Another Anti-Bush Slander Debunked
"Truth is generally the best vindication against slander." - Abraham Lincoln.
An important principle for civil discourse is to never assume maliciousness when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. Even with the best of motivations, it is possible for the wisest of us to make errors and misjudgments. Errors can be remedied with more information or additional consideration. However, maliciousness requires greater effort to cure. Nonetheless, when someone accuses others of deliberate mendacity and is subsequently proved wrong, grossly wrong, they deserve to be treated by the same harsh and unforgiving criteria they eagerly applied to others. Having been unforgiving of others, they waive the right to expect forgiveness.
Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson is an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry who boldly asserts that the "value system" of the Bush Administration "is distorted and not based on truth." To much media attention, including a cover of Time magazine, Wilson also wrote a book with a title long enough to match his ego, The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My CIA Wife's Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir. Hence, Wilson has made much of being the proud and self-described bearer of the truth against the forces of deception.
New information now challenges Wilson's assertions. With the release of the report from the US Senate Intelligence Committee and the Butler Report in Great Britain, we now have bi-partisan and bilateral conclusions that Wilson's claims were radically wrong.
Most of the major media has ignored the determination that it was Wilson, if anyone was, who was lying. One exception is Susan Schmidt, staff writer for the Washington Post. She was quick to actually read the Senate Intelligence Committee Report and wrote on July 10, 2004:
"Wilson's assertions - both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information - were undermined yesterday in a bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee report."
Wilson became the poster boy for the Hate-Bush Fan Club as a consequence of disputing President Bush's State of the Union address where Bush said that, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Joseph Wilson followed with a triumphant article in the New York Times claiming that on his visit to Africa for the CIA he did not find evidence of such efforts by Iraq. Moreover, Wilson claimed that Bush knew or should a have known there was no evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium but irresponsibly made the claim anyways, with the implication that Bush was misleading the country to buttress the case for war against Iraq.
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