Dick är ute och cyklar

Sverker Åströms debattartikel i DN, där han vågar sig på att kritisera USA, har väckt viss uppståndelse i den svenska bloggvärlden. Dick Erixon reagerar särskilt på stycket

Att Irak skulle som det påstods utgöra ett omedelbart hot mot USA var uppenbart orimligt.

Bush har aldrig sagt att Saddam utgjorde ett "omedelbart hot", säger Dick. En snabb Googlesökning får dock fram följande citat:

On its present course, the Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency.

Det finns förstås fler exempel från Bushadministrationen. Rumsfeld sade i september 2002 att

no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

vilket han blev bryskt påmind om i CBS-programmet "Face the nation" i mars 2004:

Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, you're the--you and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase `immediate threat.' I didn't. The president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's--that's what's happened. The president went...

SCHIEFFER: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that.

Sec. RUMSFELD: I--I can't speak for nobody--everybody in the administration and say nobody said that.

SCHIEFFER: Vice president didn't say that? The...

Sec. RUMSFELD: Not--if--if you have any citations, I'd like to see 'em.

Mr. FRIEDMAN: We have one here. It says `some have argued that the nu'--this is you speaking--`that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain.'

Sec. RUMSFELD: And--and...

Mr. FRIEDMAN: It was close to imminent.

Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, I've--I've tried to be precise, and I've tried to be accurate. I'm s--suppose I've...

Mr. FRIEDMAN: `No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world and the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.'

Sec. RUMSFELD: Mm-hmm. It--my view of--of the situation was that he--he had--we--we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that--that we believed and we still do not know--we will know.

Oops.

Slutsats: att påstå att Bushadministrationen aldrig kallade Irak för ett "omedelbart hot" är en grov och medveten lögn.