If it’s at all possible, this is exactly the right answer (CNN):
An angry President Bush Tuesday said he would declassify an intelligence document that reportedly finds that the Iraq war increased the terrorist threat to the United States, saying the American people should come to their own conclusions.
Yes, we should…. and we aren’t going to come off of ground zero without some un-spun input. Polimom’s about sick to death of hearing everybody else’s spin carefully structured versions; I’m feeling patronized and lied to across the board.
I’m particularly fed up with the media. By agreeing to appear on Fox, there was surely no doubt Clinton was going to be grilled. Fox is about as impartial as a banked freeway curve. Likewise, there’s never any confusion about where a leaked intelligence report is likely to appear. Of COURSE it will come out through the NY Times.
And all of that is in the “news” arena, where we are supposedly getting just the facts. More:
“It will stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq; you know, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy,” Bush said.
Bush said he agreed with the report’s conclusions that al Qaeda is becoming more diffuse and decentralized but rejected the interpretation that the Iraq war had made the U.S. less safe.
Well, no. I don’t think it will “stop all the speculation”.
I haven’t written about this yet, but I do actually think the U.S. is safer than it was on September 11. What I don’t believe is that Iraq has the first thing to do with it… nor do I think we’ll ever be as safe as we would like. Furthermore, I reject out of hand that a diffused and decentralized radical terrorist movement is an improvement — for the U.S. or anyone else.
And all of that is based on information some other source has chosen for me via the various media.
Unless people are able to spend the incredible time necessary these days to find all sides of an issue, the American public hasn’t any chance whatsoever of reaching rational conclusions. The vast majority of us simply don’t have that kind of time.
By all means — give us the actual information if it can be done without a serious security breach, so we can decide for ourselves.
Stop telling us what, and how, to think. It’s offensive.