Paul Begala Calls Out Ari Fleischer for the Lies He Told That Got Us Into Iraq
If these Bushies want to come on the air to attempt some turd polishing about why the Bush administration chose to invade Iraq, a country that was not a threat to us, then they should be treated the way Paul Begala treated lying propagandist Ari Fleischer on Anderson Cooper's AC360.
COOPER: Out of Iraq by the end of next year, that was the promise from President Obama. He said the combat mission's over, but America and will provide support for the Iraqi people as both a friend and a partner.
Ari, you were obviously working for George W. Bush. I'm curious to what you thought as you listened to this. And obviously, not a great speech but a historic moment.
FLEISCHER: Well, my first thought was 7 1/2 years ago I was in the Oval Office when the president gave a speech committing us to Iraq. And it's appropriate. Americans don't like to commit troop abroad. And when we do, we want to win, and we want come to come. And the president -- I think President Bush has won because of the surge.
And then, in December of 2008, remember when the shoe was thrown at him? That was actually the announcement of a security agreement with the Iraqi government to bring our troops hope at the end of 2011.
The day had to come. So I'm glad the day was able to come and that President Obama gave a speech where he could thank the troops who also made this possible who really deserve all the credit for making it possible.
COOPER: Do you think he should have said more about President Bush?
FLEISCHER: You know, I think it would have been gracious of him if he'd mentioned the surge, but the problem he has, for President Obama to put the words "President Bush," "Iraq" and anything good in the same sentence, the Democrat base, which already doesn't want to show up in November -- what will Nancy Pelosi see if he starts talking like that?
So I understand -- I wish he was more gracious about it, but he has his own Democratic political imperatives, and he has -- he followed those tonight.
COOPER: Paul, what did you think of the speech? We haven't heard from you tonight.
BEGALA: Well, I think it was -- first, he was trying to do three different things, right? Say we're going to withdraw from Iraq, but we're going to surge into Afghanistan, but we're going to withdraw from there, too. But then, we're going to take care of folks here at home. I want to pick up, though, on this point that Ari makes about the surge, because it is staggering to me. First off, the surge was only necessary because President Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld went to war with too few troops, because they wanted to prove General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, wrong. That's why we needed it in the first place.
Second, it could have never succeeded without the preceding Sunni awakening. Iraqis themselves had to decide. It wasn't the American surge and then -- that cured it. It was the Sunni awakening.
But I'll make a deal with President Bush. We'll give you all the credit for the surge if you take half of the blame for the lies that got us into the war, by which I mean Iraq -- excuse me, Ari, by which I mean...
FLEISCHER: No, Paul, it's not right.
BEGALA: ... by which I mean Ari himself saying Iraq was an imminent threat to America, by which the president of the United States saying it was a mushroom cloud that could become a smoking gun, by which I mean the threat of unmanned aerial drones that Saddam supposedly had that would gas America, the connections that they allege which were false between al Qaeda and -- and Saddam's regime.
So, you know, there was so much they got wrong about this. Some of it just was botched, and some of it was deeply dishonest. And the notion that somehow George Bush is owed any moment of grace here is appalling to the history.
FLEISCHER: Neither you nor anybody else, including your old boss, Bill Clinton, challenged George Bush when he said that, because the intelligence that they all saw, too, led them to the same conclusion. So I think seven years...
BEGALA: You know they didn't see...
(CROSSTALK)
FLEISCHER: First off...
BEGALA: They didn't see all the intelligence, because you guys weren't sharing it.
FLEISCHER: This is the night that President Obama said thanks to the military; our troops are coming home. I was gracious enough to praise President Obama for saying that. It's an appropriate moment for our country to bring them home and to welcome them home.
But for you to say that President Bush lied about this, Paul, that is exactly the type of divisiveness we're trying move beyond in this country. When you know as well as I do he followed the intelligence that he was given by the CIA.
BEGALA: He manipulated -- he manipulated and cherry picked the intelligence...
FLEISCHER: No.
BEGALA: ... as did Mr. Cheney, as did Mr. Rumsfeld, and that's why 4,427 Americans are dead.
