I am writing in response to the partisan drivel "Iraq Editorial on the Mark" delivered by Justin Martin in the Reader Feedback section of the Jan. 12 edition of The Spectrum.
I have met Martin personally, and know where he stands on the current administration. It came as no shock to me that his name was at the end of this letter. He agreed with The Spectrum's editorial on Monday so much so that he felt the need to write in and congratulate them.
Both the Spectrum and Martin are liberally slanted, neither willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt on anything he does. Democrats and Republicans alike called for a commission to investigate the intelligence claims made by David Kay and others working in Iraq.
Bush, after first saying no, gave in to the requests and formed a commission of capable individuals, among them John McCain. McCain has been a staunch critic of the Bush administration and also a very maverick politician who puts truth before politics.
As far as Martin's claim that one expects a commander and chief to grasp intelligence reports - well, Bush did grasp the intelligence, but was just given wrong information.
Bush did not mislead the public, but the intelligence community misled Bush himself. For example, what if your friend gets a copy of a midterm with all the answers on it. You receive the information from him and proceed to pass it on to others, hoping for all around success.
When it is found that the answers were almost entirely wrong, those you gave the answers to would come back to you fuming mad, not knowing you were just following up on information given to you by your friend. Such is the case with Bush.
In regards to Martin's claim that "the fact that it (the committee) will issue it's report after the 2004 elections shows Bush's real intentions and priorities," I heartily disagree. Anytime something is rushed, the results may not turn out to lead you to the best possible conclusion.
Taking time gives the committee the discretion to look at all documents, knowing that their results are not going to affect the election. This will take off any pressure from either party from swaying results to their side for the wrong reasons. The truth is coming out in 2005 regardless of Bush's re-election or not.
In conclusion, I submit the following quote: "Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..."
This quote was not made by our commander in chief, but was made by his opponent, John Kerry (D-Mass.). This proves that Kerry felt the same way Bush did in regards to the weapons of mass destruction, most likely because they looked at the same intelligence reports. Bush cannot be held accountable for bad intelligence, but hopefully his new committee will find out who is accountable for the intelligence errors.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
