Editorial The truth & Iraq
zit*)ig,~+;?.'/dxt?>ir'~tI'N~.!;r5'isli?!Ri':~s,.-*`i,'~~"•igw.~±.'3.`'.'~^ tl.. STAFF Editor: Paul Baumann Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editors: Daria Donnelly (At Large) Grant...
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...As the world now knows, Iraq possessed no WMD...
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...The notion that any government would give its principal security assets to people it could not control in order to achieve its own political aims is highly dubious...
...Further evidence of the administration's hubris can be found in a study of the war on terror issued by the Strategic Studies Institute at the Army's War College...
...intelligence re-ports, that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and was eager to get such weapons into the hands of terrorists...
...The January 6 report, under the direction of Kathleen Mc-Chesney of the OCYP, marks an impressive beginning in that respect...
...Americans like a plainspoken leader, a straight shooter they can trust, we are told...
...and most important, calls for a thoroughgoing retrofitting of the original Dallas Charter, offering fifty-two detailed recommendations for making the charter more effective...
...Whether administration hawks acted out of hubris, moral self-righteousness, or Machiavellian conviction, the result is the same: The credibility and integrity of U.S...
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...Yet "there is no evidence to support the claim that Iraq would have transferred WMD to Al Qaeda and much evidence to counter it," the report says...
...A second report, to be is-sued in late February under the auspices of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, will deal with the broader nature and scope of the sexual-abuse scandal...
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...If democracy is what Americans are fighting and dying for in Iraq, it behooves the president to respect the need democracy has for the truth...
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...Like the Carnegie report, the Army War College study insists that Saddam Hussein's regime and Al Qaeda are separate and distinct dangers that should not be conflated...
...It is time for Bush to admit to the American people, and to the world, that he was wrong about Iraq's WMD...
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...It shows how administration officials systematically misrepresented what was contained in U.S...
...Playing on the nation's fears in the aftermath of 9/11, Bush repeatedly emphasized his certainty, based on U.S...
...Like many politicians, Clinton was adept at manipulating the truth...
...In leading a democracy into war, leaders have a moral obligation to tell as much of the truth as possible...
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...It will reinforce the sense the laity has had, since the abuse scandal broke two years ago, that they have been betrayed by a hierarchy intent on protecting the church's reputation, not its children...
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...It does not provide cumulative figures as to the extent, duration, and costs of the abuse...
...intelligence has been politicized and fatally compromised...
...To further galvanize the American public's fears, the administration asserted that Hussein wanted to give WMDs to terrorists...
...He needs to explain why he was wrong, and what steps he is taking to make sure he isn't wrong again when faced with a similar decision...
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...Bill Clinton's strained relationship to the truth dishonored the presidency and undermined our belief in government, his critics charged...
...The bishops should adopt the substance of these recommendations at their next general meeting...
...Despite what this president seems to think, truth is not fungible...
...is aware of its own methodological limitations...
...It goes even further in arguing that the invasion of Iraq has distracted us from and undermined the battle against Al Qaeda...
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...That contempt was as misplaced as his certainty about WMD...
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...His post facto justification of the war on human rights and humanitarian grounds is self-serving...
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...Whether or not his deceit justified impeachment, it inevitably engendered distrust and greater cynicism about politics...
...diocese or eparchy is carrying out the bishops' 2002 Dallas Charter to insure the protection of young people from clerical sexual abuse...
...intelligence re-ports about Iraq's WMD...
...Yet bishops who refuse to cooperate are damaging the long-term health of their dioceses, and diminishing the credibility of the USCCB and of the church as a whole...
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...What the report does document in disturbing detail is the undue pressure put on the intelligence community, especially from Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to provide only information that conformed S Commonweal 5 January 30, 2004 to the administration's goals...
...Catholics should be prepared for more disheartening news when that study is issued...
...Bush was little more than contemptuous of those who questioned the necessity of war...
...Now the bishops must assure the church—and the American public—that the Dallas Charter is a permanent, effective tool for protecting the young, and a useful model for other institutions faced with similar responsibilities...
