Everything Right is Wrong Again

The most infuriating thing about Bush's folksy "interview" for me was his "gee, shucks, what can you do?" brushoff of the nightmare he created in Iraq:

"The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq," Bush told ABC television in an interview scheduled for broadcast last night. "I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess." But he followed that moment of candour with an attempt to try to deflect charges that the White House misled Congress and the public to build a case for war, arguing that there had been widespread belief that Saddam had a nuclear arsenal.

He guesses. It wasn't him, it was that gosh-darned faulty intelligence. Well, gee, isn't that just dandy? And if you're as pissed off about that as I am, you'll just love this little exchange regarding the Downing Street Memo, (remember that?) laughed off by Dana Perino (video at link):

Defending Bush’s pre-war intelligence failure, Perino claimed that “other leaders from all around the world” thought Saddam had WMD. When Thomas noted that British intelligence — referring to the the Downing Street Memo — disagreed with Bush, Perino simply said that the memo had been “debunked”:

Q: What about the chief of British intelligence saying you were going to fix the facts around the politics?

PERINO: I think that that’s been debunked.

Thomas quickly countered, “It’s never been been debunked.” Caught off guard, Perino admitted that she was the one who “debunked” it:

Q: It’s never been debunked.

PERINO: Well, it’s been debunked by me.

Q: Good for you.

PERINO: Good for me.

Tee-hee!

And there you go. With one off-the-cuff remark, the DSM has been completely brushed off and flushed down the memory hole as "debunked;" yet another step towards blaming the Iraq disaster on "bad intelligence," rather than placing the blame right in the blood-soaked hands of the responsible parties. I fully expect to see this myth cropping up every time the DSM is mentioned in the future, it'll be dismissed as "debunked" with no evidence, and one of the most important pieces of evidence against the architects of the war will become something to laugh off. Like targeting and vanishing Muslims and Arabs. Ha-ha! What a foolish conspiracy theory! You still believe that?

Of course, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the Downing Street Memo is being erased. The battles to keep it out of sight went on for a long time, until even FOX news couldn't ignore it.

Debunked? Don't fucking insult me, although I'm fully aware you love to do so.