(CROSSTALK)
FLEISCHER: It was nothing to cherry pick. That's everything we needed to know.
BEGALA: When Dick Cheney said, as he did, that Saddam has long- established ties with al Qaeda, the evidence is overwhelming, you know, the Iraq study group said no that wasn't true.
FLEISCHER: The 9/11 Commission report said Saddam had ties to al Qaeda.
BEGALA: It's just incredible.
FLEISCHER: The 9/11 Commission Report, it said they weren't operational. Our point of view is never let them become operational.
BEGALA: This is -- this is the thing: he was no threat to America. Ari, himself...
FLEISCHER: Now you're changing your tune because you're recognizing the 9/11 Commission report agreed with the president...
BEGALA: They said there were no operational links. There were none.
FLEISCHER: That's correct. We didn't want them to become one.
BEGALA: Well, we don't want Canada to have operational links either. How about we go -- how about we go have Operation Canadian Freedom?
No, look, this was from the beginning, it was a war of choice. It was Mr. Bush's choice, and it was a tragic choice; 4,427 Americans are dead. Thirty-five thousand Americans are wounded, plus those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, plus those suffering from traumatic brain injury. This has been a catastrophe for America, a catastrophe for our armed services who served with such heroism. And for Mr. Fleischer to sit here and expect a pat on the back, it is appalling. It is, as we would say in Texas, I guess it's chutzpah.
FLEISCHER: In Paul Begala's view of the world, we'd all be better off and safer off if Saddam Hussein was still running Iraq.
BEGALA: And those 4,427 Americans were alive.
FLEISCHER: Any time anybody loses their lives in the military, our nation suffers for it. Any one individual, anywhere.
But the point is we now have a new Iraq, an Iraq that has a chance to become a bastion of freedom and, hopefully, an Iraq that can change the Arab Middle East, so it's a more peaceful area where wars don't start. That's what Iraq now gives us a chance to do. And that's why I hope, now with the 50,000 remaining troops, we will be successful, and they don't lose the peace in Iraq, which is...
BEGALA: And we have -- we have a diminished America, a depleted America. We have a divided America. And we have, tragically, military cemeteries that are filling up. That is a hell of a price to pay to get rid of a guy who was no threat to America.
FLEISCHER: No threat to America?
BEGALA: Zero.
COOPER: I want to bring in other panelists in just a second. We've got to take a quick break, though.
and he's really not a very convincing liar.
Heard Jeremy Scahill last night (8/1) on Countdown who pulled no punches in his scathing critique of the whole Iraq debacle. Worth a looksee for anyone interested.
I might also take the opportunity here to reiterate what I've have posted many times before.....that in order to really straighten out this country - we need to have a REAL investigation of what actually happened on 9/11/01 by REAL scientists and other experts in intelligence, political science, international relations, etc.
Until the majority of Americans can understand that what they thought they saw was not what actually happened, and was aided/abetted and/or perpetrated by people within our government (and their friends),
they will not be convinced that the war on terror is a phony ploy for a complete power grab by the global corpora-fascists.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Ari Fleischer: professional liar without shame.
Top British law enforcement official moves toward re-opening investigation into mysterious 2003 death of WMD inspector
http://www.rawstory.com/rs1/2010/09/02/britis...
And...
The Afghanistan War was Planned Months Before the 9/11 Attacks
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4587368/
And...
BBC - American government told other governments about Afghan invasion IN JULY 2001.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366...
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
The best compilation of the Bush Administration Lying..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYI7JXGqd0o
Study: Bush, aides made 935 false statements in run-up to war
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.i...
We need to look back in order to go forward.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Textbook example by Begala on how to deal with this vomitous lying war criminal Fleischer. Imagine thanking Bush for all of this murder, rape and mayhem.
Begala could also have said that congratulating Bush on the Surge is like congratulating an arsonist who called the fire department.
PNACer, Zionist.
If a drone kills a child in Kandahar, do the crying parents make a sound?
