{"id":363,"date":"2003-12-22T17:54:18","date_gmt":"2003-12-22T22:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2003\/12\/muddled_case_for_war\/"},"modified":"2003-12-22T17:54:18","modified_gmt":"2003-12-22T22:54:18","slug":"muddled_case_for_war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2003\/12\/muddled_case_for_war\/","title":{"rendered":"Muddled Case for War"},"content":{"rendered":"

This exchange<\/a> on “Hardball between Chris Matthews and Peggy Noonan was one of the funnier things I have recently seen on talking head T.V. Matthews attempts to pin Noonan down on Saddam’s supposed involvement in 9\/11. As you see, he didn’t get very far:<\/p>\n


\nMATTHEWS: No, no. The particular question here is, why do the majority of the people still believe that Saddam Hussein attacked us 9\/11 and, therefore, believe the world is safer because he is gone?
\nNOONAN: Chris, take a look at what that poll says. It doesn\ufffdt say they are certain Saddam Hussein did 9\/11. They think Osama…
\nMATTHEWS: No, they say he personally was involved.
\nNOONAN: They think Osama bin Laden did 9\/11. They also think the world is a complicated place. And they think that Saddam…
\nMATTHEWS: No, no, Peggy, you are not listening. You are not listening.
\nNOONAN: I am listening.
\nMATTHEWS: No.
\nNOONAN: They think that Saddam Hussein was helpful to international bad guys and the world\ufffds bad guys.
\nMATTHEWS: No. They say he was personally involved in blowing up the World Trade Center, personally involved. Do you believe he was personally involved?
\nNOONAN: Do I think he did it?
\nMATTHEWS: Yes. No, was personally involved in it.
\nNOONAN: Do I think he was on the plane? Do I think he pulled the levers that Osama bin Laden did?
\nMATTHEWS: No, do you believe he was personally…
\nNOONAN: No.
\nDo I suspect that he was helpful to our enemies and helpful to terrorism, looking to hurt us? Yes.
\nMATTHEWS: But do you think he was personally involved in blowing up the World Trade Center, Saddam Hussein? That is the critical question here, because it involves whether we\ufffdre safe or not.
\n(CROSSTALK)
\nNOONAN: Chris…
\nMATTHEWS: Do you believe he was personally involved?
\nNOONAN: Chris, I don\ufffdt think it can be asked as a crystal question.
\nFirst of all, I think a lot will come out and be revealed in time and a lot will be studied that we already know. It seems to me that Saddam Hussein was a guy who was extremely helpful to our enemies, our foes, our opponents, terrorism, etcetera. He was friends with those guys. We will see. There was a report just last week.
\nMATTHEWS: Why are you having a hard time with a question of fact here? Lawrence made a very clear statement. He said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9\/11. Is Lawrence correct?
\nNOONAN: Lawrence made a clear statement that he doesn\ufffdt believe that Saddam Hussein had any part, correct?
\nMATTHEWS: What do you believe?
\nNOONAN: In 9\/11?
\nO\ufffdDONNELL: No, no, Peggy. I didn\ufffdt say that.
\n(CROSSTALK)
\nNOONAN: All right. What did you say, Lawrence?
\nO\ufffdDONNELL: I said\ufffdand this is quite simple.
\nNOONAN: Oh.
\nO\ufffdDONNELL: There is absolutely no evidence of it. I do not have a religious belief one way or the other. I know, scientifically, evidentiary, there is no evidence for it.
\nMATTHEWS: Do you challenge that, Peggy? Do you have any evidence?
\nNOONAN: I\ufffdm sure there is evidence that he has been helpful to bad guys who have tried to hurt us and who in fact have hurt us in the past.
\n(CROSSTALK)
\nMATTHEWS: Peggy, you can\ufffdt handle this question, because it gets to the heart of why we went to war. You can\ufffdt handle the truth.
\nNOONAN: We will look and see what wires connected him with the other people.
\n[Commercial break.]
\nMATTHEWS: Peggy, I have to go back to you one more time.
\nIf the American people believed that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9\/11, would they be as much for the war and as much to believe right now that we are safer because of we\ufffdve captured him, have captured him, if they thought he had nothing to do with 9\/11?
\nNOONAN: Yes, that is too complicated.
\n(CROSSTALK)
\nMATTHEWS: No, no. It is not complicated at all.
\nNOONAN: I\ufffdm sorry. It is.
\nMATTHEWS: And no else on this panel think it\ufffds complicated.
\nNOONAN: I\ufffdll bet. I\ufffdll bet.
\nMATTHEWS: Why it is too complicated to know the truth? I don\ufffdt know why it\ufffds complicated to face the facts here.
\nNOONAN: Chris, give it to me. Give it to me.
\n(CROSSTALK)
\nNOONAN: I don\ufffdt think that\ufffds fair. That is ad hominem.
\nMATTHEWS: No, it\ufffds simple. No.
\nNOONAN: Yes, it is.
\nMATTHEWS: If the American people knew the truth that there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9\/11, would they be as supportive of this war and as assured that we\ufffdre safer for having captured Saddam Hussein?
\nNOONAN: You and I have talked about this many times in the past.
\nMATTHEWS: I\ufffdm just asking a question.
\nNOONAN: I\ufffdm trying to answer it.
\nI think, after September 11, the American people came to some hard conclusions about those who are real trouble in the world. And I think Saddam Hussein was on the list of those who are moving against American interests and the interests of peace. He had been an international troublemaker for a very long time. I think they were correct to see him as that. I saw him as that.
\nMATTHEWS: What act of war…
\nNOONAN: I\ufffdm glad…
\nMATTHEWS: What act of war did Saddam Hussein ever take against the United States, what act of war against us?
\nNOONAN: Oh, Christopher.
\nMATTHEWS: Just name one. Help me. One.
\nNOONAN: All right, Kuwait. Do you think Kuwait was…
\nMATTHEWS: That was an act of war against the United States?
\nNOONAN: … maybe looking for trouble, the invasion of a peaceful neighbor, in a way that was problematic, to say the least, for the United States?
\nMATTHEWS: OK. Well
\n(CROSSTALK)
\nNOONAN: I mean, Chris, what are you arguing? This was a great fellow who we unfairly picked on?
\nMATTHEWS: I\ufffdm asking a\ufffdI\ufffdm asking you a\ufffdI\ufffdm asking a question.
\nNOONAN: Well, I\ufffdm asking one back.
\nMATTHEWS: What act of war did he commit against the United States? I don\ufffdt get the answer. I can\ufffdt hear it, Peggy. What act of war did he commit against the United States to justify our going into his country, taking him over and capturing him? What act of war against us?
\nNOONAN: Christopher, I am glad we invaded Iraq…
\nMATTHEWS: That is your opinion.
\nNOONAN: … and got rid of a monster.
\nMATTHEWS: And that is a very legitimate opinion.
\nNOONAN: He was a monster of history.
\nMATTHEWS: OK.
\nNOONAN: Thank you very much. I think it is a better\ufffdlook…
\nMATTHEWS: OK, we are losing time here.
\nNOONAN: It has helped the world…
\nMATTHEWS: OK.
\nNOONAN: … that that guy has been removed from power and wound up in a hole and now will be put on trial in Iraq. It hasn\ufffdt made the world a worse place, but a better one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This exchange on “Hardball between Chris Matthews and Peggy Noonan was one of the funnier things I have recently seen on talking head T.V. Matthews attempts to pin Noonan down on Saddam’s supposed involvement in 9\/11. As you see, he didn’t get very far:<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}