Prove What You Say is Right... Or Stop Saying It.

So the article below was published this morning on MSNBC.

And here's my issue with this. As the Vice President, if there are numerous publishings leading to different conclusions than those you profess, you are obligated to show the proof of such alternative conclusions. There has been a proven credibility problem here, and as a citizen, I want to know why you, Sir, are insisting the opposite of what the Defense Department is saying. You need to provide your sources ... Or state publicly that this is your personal OPINION, not to be taken as fact. Your position as VP dictates that you make this clear.

To me, there is an incredible disconnect between the different facets of government here. And such dysfunctions should not and can not be allowed to exist. If the Vice President knows that the various intelligence agencies are incorrect, then it is his responsibility to bring this to light, and we need to fix the problem. This is of dire importance.

On the other hand, if this is merely peristent arrogance and obsinance, then he should be called out. There is no place in this country for more revisionist posturing.

I was brought up to believe that part of the American system requires that we trust our elected officials. We elect representatives - THEY make the decisions for the citizenry, for the good of the nation. I must believe that their decisions are based on facts that everyone isn't privy to. But too often in my lifetime, we are shown that our trust has been used... that we have been deceived... that lies and half-truths have been offered to mask a different agenda.
At this point, it has become necessary that I suspect BEFORE accept.

If what the Vice President says is true, then we need to know why so many other areas of the government say something different. And if the original assessment of data was what lead to the positions taken by the administration, but then was subsequently proven to be incorrect, why isn't that being said? Why hold on to the incorrect analysis?

This infuriates me - and it comes across as pure arrogance. There is no place for this.
What is the point in coming out with such assertions again if no other evidence is forthcoming? If no honest explanation is to be given as to why this is true?

What's the purpose in reasserting this? Mr. Vice President - you are supposedly an intelligent man - what will this accomplish? Other than to tick me off and make me question everything my elected officials profess.


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Cheney reasserts al-Qaida-Saddam connection
Vice president’s words come as latest Pentagon report again dismisses link

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney repeated his assertions of al-Qaida links to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq on Thursday as the Defense Department released a report citing more evidence that the prewar government did not cooperate with the terrorist group.
Cheney contended that al-Qaida was operating in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion led by U.S. forces and that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was leading the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida. Others in al-Qaida planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the al-Qaida operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June,” Cheney told radio host Rush Limbaugh during an interview. “As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq.”
However, a declassified Pentagon report released Thursday said that interrogations of the deposed Iraqi leader and two of his former aides as well as seized Iraqi documents confirmed that the terrorist organization and the Saddam government were not working together before the invasion.
The Sept. 11 Commission’s 2004 report also found no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam and Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network during that period.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had requested that the Pentagon declassify the report prepared by acting Defense Department Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble. In a statement Thursday, Levin said the declassified document showed why a Defense Department investigation had concluded that some Pentagon prewar intelligence work was inappropriate.
The report, which had been released in summary form in February, said that former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith had acted inappropriately but not illegally in reviewing prewar intelligence. Levin has claimed that Feith’s intelligence assessment was wrong and distorted but nevertheless formed part of the basis on which President Bush took the country to war.
Although Feith’s assessment in mid-2002 offered several examples of cooperation between Saddam’s government and al-Qaida, the report said, the CIA had concluded months earlier that no evidence supported the existence of significant or long-term relationships