Jeb Bush Joins A Cast of Cowardly Politicians to Use "Mistakes Were Made"—A Best Hits List

[Panich52]

Jeb Bush Joins A Cast of Cowardly Politicians to Use "Mistakes Were Made"—A Best Hits List

The ex-Florida governor is the latest in a long line of officials explaining high-profile policy errors.
By Zaid Jilani / AlterNet

In his foreign policy coming out speech, former Florida governor and possible 2016 contender Jeb Bush intoned that “there were mistakes made” as a part of his brother's war in Iraq.

It's a curious way of trivializing starting an unnecessary conflict that wasted trillions of dollars and took hundreds of thousands of lives in a war that still rages on today, but sadly it is not unique. As The Atlantic's Jim Fallows points out, this is a phrase that has a storied history. Here are a few other examples of high-profile mistakes that were made:

•“It is quite possible that mistakes were made,” Henry Kissinger explaining U.S. support for Latin American dictatorships, 2002
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/mistakes-were-made/385663/

•We did not achieve what we wished, and serious mistakes were made in trying to do so,” President Reagan explaining the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mistakes-were-made-a-short-history/

•“So, if there was a mistake made, in trying to move them along a more civilized path by having contacts as we did, fine,” - President George H.W. Bush explaining his support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, 1990
https://books.google.com/books?id=sELVAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1806&lpg=PA1806&dq=So,+if+there+was+a+mistake+made,+in+trying+to+move+them+along+a+more+civilized+path+by+having+contacts+as+we+did,+fine.&source=bl&ots=k7MTR-qjM4&sig=wngtZ_DcrCzgNIwBrkuc6h-sXwQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jXHmVNKiHLSPsQSMmICQDw&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=So,%20if%20there%20was%20a%20mistake%20made,%20in%20trying%20to%20move%20them%20along%20a%20more%20civilized%20path%20by%20having%20contacts%20as%20we%20did,%20fine.&f=false

•“[She] had said only that if mistakes were made, they would be corrected,” aides to Condoleeza Rice explaining away her apparently telling German leader Angele Merkel that the U.S. had kidnapped a German citizen on accident, 2005
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89513504

•“The biggest mistake that's happened so far,” George W. Bush on the Abu Ghraib scandal, 2006
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/mistakes-were-made/385663/

•“Mistakes were made,” Alberto Gonzalez explaining the politicized firing of U.S. attorneys, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031300776.html

It appears there's no act too big, no crime too wrong to explain away as a simple (past-tense) mistake.

Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet contributing writer. Follow @zaidjilani on Twitter.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/jeb-bush-joins-cast-cowardly-politicians-use-mistakes-were-made-best-hits-list?akid=12815.1924881.E_lzZH&rd=1&src=newsletter1032210&t=13

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Notice how they're all Republicans....
•

[Wellstone ruled]

1. This statement will be repeated on a daily basis

in a numming effect on the populace. Propaganda does work and the Rethugs as well as Pig Boy Rove are using it big time.

[Lint Head]

2. Mis-Torture was committed. Mis-Murder was committed. Mis-Ignoring of CIA Emails was committed.

Mis-Exposure of a CIA Member was committed. Mis- ETC.ETC.ETC.

[Octafish]

4. Notice how they're all traitors.

Constitution to them is but a scrap of paper.