The Bush Haters – Are They Winning? - (ex-CBS, Gannett VP goes on the record. Bush did NOT lie!)

This week, I read a newspaper column obviously written from the talking points of the far Left. These points have been created in order to breed hatred of President Bush, his Republican Administration and all it has done to stop terrorism.

This type of malicious propaganda is being spread across America, not just in letters to the editor and in opinionated news stories in the mainstream media, but it is also being written into many Hollywood movie and TV scripts. Perhaps Joe McCarthy is not the villain we think he was when he complained, back in the early fifties, that the Communists had infiltrated Hollywood.

In my newspaper, a former academician had written, in essence, that Bush had lied about Iraq, that he is responsible for the thousands of deaths in the Middle East and should be impeached or brought to trial. He wrote, President Bush “couldn’t be more directly responsible for the estimated 100,000 lost lives.… Our psyches cannot process this daily Iraqi carnage…”

My answer to this Antonio Gramsci inspired teacher, and other far-left professors or columnists, is as follows:

Without an oasis of freedom in the heart of the Middle East, we would have had no place to fight the civilian terrorist thugs who want to kill all infidels. They would be over here, in America, doing their damage and carnage. Remember, it is easy for civilians to enter here across our northern or southern borders. Remember, too, that we are not fighting a military -- a uniformed army; we are trying to stop criminal gangs who gather from many countries to murder us.

They would prefer to do this not on a battlefield, but in our restaurants, our theatres, our stadiums, and our schools.

Is it not better that we fight them on their turf, rather than here where their suicide-bomber vehicles could leave our American cities in ruins, perhaps for years with radioactive explosives, or where these vicious enemies would trod roughshod over the dead bodies of our innocent American men, women and children as these terrorists took a theatre, church or a school group hostage. They have done this in other countries. If the bloody train attack in Spain were tried in a New York or other major city subway, would this be better than keeping them occupied in their Middle East territory?

Well, my psyche could not process Saddam’s rape and torture rooms, the cut off hands and tongues, the mutilated bodies, the graves of the hundreds of thousands of dead bodies that he had buried in the desert, some of them alive. Many were killed by poison gas attacks from a WMD.

My psyche was healed, though, by the eight million Iraqi men and WOMEN who braved death threats to march through the bomb-shattered streets to vote for freedom --- their smiles and ink-stained fingers held up proudly as they returned home!

President Bush never lied to us; he repeated rightly what international intelligence and many European leaders had learned. He was also wise to establish a “listening post” in the center of the Middle East, since the Church Committee and earlier Democrat Administrations had succeeded in decimating our CIA by dropping most overseas human intelligence. President Bush was also smart in choosing Iraq as the shoehorn to gain a presence in the Middle East!

Just as Harry Truman saved lives by dropping the atomic bomb; George W. Bush has saved lives by going into Iraq and maintaining his doctrine of strength.

To keep our country strong, we as American citizens have to become more aware of the fiction that is sometimes passed off as truth, the lies that aid and abet our enemies. When we see such propaganda, let us not be silent. Please write or phone the producers, networks, editors or advertisers so that the media and Hollywood do get the message that we are patriotic people who believe in supporting this land of freedom and preserving the culture that made this country great.

We patriots have represented the majority of American citizens in the past. Do we still? We will know soon.

About the Writer: Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and a former vice president of both CBS and Gannet. He resides in Indio, California, where he write op-eds that appear in several local newspapers. Lee receives e-mail at indiolee@dc.rr.com.

Most of the accusations that Bush lied at tied to the SOTU address he gave in January 2003. I was just rereading the speech and thought it would be good to post the relevant portion to try to find the "lies".

Twelve years ago, Saddam Hussein faced the prospect of being the last casualty in a war he had started and lost. To spare himself, he agreed to disarm of all weapons of mass destruction. For the next 12 years, he systematically violated that agreement. He pursued chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, even while inspectors were in his country. Nothing to date has restrained him from his pursuit of these weapons -- not economic sanctions, not isolation from the civilized world, not even cruise missile strikes on his military facilities.

Almost three months ago, the United Nations Security Council gave Saddam Hussein his final chance to disarm. He has shown instead utter contempt for the United Nations, and for the opinion of the world. The 108 U.N. inspectors were sent to conduct -- were not sent to conduct a scavenger hunt for hidden materials across a country the size of California. The job of the inspectors is to verify that Iraq's regime is disarming. It is up to Iraq to show exactly where it is hiding its banned weapons, lay those weapons out for the world to see, and destroy them as directed. Nothing like this has happened.

The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough doses to kill several million people. He hasn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.

The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hadn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them -- despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.

The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary; he is deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves. Iraqi officials accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses.

Iraq is blocking U-2 surveillance flights requested by the United Nations. Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview. Real scientists have been coached by Iraqi officials on what to say. Intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N. inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.

Year after year, Saddam Hussein has gone to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to build and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why? The only possible explanation, the only possible use he could have for those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or attack.

With nuclear arms or a full arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, Saddam Hussein could resume his ambitions of conquest in the Middle East and create deadly havoc in that region. And this Congress and the America people must recognize another threat. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own.

Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained. But chemical agents, lethal viruses and shadowy terrorist networks are not easily contained. Imagine those 19 hijackers with other weapons and other plans -- this time armed by Saddam Hussein. It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known. We will do everything in our power to make sure that that day never comes. (Applause.)

Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option. (Applause.)

The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages -- leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained -- by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning. (Applause.)

And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country -- your enemy is ruling your country. (Applause.) And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation. (Applause.)

The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. America will not accept a serious and mounting threat to our country, and our friends and our allies. The United States will ask the U.N. Security Council to convene on February the 5th to consider the facts of Iraq's ongoing defiance of the world. Secretary of State Powell will present information and intelligence about Iraqi's legal -- Iraq's illegal weapons programs, its attempt to hide those weapons from inspectors, and its links to terrorist groups.

We will consult. But let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him. (Applause.)

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