CNN's Verjee ignored Newsweek report that N. Korea was included in "axis of evil" to "avoid focusing solely on Iraq"
Reporting on the recent nuclear deal with North Korea on the February 13 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN State Department correspondent Zain Verjee claimed that in President Bush's 2002 State of the Union speech -- in which he described Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as an "axis of evil" -- Bush "made it clear where the U.S. stood with North Korea." But in an article in the February 19 edition of Newsweek (posted online on February 11), former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson disclosed that North Korea and Iran were included in the speech as part of the "axis of evil" not out of any desire to signal "where the U.S. stood on North Korea," as Verjee said, but, in Newsweek's words, to "avoid focusing solely on Iraq. At the time, Bush was already making plans to topple Saddam Hussein, but he wasn't ready to say so."
From the February 13 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:
VERJEE: Wolf, it's a deal: heavy oil for heavy metal. But it's also a shift in the Bush administration's approach toward North Korea's nuclear program.
State of the Union, January 2002. President Bush made it clear where the U.S. stood with North Korea.
BUSH [video clip]: States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil.
VERJEE: But now, a complete turnaround.
Who the hell cares what Michael Gerson says??!!
He is not elected. Bush dictates policy (for good or for worse). The speechwriters lay the backbone of speeches, what Bush says is what is implemented.
Moreover, if you people really care what the speechwriters mean, Frum was actually that person who invented "Axis of Evil," and he included N. Korea and Iran b/c they are an axis of evil.
But, go ahead, quote Newsweek on a partially researched story.
The real Axis of Evil is Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. It's they who are committing the war crimes these days.
The U.N. proclomation stating that Sadam Hussein's regime was the most brutal and repressive since Hitler holds no water with you, then. And the genocide in Darfur?
Please explain yourself.
Let's talk brutal and repressive. Mugabe is running rape camps in Zimbabwe to terrorize the youth of that nation to worship him. The Burmese junta is sending conscripted child soldiers into Karen villages with orders to kill all the men and rape all the women. Israel has walled up three million Palestinians into huge ghettos and is slowly starving them to death.
And there's more outstanding UN resolutions against Israeel than any other country on the planet.
There is no more Saddam. Most of the torture and murder in Iraq is due to the US and it's puppet government's death squads and the civil war they have started. Looks like your strawmen was captured a few years ago and is no longer in the game of war crimes, but your government and it's allies still are.
Zimbabwe, Burma...keep going. North Korea, China. Call 'em strawmen if it makes you feel better, but give credit where it's due. There's plenty of blame to go around.
Redking.
The real Axis of Evil is Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. It's they who are committing the war crimes these days.
A good point. If I had to choose a world that was run by the mindset of the US, UK and Israel or a world run by the mindset of NK, Iran and Iraq (pre-invasion) I would immediately choose Kim Jong-Il Ahmadenijad, and Saddam.
Jim:
Either your sarcasm is the best I've heard in a while, or you have some splaining to do.
THAT makes a good point and was funny too, good job
Wait, Solon?? Are you agreeing w/ him.
Yeah, he is right. The things the US has done historically that have been wrong and imperialistic have been functions of power. Had France been the world power they would have done the same things. We have also at our expense done altruistic things. I think that is a function of the fact we live in a country of good people and it acts as a partial brake on the runaway self interest of power. Clearly the US isnt inherently totalitarian and we are almost unique in some of our committments to political freedom. I mean Britian is free but they have a secrets act while we have the freedom of information act. That doesnt mean we dont do things we shouldnt when we allow power to get their way and act in their self interest, we have, when that happens we should stand up to power and demand they act in accordance with our values. THIS is a basic tenet of liberalism as I understand it. It does no good to quantify everything simplitically, in a Manichean black/white context. It is just silly to pretend when liberals criticise what we are doing it must be because they hate who we are. It shows a simplemindedness that does nothing to further the dialogue. Yes, I think Jim was right, also it was clever. How in the world is that suprising?
You would like to live under Kim Jong-Il, Ahmadenijad, and Saddam???
YOU AGREE WITH THIS??? REALLY???
Solon...I've debated with you over the last few weeks, and I've been wondering why I thought you didn't make much sense w/ your arguments.
Well, I guess the answer is that you're just totally insane!!!
Red:
I regret even responding to you b/c my I.Q. may drop a few points, but for the sake of pointing out your idiocy, I will.
If you lived in N. Korea or Iran, you would be in danger of being murdered by the Gov't if you spoke out against them.
But, in America, you can sit back and blog w/out any fear of the Gov't.
There is a reason why we have an Immigration "Problem," because we have the greatest and most free Country in the World. People want to come to live here and to Britain, and Israel, b/c other places suppress their own people.