Quote From PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses":
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Is ari fleischer trying to update his look from the boosh years?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycKtgZvyGVw
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Ari now has the look of a seasoned gangster. They're all basically mobsters.
And the new batch are simply lunatic.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
It's the only thing Republicans have ever been good at. It's a genetic thing. They're born liars and cowards...and the only way cowards can protect themselves is by lying. They can't help it. They descend directly from those apes who cowered in the cave at night...listening to the growls outside. It was the ape descendants of liberals that had the courage and curiousity to go out and see what was going on...and figure out how to kill the threat or tame it...and move into the sunlight and beyond the next horizon to build a future.
"Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?" - General Jack D. Ripper
how to lay people out. How many posters are going to call him a whiner?
Paul Begala vs Ari Fleischer, Round 2 = Begala for the win !!!
I do seem to remember Ari Fleischer being laughed out of the room during a press conference...
Oh the good old Bush regime.
No surprise Ari is totally flippant about nearly 5,000 American lives.
On the one hand they want to freak out about 3,000 (WTC) while over 4,000 dead and tens of thousands injured is just a military statistic.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Go fuck yourself Ari. You are the worst of America. The absolute worst.
I second that.
Rotten bastard aided and abetted War Criminals. Of course Bush did no wrong according to this toothless rat.
Of coarse. He won't change ever.
After what they all did it is to be expected.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
on war criminals responsible for launching a war of aggression(a capital offense) then they should be banned from broadcasting in this country.
you a nice retiremnet, some shiney medals, a free pass and kind words.
... except that the winners get to say who the criminal is.
Humans is a fucked species in some aspects if you really think about it.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
terrorist pile of shit needs to be locked in a very small cell for the remainder of his miserable life.
It's their lie and they are sticking to it.
the neo-con koolaid...
Attacking Iraq...
I suspect it was about the oil (the chinese and russians now own)....and the fact that sadam threatened bush senior....then the stoooopid frat boy president was on a vendetta..cheney and his posse played jr. as the sap he is...The Saudi's certainly didn't like sadam....and Iran just loved it all...
Saudi's attacked us...19 of them....
But I think it wasn't about GETTING the oil as much as it was about taking Iraq's oil off the market. Remember...at that time they were the world's second largest oil producer. Take them off the market for a few years and what happens? Oil prices skyrocket...gas costs $4.50 a gallon...and Exxon, BP, and all the rest have the largest quarterly profits of any companies in the history of the universe. Throw in billions more for Halliburton and some other Texas companies and you start to see exactly why Bush the moron-cowboy-puppet was groomed for his mission for many years by the powers down in Texas.
"Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?" - General Jack D. Ripper
Sorry man, but just seeing that brain-dead asshole who is one of the architects of our nation's downfall instantly puts me in a bad mood.
Same idea...just different.
"Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?" - General Jack D. Ripper
he's posing for a mug shot? Or maybe a passport.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
so glad that Paul got a real zinger in there as the last word.
OK, yeah its a new Middle East. Iraq is full of Iranian backed militias, hoodlums, terrorists and death squads, they have no new government 6 months after an election, women must wear burkas, all the smart people have fled, the Christian churches have been blown up, the electricity doesn't work, and Iran is confident of its hegemony in the gulf as it puts the finishing touches on its 'nukular' bombs.
We didn't do anything good for Iraqi's or the Middle East, not one neighboring country to Iraq sent one soldier to help clean up the mess we made (except Iran, which sent in its own killers and agents to run all the Sunni's out of Baghdad), and as to Iraqi's, they never asked us to invade their country. Their graveyards are bursting, and millions have had their lives ruined.
IRAQ IS A BEACON OF FAILURE, ITS WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU IF AMERICA INVADES YOUR COUNTRY, CATASTROPHE, DEATH AND DISASTER!
Oh, and the Raygun administration had operational ties with bin Laden and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Saddam NEVER did.
Or are they just collateral damage?
Thanks Mr. Bushes..
