The context of Bush's '16 words'ARGUING THAT President Bush's claim that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from an African country was not so groundless as to be dishonest ("New look at Bush's '16 words,' " op ed, July 11), Jeff Jacoby glosses over the context in which the claim was made.
Building upon collateral assertions that, "with sufficient fissile material from abroad, [Baghdad] could make a nuclear weapon within several months to a year," and references to "mushroom clouds," Bush portrayed the threat of nuclear attack as imminent on March 6, 2003, stating, "I will not leave the American people at the mercy of the Iraqi dictator and his weapons." In truth, the Niger allegation was that Saddam Hussein had sought to purchase yellow cake, unenriched uranium, and even the Bush-cowed CIA admitted it would have taken Hussein until "2007 to 2009" to develop the technology to enrich uranium, "owing to inexperience in building and operating centrifuge facilities and challenges in procuring the necessary equipment and expertise." Note: Jacoby takes a page from Bush's book, referring to what Hussein had allegedly tried to acquire as "refined uranium" and suggesting immediacy of the threat by invoking 9/11. If we stretch our memories to recall how frenetically Bush, Cheney, and the neoconservatives clamored for invasion, even as Hussein was finally allowing the UN weapons inspectors complete run of his country, we will not be deceived again.
HUGH W. SAMSON © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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