I'm only going to briefly respond to your warcrime insanity, b/c you're comparing them to Iran and N. Korea. Maybe your should read up about what it is acutally like to live in N. Korea or Iran.
True, though arguable if Iran has the internal repression present in the other two. I certainly havent heard of people being murdered for speaking out against their government. An Iranian woman won the Nobel peace prize for HER criticism and she is still around, still its a good point and true. However calling the warcrimes accusation insanity doesnt take into account that if the Nuremeberg laws were applied Bush would be HUNG for what they called the Supreme war crime. Starting a war of aggression, it might be debatable but its far from insanity
"Greatest and most free".....sounds like Norway or Sweden, where they don't have laws on the books allowing their government to secretly arrest and detain people nor are they running TORTURE chambers. The US government is operating TORTURE chambers. Any country that runs TORTURE chambers has no right to call itself "free".
If you rightwingers really got a free hand as you wish, our freedom of speech would end overnight. Troops would be busting down our doors at 3am in the morning and hauling us off to torture chambers before throwing us into concentration camps for "re-education" from our liberal viewpoints. Fascism always does the same things...and TORTURE is always high on the list.
I've got a new bumper sticker for you.
America: 12 Million Illegal Aliens couldn't all be wrong.
They come here for our minimum wages, not for "freedom". it's ECONOMIC migration, not political.
You've got to be kidding.
Illegal immigrants work for less than minimum wage under the table.
That is why they can get a job despite lacking the ability to speak English.
But, they still come here anyway b/c of all of our freedoms, economic and social.
In Mexico, Illegal immigrants are prohibited to protest...ever.
Moreover, (1) there is more corruption in Mexico; (2) they can get a better education here; (3) they can get gov't healthcare here and all other types of entitlements.
"Axis of Evil"
It sounds like something Batman would say on the old television series. If you're stupid enough to buy into that garbage let me clue you in on something:
The Bush administration is the "Axis of Bullsh**"!
How about that?
Axis of evil?
How about Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld?
You guys are right. Why worry about N.Korea, Iraq, or anybody for that matter. We can talk it out. Shoulda done that instead of getting so overwrought about a few little things goin' on in the late 30's, and then that little thing in '41. Shoulda talked it out.
Tried to hide our head in the sand before 12/7/41. Predictable result.
Tell us what you would have done.
I would have suggested fighting the people who attacked us, and their allies.That actually seemed to work pretty well.
Want to be sure I understand you. It's OK to attack someone who attacks us, AND their allies?
And that huge mistake we made talking out the Cuban missile crisis. Remember that? Remember how the Russkies took our "talk" for weakness and started WWIII?
Oh, wait...
That DID work well. So why didn't we do the same thing instead of kicking the dog out of everybody in WW2?
Different situations. Just as 1939 and 2007 are different.
Lemoc:
I think we're both wasting our time talking to these people. They claim at one end that liberals don't hate America, and then they come and make statements like this.
There is no hope for them. They sit in America, enjoying the freedoms that this great Country provides and then bash America, Britain and Israel, w/out any understanding of the facts.
On a bad day us liberals understand the facts better than you are ever likely to. You usually dont argue the FACTS at all, just make emotionally based assertions as IF they were facts. The US has been a force of good in the world and done attrocious, imperialist things. Like most countries and people for that matter it isnt one thing. People like YOU think patriotism consists of chanting ort name and ignoring when the actions of a specific administration betrays the values we associate with this country. Liberals think we ought to keep doing the good things and stop doing the bad things and that our patriotic duty as citizens demands we oppose those violations of American values when we see them. After all WE are the top layer of government, and these things are done in OUR name and with OUR tax dollars. We become complicit in policies we think violate such values if we dont oppose them. I dont get people who think to be patrotic Americans we ought to become brainwashed conformity junkies never criticising what we think wrong (that seems to apply however only to CONSERVATIVE administrations, you guys sure loved bashing Clinton) That we have an obligation to act as if its wrong to say what WE think as if we are just a bewildered herd with no RIGHT to question the actions of our betters who make the decisions. I think you guys wish this country were more LIKE N Korea, or Iraq, so that the governments actions never be criticised
Amen, brother. These orcs want a nation that kills for the fun of it, that TORTURES people at will, that smashes down any cries from below to stop the madness. They don't want a free and moral America, they want TORTURE, murder, and oppression, and love to whine at those who stand up for our national honor and morality. They project their racism and sociopathy onto every bogeyman they can invent, to maintain a perpetual war against humanity, because they are simply hate, pure unadulterated malice. They will find any excuse to kill and TORTURE.
