It's all Newsweek's fault.

No really, it's that paragraph in Newsweek that made Afghanistan explode into the anti-US protests that claimed the lives of sixteen people. It wasn't Abu Ghraib. It wasn't the Downing Street Memo on fixing intelligence that lead to the invasion of Iraq. It wasn't the appointing of president Karzai, leaving all those outside of Kabul to govern themselves, not to mention fight Our battles (see bin Laden). It wasn't the hundreds kept in Guantanamo Bay for years without even being charged with a crime. It wasn't the other paragraphs in Newsweek that didn't use the word "flushed". It wasn't the "news" media's earlier reports alleging the same or similar desecrations.

No, this certainly isn't an attempt to stifle a news item a la the president's "service" record, by discrediting one of its messengers. This is not an attempt to pressure or force a news media outlet to write stories the administration likes without having to pay the journalist directly. And it certainly isn't a diversionary tactic to distract us from the fact that not only is Iraq getting more violent, but so is Afghanistan.

Ah sweet sarcasm...... eases the pain.

Sure some of the protesters in Afghanistan were waving copies of the Newsweek story. Maybe it was the straw that broke the camels back. Maybe it was used to further enrage and rally supporters of protests that were already beginning to occur. We got into this war, because of the use of forged documents, undocumented evidence, and minimally sourced Intel from the likes of Chalabi and Curveball. When will someone be held responsible for the damages this war has caused to their country and Ours?


QUESTION: Does it concern the President that the primary source for the intelligence on the mobile biological weapons labs was a guy that U.S. intelligence never every interviewed?

MCCLELLAN: Well, again, all these issues will be looked at as part of a broad review by the independent commission that the President appointed… But it’s important that we look at what we learn on the ground and compare that with what we believed prior to going into Iraq.
[White House Press Gaggle, 4/5/04]

QUESTION: He’s the president of the United States. This thing he told the country on the verge of taking the nation to war has turned out to be, by your own account, not reliable. That’s his fault, isn’t it?

MCCLELLAN: No.
[White House Press Briefing, 7/17/03]