Short Memory
Editor,
Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham have made it a point to attack UN ambassador Susan Rice in recent weeks over her televised remarks over the cause of the Benghazi assault that resulted in the unfortunate deaths of four Americans. The remarks were based upon the information she had been given by our own intelligence community. Rice also prefaced her statement by saying it was an preliminary analysis.
Susan Rice is not the Secretary of State, just our UN Ambassador. Their attacks upon Rice have been particularly harsh on her integrity.
Isn’t it odd that prior to our invasion of Iraq, both McCain and Graham were televised on the Senate floor repeating faulty information on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction as actual fact. Information they had received from our intelligence committee as well. McCain even stated it was a fact that Iraq was developing a nuclear bomb. Secretary of State Condolessa Rice was televised providing further “proof’ of Iraq’s WMD production.
When Condi was attacked on her integrity following the revelation that Iraq had no such weaponry — after over 4,000 American deaths — both McCain and Graham jumped to her support. Both stated it was unfair to attack Condolessa and as Americans we should support her, even though the information was inaccurate.
And, what about what American intelligence agencies put Colin Powell through at the UN? No one seemed to attack his integrity as the information he delivered proved to be more fictitious proof of Iraq’s WMDs. There is always the question whether this faulty intelligence is used as a tool to encourage the American public’s support for war. Such was the case in the Gulf of Tonkin misinformation that lead us into Vietnam with over 54,000 deaths.
The same can be said for pre-911 intelligence that forewarned us of an imminent attack through the air. Inaction on that intelligence led to the attack on the Twin Towers. We need to find out where the gaps are in our intelligence gathering and dissemination practices and move on.
Have McCain and Graham lost their memories and their principles? I thought elephants had good memories, but maybe only selective ones.
Todd Pixler
Porterville
