President Bush and WMDs

Prior to the United States invading Iraq, President George W. Bush and his administration had been hard at work at redefining the acronym WMD. Instead of WMD standing for Weapons of Mass Destruction, over time the world would learn it stood for Words of Mass Distortion.

Years after embarking the United States on a failed foreign policy mission in Iraq, President Bush and his senior advisors are once again explaining "what they knew and when did they know it" in regard to the alleged nuclear weapons program in Iran.

A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report recently made public indicates Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in late 2003. It goes on to state if Iran re-started the program it could develop nuclear weapons as early as 2009, but more likely between 2010-2015.

This report was issued after senior Democrats in Congress earlier this year requested an assessment be conducted on the nuclear program in Iran. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Dem) reportedly was concerned with what he felt was the continued drum beat for war with Iran by President Bush.

Yesterday, the President said in an answer and question period with the Press that a senior intelligence officer had informed him in August of this year that new intelligence information was being reviewed and he said he did not inquire further as to the details of that study.

President Bush stated he had been briefed last week by National Security advisor Stephen Hadley who informed him that Iran had a covert nuclear program but not at present. Bush insisted the report substantiated his position on Iran and showed the actions taken by his administration had been successful in halting the nuclear weapons program in Iran.

However, during a Press Conference on October 17 of this year the President was warning of the possibility of WWIII if the nuclear capability of Iran was ignored.

So once again the Americans and people around the world are scratching their heads and wondering what is the foreign policy of the United States? It is hard to believe a President of the United States after being informed new intelligence information had been received would not ask for further information immediately.

These continued lapses of judgment by the President leads to the unfavorably opinions many foreigners have of the U.S. and furthers the distrust Americans have in the Bush administration.

A poll on the Blog Daily Kos www.dailykos.com
this morning indicated out of the 2314 people who had cast a vote, 86% are saying the President knew months ago the information on Iran but continued to lie about it.

Regardless of whether the President did or did not know this information on Iran, the public perception of President Bush and his administration continues to suffer.