Talk about Mixed Signals..
Posted : September 24, 2004 at 5:02 pm [America/Los_Angeles]
[via Daily Kos]
BUSH SAYS IRAQ WILL HOLD ELECTIONS IN JANUARY
“They’re going to have elections in January in Iraq. When America gives its word, America will keep its word. We’ll stand with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.” [9/22/04, Remarks by the President at Victory 2004 Rally , Latrobe, Pennsylvania]
CHENEY SAYS IRAQIS WILL DECIDE WHETHER TO HOLD ELECTIONS
“First of all, I’ll be happy to pass along the message. I will see Mr. Allawi, as I mentioned, on Thursday — both in the Congress, and then he’ll come to the White House for a meeting with the President and myself. He has indicated repeatedly that he wants to keep that January deadline. We agree wholeheartedly. It’s important to remember this is an Iraqi decision.”  [Dick Cheney, Lansing, Michigan, 9/21/04]
RUMSFELD SAYS ELECTIONS CAN BE OPEN TO 3/4 OR 4/5 OF IRAQ
“Let’s pretend hypothetically that you get to election time in January and lets pretend that its roughly like it is, or a little worse, which it could be, because you’ve got to expect it to continue. They’re not happy the way its going. They don’t want a government elected in that country…badly, they don’t want that. And let’s say you try to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country, but some places you couldn’t because the violence was too great. So be it. Nothing is perfect in life. So you have election that’s not quite perfect.” [Donald Rumsfeld, Senate testimony 9/23/04]
RUMSFELD GIVES WIERD EXPLANATIONS ON HOW LONG US WILL STAY IN IRAQ
If any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and U.S. forces I think would obviously be unwise, because it’s never been peaceful and perfect and it isn’t likely to be. It’s a tough part of the world. Our goal is to invest the time and the money and the effort to help them train up Iraqis to take over those responsibilities.
We had something like 200 or 300 or 400 people killed in many of the major cities of America last year. Is it perfectly peaceful? No. What’s the difference? We just didn’t see each homicide in every major city in the United States on television every night. It happens here in this city, in every major city in the world. Across Europe, across the Middle East, people are being killed. People do bad things to each other. The idea that we’d have to stay there till that place was peaceful — as I think you said, or something like that — and everyone goes happily on their way, or whatever you said. We’ll check the transcript.
[Donald Rumsfeld, Senate testimony 9/24/04]
Note:
Needless to say, I am confused. Is Mr. Rumsfeld saying that the violence in Iraq is the same as the violence in any US city. Seems like according to him, the only difference is that we just don’t see it every night on television. Wierd.
DICK ARMITAGE SAYS ELECTIONS ARE OPEN TO ALL
“We’re going to have an election that is free and open and that has to be open to all citizens. It’s got to be our best effort to get it into troubled areas as well,” [Dick Armitage, House testimony, 9/24/04]
And then this Reuters headline today on “My Yahoo” this morning:
Top Bush Officials Clash Over Iraq Election
Tell me about it.
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004