...claims about "imminent" threats posed by North Korea or Iran...
...Only when the bishops fully implement adequate programs to protect children will the faithful begin to regain a sense of trust...
...Perhaps, for reasons of security, a president cannot tell the whole truth, but he must not deliberately deceive those who have a right to know...
...Some initial disappointment and confusion greeted the report...
...If the case for war has been manipulated or falsified, a leader should be held accountable...
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...Bush has not only damaged relations with our allies—relationships crucial to the success of the war against terror—he has debased American democracy by practicing a crude ends-justifies-themeans morality...
...Was this an honest mistake on Bush's part, or something more deliberate and pernicious...
...He certainly lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky...
...The John Jay report will not only spell out the numbers of victims, perpetrators, and the costs, it is likely to encourage other victims to step forward...
...Political advocacy is, in many instances, a case of putting the best possible face on highly disputed questions...
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...A devastating report recently issued by the nonpartisan Carnegie Endowment for International Peace answers that question...
...Both the OCYP and the John Jay reports are necessary responses, however, and the bishops (97 percent of whom are cooperating with the John Jay study) are to be commended for taking these steps...
...Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) provides reason for cautious hope...
...It is in the nation's interest, especially in an era of terrorism, that intelligence reports be as objective as possible...
...It is the first report card on how each U.S...
...But there are limits...
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...It appears irrefutable that President Bush misled the American people in making his case for war against Iraq...
...The line between putting forward the best argument and outright distortion or lying is notoriously elusive, but it exists...
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...The study warns that the administration's multifarious and conflicting goals for its war on terror cannot be reconciled, that the "war" as presently defined cannot be won, and that the occupation of Iraq has pushed the Army "near the breaking point...
...troops to prevent human-rights abuses in other parts of the world...
...ICH -cell/ Himrlc, rgh nll !tic inrnun~lim{ uinm'ricH OHO' rnOrke (150 ~,nrLlOm hil{ H^rt°reign 1101iun nnl of Ihn ut lnolr Hiin © ROSS / ROTHCOINITIAL STEP The release on January 6, 2004, of the audit report by the Office of Child and Youth Protection (OCYP) of the U.S...
...When political decisions place a country on the path to war and put American and other lives at risk, the expectation of truth telling on the part of statesmen should be very high...
...If that is the case, why hasn't Bush used U.S...
...The effect, said one of the study's authors, was to turn "minor threats into dire ones...
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...As mandated, the audit concentrated on analyzing each diocese's compliance with the Dallas Charter in the one year since it was promulgated...
...It conveys a sense of urgency and genuine compassion for the victims...
...This should not detract from the serious work evident in the OCYP's first annual report...
...The Carnegie report urges that a nonpartisan commission be established to investigate how U.S...
...intelligence could have been so wrong...
...www.commonwealmagazine.org C 0 P1 PI 0 N W £ A L The truth & Iraq upporters of President George W. Bush extol his honesty and person-al virtue...
...In case after case, and especially in making its argument to Congress, the administration overstated the danger and suppressed information about the uncertainty of U.S...
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...That is why the refusal of some bishops to co-operate fully with the OCYP or with the John Jay study is with-in an ordinary's rights...
...If that is what he believes, why didn't he make that clear to the American people in the first place...
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...Adherence to the Dallas Charter, even as it now stands, is strictly voluntary...
...For many, Clinton's lies justified his impeachment and should have resulted in his removal from office...
...Commonweal articles are also available at many libraries and research facilities on CD-ROM and in electronic databases...
...In short, anything in the intelligence reports that might have cast doubt on the case for war was excised...
...It further recommends that the office of di-rector of the Central Intelligence Agency be given greater independence, and that directors serve for a fixed term...
...Within a short time frame, and starting nearly from scratch, the OCYP has provided not only credible figures and a commendable sense of lay over-sight, but also a useful baseline to anchor further reports...
...The principal justification for the war has been utterly discredited...
...Still, confessing one's sins and pledging a firm purpose of amendment are not sufficient...
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Vol. 131 • January 2004 • No. 2
