niger was false, and should not have been in the President's State of the Union speech -- the speech he used to justify the war.
Here's the kicker:...
