[MLUG - DISCUSSION] misleading Bush statements from the debate

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

GEORGE W. BUSH, HOW DO YOU MISLEAD ME? Let me count the ways:

• Bush said, proudly, that "10 million people have registered to vote" in Afghanistan. While a high number of registered voters is to be applauded, Human Rights Watch says (PDF): "As the non-governmental organization Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) noted in a recent report, the number of registered voters in several provinces is significantly larger than the estimated population of known eligible voters. . . and Afghan and international NGOs told Human Rights Watch that they believe the overall number of registered voters is vastly inflated. Several election officials in Kabul told Human Rights Watch in late September that the number of Afghans expected to vote on October 9 could range as low as five to seven million."
• Bush said he abandoned the UN inspections process because "Saddam Hussein had no intention of disarming." Of course, Hussein did not have any banned arms. At the time the war began, the International Atomic Energy Agency had already debunked claims that Iraq had reconstituted its weapons program and UNMOVIC chief Hans Blix stated that war was not necessary for his group to successfully cope with Iraqi weapons programs.
• Bush said "Libya has disarmed" because "Libya understood that America and others will enforce doctrine," implying that Libyan disarmament was a result of the Iraq War. In fact, as Martin Indyk pointed out in March, the Libyan government had been looking to make this deal for years. The Iraq War changed the Bush administration's attitude, not Libya's.
• Bush said that "the A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice." In fact, Khan has been pardoned by the government of Pakistan in exchange for keeping silent about the extent to which other Pakistani officials were complicit in his smuggling network. Currently he is under house arrest, an extraordinarily light punishment for one of the most dangerous men on earth. American investigators have not been allowed to question Khan, so we have little idea what the extent of his activities were.
• Bush said that in 1994 the United States signed "an agreement with North Korea that my administration found out was not being lived up to by the North Koreans." In fact, North Korea was living up to the agreement -- it was America that reneged first, under pressure from conservatives.

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