Bush Denies Iraq Shifted Focus From North Korea's Nuclear Plans

[swag]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=asKY1pjT7baM&refer=home

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea's reported nuclear test has again put President George W. Bush on the defensive about Iraq: this time over accusations that the war undermined his key foreign-policy goal of denying such weapons to rogue states.

By focusing on Iraq, critics said Bush diverted U.S. attention and resources from the more potent threat posed by North Korea, which announced Oct. 9 that it had tested a weapon and may have enough plutonium for 10 bombs.

Bush ``identified the right ultimate threat but he picked the wrong target,'' said Graham Allison, an assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration who now teaches government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

At a news conference yesterday, Bush denied that Iraq had distracted his administration. North Korea, he said, ``has been trying to acquire bombs and weapons for a long period of time, long before I came into office.''

Almost immediately after Sept. 11, Bush said stopping terrorists from acquiring nuclear materials from nations such as North Korea, Iraq and Iran would be the centerpiece of his foreign policy. ``The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons,'' he said in his 2002 State of the Union address.


. . .

[sutz12]

1. He can only drink from one bottle at a time....

multi-tasking is a bit beyond Bush's capabilities.

[pfitz59]

3. Agree....

Did you see today's news conference? Talk about being stuck in one gear!

[tuvor]

2. "Shifting focus from North Korea" implies he was once focused on them.

Gimme a break. He never even gave them the time of day.

[swag]

5. "I'm the denier."

[Erika]

6. Bush doesn't even know what day it is.

But he wants his cowboy hat.

[aquart]

8. Exactly.

It gives him waaay too much credit.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

4. Bush: No we didn't shift focus at all, this is all part of my long term

grand statergy that simple folks like you can't understand. (snicker, snicker, smirk)

[Erika]

7. And my GOP rubber stamping Congress says I'm God

They trust me. From Foley to the deceitfully evangelical elected GOP, they trust me. I have a big tent. They all trust me.

[swag]

9. And if they don't say I'm God, well, I'm God.

I'm God.

[CJCRANE]

10. Bush Denies World is Round, insists it's Flat

[gratuitous]

11. Easy enough to find out

How many times between, oh let's pick an arbitrary date like September 11, 2001, and October 1, 2006, and compare the number of times Bush made a speech or conducted a press conference in which he mentioned North Korea and the number of times he mentioned Iraq. Do the numbers rise and fall over the months? What the president mentions in his public appearances is a pretty good indicator of what he's focused on. And George Dubya doesn't impress me as someone who has a real long attention span, if you catch my drift.

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. This is the kind of headline I like to see

"Bad guys deny they're pig-fuckers. News at 11."