Iraq, Iran and North Korea....NONE have the capacity or intention of attacking the USA. Waving your phoney bogeymen at the unafraid doesn't work. And when our government operated TORTURE chambers, we have the right to point and scream "evil!" at our politicians.
The only reason why they are not capable of attacking us is because we have worked to prevent them from getting the bomb.
If they do get the bomb, Iran will use it on Israel, and then us.
N. Korea will get the bomb, and then use it as a way to get us to give them whatever they want and threaten to use it.
If you were running the Country, there would be no more America.
First Korea already has the bomb. Second why would Iran commit total national suicide by nuking Israel OR the US? I notice that with all this same rhetoric coming from the right about the evil Soviets THEY never nuked us. Doesnt it make more sense that IF they are pursuing the bomb it is to protect themselves from being invaded by a country that called them an axis of evil? You so easily spout baseless assertions as if they were fact. They arent facts just because they fit into your biased worldview. It is unlikely that Iran would get a couple of bombs then use them against Israel that has a couple of hundred or us when we have a couple of thousand. It is never as simple as they evil, we good, they commit evil deeds. Even when bad countries do bad things they almost always do them in self interest. There is no self interest for Iran to completely destroy themselves.
"Second why would Iran commit total national suicide by nuking Israel OR the US?"
Well, let me teach you a little history.
When Iraq waged war against Iran, Iran didn't have enough guns for all of its military. So, the Mullahs sent 13-15 year-old boys armed only with the Koran into the battlefield.
The young children ran into war w/ Iraq, getting totally massacred, only with the promise that they would see 72 virgins.
Unlike Iran...the Soviet Union wanted to Continue to survive. They understood the concept of Mutally assured destruction. They would never attack us, b/c they knew we would hit them back.
However, Iran breeds insanity from crazy people who want to end the world so they can be martyrs.
Therefore, if Iran gets the bomb, I have no doubt they would give the bomb to proxys or crazy individuals to use it on Israel.
How could such an insane, irrational group of animals possibly build something as complex as a nuclear weapon?
Yes, everyone is out to get us! They all want to kill us! Quick! Let's kill them first!!!
Homicidal paranoia is not a virtue. It's a mental illness.
If I ran this country, the troops would all come home, we would live in peace with the world, and our energies would be focused on creating a society worthy of bequeathing our children. Guess that sounds pretty horrible to you, eh?
Let's disarm unilaterally, too. That would have been the answer prior to WW2. Threatening gestures made toward us are ONLY the result of our being perceived as a threat. That was no doubt the case @ Pearl Harbor, where we brought all those boats out toward Japan. Why'd we do that, just made 'em scared and they reacted. We brought it on ourselves. WE are responsible for the rise of Hitler, too--we were being too tough on the Germans following WW1--it was our fault, and to pay for it, we should have just let 'em have their way. Pacifism would have saved the world.
And think of the world we could have left our children.
You keep trying to equate this with World War II....well, here's the comparison. This time it was the USA who illegally invaded a country that was not threatening it. It was the US who broke the rules of war. It was the US that goosestepped into Polan..I mean, Iraq. It's YOU who are arguing for empire, war, destruction, murder, of people who NEVER threatened us. Why? Why this overwhelming desire to KILL people? Why these homicidal tendencies? Why this need to murder children in the name of the flag? Are we the Master Race who must rule the world? Are we to rule over the inferior races of the world? Are Iraqis unworthy of life? Do we get a sieg heil with this imperialist crap?
Yrch na umellyn o Coi, yrch na nur o Gurth.
Good points. Uncle Sam, the teeth in U.N. resolutions, which has brought us to this. You've convinced me. Let's get the *%#* out of that total waste of time and real estate, so at least it can't be used for an excuse. You've convinced me.
You guys keep talking about how this is just like 1939.
Please remind me - how many countries has Iran invaded?
This decade, none.
Please remind ME what you would recommend doing if an Iranian missile just happened to "invade" Israel?
I know. Wouldn't happen, wouldn't make any sense. So they wouldn't do it.
So you don't have to answer the question. Convenient.
IF an Iranian missile invaded Israel. IF.
Reminds me of "we can't wait for the smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud." Since our actions based on that non-existent threat have borne such wonderful fruit, I certainly see no reason we shouldn't follow the same course again.
Any excuse to kill people, right? "They MIGHT attack, so we got to kill them now!" You should see a psychiatrist. These homicidal fantasies are not healthy.
Bush may make policy, if you ask me thats debatable, Gerson however headed the speechwriting team that WROTE THE SPEECH. He ought to know. I am so glad to hear YOUR opinion, stated as fact. Actually Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are the axis of idiots
Flat out wrong...