Why is this idiot allowed to continue to lie about his role in lying to the American Public about the Iraq War? They knew they were lying and got away with it by using fear to promote the lies. They knew that Iraq was not a threat to us, good freaking grief we already did everything necessary to stop them from acquiring "WMD" in 1990. Rewriting history is one thing outright lying is another and liars like this ass fleisher is trying to do both. Rewrite history and continue to lie about the lies that led to the revisionist history the liar would like ignorant Americans to believe.
This piece of crap is not even a citizen, he holds a dual passport claiming United States and Israel as his home. He hates Muslums and is a rascist. His loyalities are not for the United States but for Israel and the corporations that pay him to be the asswipe he is.
PEACE
The love you take is equal to the love you make. John Lennon Paul Mc Cartney
Way to go, Paul.
For too long, the media have been fancy-dancing their way around the truth of it.
Bush lied. Condi lied. Rummy lied. Cheney lied.
The whole fucking administration lied, and it's time they were called on it.
Christianity. What a damnable disgrace.
excuse me for talking , while you are busy interrupting moment
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
Good to see you again, laddie. I missed you :)
Is a bald faced mother fucking liar. The Surge has not worked! If this is what victory smells like then the Army War College need burn every book in it's repository. If a major offensive... SURGE... is to hide behind blast walls and send outgunned Iraqi Police to battle insurgents then, the Army War College should be disband.
The US is withdrawing because it cannot win this failed expedition, this cake walk, this gift of freedom to the people of Iraq. What a sad joke. To say that the Surge worked is a failed last gasp from the dead-ender Neocons to save face. Their invincible Grand Army sent home in tatters and 4,417 sent by way of pine box.
The US lost the Iraq War and for Obama to get on the air to make as if some sort of VE Day for Iraq should be held tomorrow is the most vile and putrid speechifying yet, from the soon to be one termer.
Frank Zappa - Make A Jazz Noise Here
what's so damn hard about that, that more democrats can't challenge like Begala did, the effluent of lies that spew from republicans' mouths? Speaking the plain, simple, truth. Nice concept.
The Fleischer's of the world firmly believe that Democracy must be spread throughout the world because it is the only way for people to live freely and unencumbered. After all, everyone wants to live freely. Of course they can make great sums of money while they are spreading (forcing) this democracy to other nations and they can pick and choose which nation to invade and which dictator to depose. And of course some of those dictators used to be friends. But none of that matters. It's a game to them. In their mind it may not succeed in their lifetime, but they believe ultimately it will succeed. The battle of good vs evil. They are the chessmasters manipulating the ultimate game. It's really about a supreme nationalistic deadly arrogance.
Yes, but there is also this: Even though we know that they know we know they are lying, the fact is, if they stick to their story, they know they're are two morons standing beside you that will believe them.
And being complete sociopath's, it doesn't bother them one bit how much carnage they reap for other innocent people.
It's all a sick game to them indeed.
Look at Cheney, Bush, Murdoch, the Koch psycho's. These SOB's have more money than God, and they are in their "golden years." But what gets them going? Screwing over millions of their fellow citizens who are about to be homeless with their families - just so they can get another tax cut.
These pigs are so vile and evil it makes me sick to think about them.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
These pigs are so vile and evil it makes me sick to think about them.
And that's why these guys get away with what they've been doing. It is too awful for most Americans to even contemplate, especially amidst the needs of their daily lives.
Stay strong bro. We need more like you around!! Peace.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
I can get involved in a good GOP/Democrat or conservative/liberal debate.
But I can't take anyone seriously who refers to them as the 'Democrat Party' or talks about the 'Democrat agenda.'
Those people clearly care less about good public policy and seem to only care about sniping and name-calling.
. . . it was just a matter of "Patriots" having a difference of opinion.
Just ask Barack Obama.
P.S. The odds on Sasha and Malia throwing multi-million dollar parties for their weddings keep going up. Just ask Chelsae (can I get a NAFTA!) Clinton.
It's good to be an insider. Welcome to the club, Barry.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
according to a piece in the Chicago Tribune (October 17, 2001) and no, I no longer have the link, but the page wouldn't turn up anyway...
