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Times Watch for February 11, 2004

Natl. Guard Queries Fair Game for "Posturing" Bush

     The White House on Tuesday released payroll records from Bush's stint in the National Guard, showing what it regards as proof Bush completed his service. But a Wednesday editorial tries to keep the controversy alive: "Mr. Bush himself also made the issue of military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling pilot when welcoming a carrier home from Iraq. Now, the president needs to make a fuller explanation of how he spent his last two years in the Guard."

     Democratic President Bill Clinton (who avoided the Vietnam draft and lied about receiving a draft induction notice, yet sent U.S troops to Haiti, Somalia, and the Balkans) was also photographed in military garb. Four years into Clinton's presidency, did the Times consider his avoidance of Vietnam “fair game” as well?

• George W. Bush | Bill Clinton | Vietnam

Bush's "Blows to American Credibility"

Does the U.S. have a credibility problem among world leaders in its fight against proliferation? Reporter Steven Weisman hammers the question home in Wednesday's "U.S. and Allies in New Effort to Get Along," a story which carries this teaser: "Credibility tarnished, Washington labors on to halt banned arms."

     Weisman says: "American officials acknowledge that the damage to the reputation of American intelligence has been significant, making it harder in the future to rally support for confrontations over banned weapons."

     Even Bush's multilateralism is portrayed in a negative light: "Administration officials concede that President Bush's longstanding emphasis on working with allies to negotiate with North Korea and Iran is the only choice he has, given the widespread perception of the blow to American credibility because of Iraq."

     Weisman rains down more "blows": "Still others say that whatever blow has been dealt to American credibility, no one doubts American determination to confront the issue."

     Weisman concludes his story with a quote: "A foreign minister from Asia put it this way: 'The whole war was operated on the theory that Iraq had these weapons. One would not want to conclude that the United States was wrong in every respect. But clearly the United States now has to face the fact that as long as its actions are unilateral it will have a credibility problem around the world.'"

     Of course, the Iraq War was hardly a "unilateral" action, but a 34-nation coalition. And the U.S. wasn't the only nation whose intelligence service had concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. As ex-weapons inspector David Kay told the Washington Post: "Everyone was wrong. Outside experts like myself and other intelligence agencies…including the Germans and French believed he [Hussein] had weapons."

• Iraq War | Steven Weisman | WMD

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org