Frum, wrote the speech. Gerson claimed he was there. Bush edits most of his speeches and dictates policy.
Flat out wrong? Man do you ever need a remedial reading comprehension course. Did I say Gerson wrote the speech? No here is what I said. Gerson however headed the speechwriting team that WROTE THE SPEECH
Here is what the article being discussed says: Michael Gerson, now a NEWSWEEK contributor, headed the White House speechwriting shop at the time
Do you know how these speeches are written? They dont just say hey go write a speech about this or that, they spitball, sit in a room and discuss specific language, hash it out THEN someone writes it.
So whether or not Bush edits his speeches is irrelevant. The man who headed the speechwriting team says THIS is how the phrase ended up in the speech. Obviously Bush didnt edit IT OUT. Unless YOU were a fly on the wall I dont know what your basis is to call the man a liar.
"Who the hell cares what Michael Gerson says??!!He is not elected."
-----
And we should care about what you say because the elective office you hold is...?
My point is that you listen to what Bush says.
former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson disclosed that North Korea and Iran were included in the speech as part of the "axis of evil" not out of any desire to signal "where the U.S. stood on North Korea," as Verjee said, but, in Newsweek's words, to "avoid focusing solely on Iraq. At the time, Bush was already making plans to topple Saddam Hussein, but he wasn't ready to say so."
To quote Gomer Pyle:
Surprise surprise surprise
I have only ONE question...why haven't Bush & Cheney been impeached?
Because our politicians are bought and paid for by AIPAC and the Military/Industrial Complex and they want this war to continue. Remember that many AIPAC agents were involved in the start of this...Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, etc. Halliburton and Lockheed are getting huge contracts from all this and are paying big bucks into campaign coffers to keep the war going.
This is what we get when our government is up for sale. That's why I keep screaming at Democrats to choose people of proven integrity and principle instead of the celebrity pols that the press pushes at them....because those celebrities are just political whores who will and have killed children for a few campaign dollars.
HAHAHAHA.
Yeah, right. North Korea was the the "throw-in" country. I guess they put all the countries in a hat and drew one out. Just think if Iceland had been picked. Or maybe Finland.
Newsweek, this is the dumbest story of the year. They just threw in North Korea so we notice that Bush had Iraq in there. BAHAHAHA. The things the media expects us to believe.
Leather, it's late and perhaps your tired eyes missed this, but... the person who said these things was Michael Gerson, who was Bush's speechwriter. Do you think Gerson is a secret left wing idealogue who is purposely lying to advance his secret liberal agenda? Read this again...
...former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson disclosed that North Korea and Iran were included in the speech as part of the "axis of evil" not out of any desire to signal "where the U.S. stood on North Korea," as Verjee said, but, in Newsweek's words, to "avoid focusing solely on Iraq. At the time, Bush was already making plans to topple Saddam Hussein, but he wasn't ready to say so."
Can you never admit that Bush has done things to create misleading distortions... or is Bush always a sinless saint in your mind?
They need the North Korean bogeyman to sell worthless anti-missile defenses to Congress. Can't get them huge-budget programs going if the sheep aren't afraid of a big bad wolf...or in this case, a tiny little ant that couldn't knock us down if it tried. The first thing Rumsfeld did when he came into office was promote the head of "Space Command" to chair the Joint Chiefs....to push for more funding for his war industry buddies and their ABM system that doesn't work.
It all just proves that we have a government that loves to scare us into submission. In the 1990's it was always "rogue states", now it's this "axis of evil" bs. If they feel they have to scare us to lead, then they shouldn't be leading at all.
Great response Leather:
They seem to care about this one speechwriters statements, when Frum actually created the Axis of Evil, and Bush clearly dictates policy.
But, the libs have a suicidal mental disorder and so you may be wasting your time talking to them.
Its not our fault you are a moron. Its not our fault you seem to MISS that Frum was working for Gerson. ITs not our fault that conservatives like you are SO stupid that once you get a delusion in your head it takes nitroglycerine to get it out. ITs not our fault that the average goldfish has better reading comprehension than YOU. We get that you just love war and have a kill everyone and get as many American soldiers killed as humanly possible mentality. In short its not our fault you are dumber than bread mold
Oh, that's just unfair...
...to bread mold.
Your condescension toward bread mold is disgusting and actually frightening. This callousness is the first step in the direction of violence. Bread mold is likely as intelligent as our species, and deserves protection and consideration. In fact, we need to skip the Threatened list and put it directly into Endangered.
We are SO pompous. Just because we have become self-aware recently, we think no other life form could be.
What has BM actually ever done to you, or us as a nation, to deserve such hatred?