Ari is supposed to have scribbled a note and held it up for Bush to see while he was sitting there ....and it was supposed to say : "Don't say anything now"
but I could never get that silly page of the Chicago Tribune to see if it was there, or if it WASN'T there....
People like Ari are the reason Democrats and progressive independants must get out and vote in large numbers in November. Otherwise we may find ourselves lied into Iran in 2013
right after he said, "Bill Clinton......" someone shoulda just punched 'em
Nothing would make me happier than to see this scumbag and his whole evil crew from Bush/Cheney on down, and that includes a lying, wicked corporate media, sweetly brought to the justice they so greatly and urgently deserve.
Now THAT was a takedown. Paul Begala has never been better. That was awesome! He called out Ari TO HIS FACE!!!!!! I don't know of any other Dem who has spelled it out to one of the main actors to their face before. Perhaps because none of them would dare to go on TV with a Dem but I guess Ari is job hunting.
we deserve bush jr
we deserve this war
we deserve our ills of society
we deserve all of this as we are a republic
but a republic can only stand if the people are involved and knowledgable.
we are neither.
at least the tea party folks get out there and fight.
now they are pawns of corp america and very ignorant and very selfish but also very american.
until we see our greed up front and personal nothing will change.
and how sad. Wake up America(ns)!
I remember Ari saying in front of the whole world "we knew there would be aircraft hijackings, but we didn't know they were going to fly them into buildings" when asked why the bush administration failed to heed the August 2001 intelligence warnings from the CIA about iminent terrorist attacks within the United States. So, plain old aircraft hijackings was nothing to get upset about. Why bother to do anything to increase security and passenger screenings in the country's airport, huh Ari?
It was a meat then and he's an even bigger one now.
In "In Their Own Words" which is the sequel to "9/11: Press For Truth"...Mindy Kleinberg talks about why on earth, even if they didn't 'have protocols for the 'new' hijackings, WHY didn't they follow the protocols for the 'normal' hijackings...( wouldn't that have slowed things down at least to where authorities could have been notified and it stopped THEN ???) ...interesting film. try to watch it.
Fleischer and ilk are so full of crap...they KNEW what was happening....and LIHOP..
it makes me want more than ever to smack the shit out of him.
I'd be glad to give an helping hand!
the Obama cowards had had the courage to investigate, prosecute and put on trial the Bush War Criminals.
FOR "TORTURING, FOR SPYING, FOR ARRESTING WITHOUT WARRANT”.
In a interview with Ralph Nader on C-SPAN's Book TV to promote his book Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should have been indicted for "torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrant."
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/node/38320
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0712/fox-legal-an...
Andrew Napolitano - (born June 6, 1950 in Newark, New Jersey) is an Italian-American media-personality. He is a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge and now a political and legal analyst for Fox News Channel. Napolitano started on the channel in 1998, and currently serves as the network's senior judicial analyst, commenting on legal news and trials. He is a graduate of Princeton University (where he was a founding member of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton) and Notre Dame Law School.
Ari had his talking point of the day "gracious" that was sent out before Obama even spoke and was repeated ad nauseating.
So the "he wasn't "gracious" enough to poor suffering, rich brat, Emperor Duhbya the Torturer, whine was pure lie.
Most Americans did support the invasion and occupation. But did so on the basis of Ari's and Duhbya's lies.
Take your lies Ari, and nobody would have supported the invasion, and the Bush Admin knew that, or else you allare pathological liars who are mentally ill.
He was a threat to Bush/Cheney's personal piggie banks because he refused to do business with Bush/Cheney's favorite OIL COMPANIES.
The tens of thousands of troops dead and wounded were just collateral damage and the cost of doing business.
United States Army Intelligence Officer , ROTC, files a false report against Geral Sosbee and then, in apparent concert with the fbi/police fraudulent attempted sting and criminal assault (by a low level operative) against Sosbee, the government thugs seek a way to imprison him.
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19-updatefor.ht...
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19a-updatefo.html
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19b-updatefo.html
geral sosbee
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