Joe Wilson has broken his silence on Plamegate to some extent to write about the way their lives were changed by Rove and Libby’s treason and the outing of his wife Valerie.
The right-wingers talk all the time about how they are so pro-family. The Fundamentalists label bills as either pro-family or anti-family. But what the Bush administration did was blatantly anti-family. Therefore, when the right-wingers talk about family values, they are simply not credible, unless they acknowledge that what Rove and Libby did was wrong.
First of all, Wilson talks about his and Valerie’s work abroad both both Democratic and Republican administrations. Then, he discusses the horrible day of July 14th, 2003, when the outing of Plame happened:
On July 14th, 2003, our lives were changed forever. That was the day that Robert Novak identified Valerie as an operative, disclosing a secret that had only been known to me, her parents, and her brother.
Valerie later told me it was like being punched in the stomach. Twenty years of work had gone down the drain. She immediately began doing a checklist of things she needed to do to minimize the damage to projects she was working on and to people she knew. She wondered how her friends would react when they found out that she was living a lie.
Many other peoples’ work had gone down the drain as well. Rove’s treason did not just damage one person. A person may have died as the result of Rove’s treason. But then, I suppose the Bush administration would call this “collateral damage.”
This is the sort of thing that happens when you have a culture of revenge in the White House, where administration officials obsess with revenge over people who do not toe the party line.
It was payback — cheap political payback for an article I had written contradicting President Bush in his State of the Union Speech. Payback not just to punish me, but to intimidate other critics as well.
Why did I write the article? Because I believe that citizens in a democracy have a right to know what a government is doing in their name. I knew that the statement that Iraq had purchased Uranium from Niger was not true. I knew that from my visit to Africa (at the request of the CIA) and from two other intelligence reports. I knew that White House knew it too.
This is the perfect difference between secrecy and openness. Transparent governments do not engage in the kinds of things that governments that operate in secret do. We cannot be an effective democracy unless as much information as possible is made open and available to the public.
Now, I understand totally the need to keep some secrets, such as the identity of CIA agents. I understand the need to keep secret our hypothetical warplanning for potential wars in the future.
But when a legitimate threat comes around, it is the obligation for the government to tell everything — everything about the enemy’s actions and why such a war is necessary for our national security. They should also explain all their efforts to achieve peace and why all future efforts to achieve peace have been exhausted. They must be truthful as well.
Going public was what was required for them to come clean. The day after I shared my conclusions in a New York Times opinion piece, the White House finally acknowledged that the now-infamous 16 words “didn’t rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union Address.”
That should have been the end. But the President’s men — including allegedly Libby and at least one other (only known as “Official A”) were determined to defame and discredit Valerie and me.
They used eager allies in Congress and the conservative media, beginning with Novak. Perhaps the most egregious of the attacks was by New York GOP Representative Peter King’s odious suggestion that Valerie “got what she deserved.”
King’s remark is like an abusive husband blaming their wife for being hit. That is also like Hitler blaming Poland, who still relied on horses for their troops, for being attacked by a powerful Germany.
Valerie was an innocent in the whole affair. Although there were suggestions she was behind the decision to send me to Niger, the CIA told Newsday a week after the Novak article appeared that “she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment.” The CIA repeated the same statement to every reporter thereafter.
The grand jury has concluded that at least one of the President’s men committed crimes. We are heartened that our system of justice is working and appreciate the work done by our fellow citizens who devoted two years of their lives to grand jury duty.
The attacks on Valerie were upsetting, disruptive, and vicious. They amounted to character assassination. Senior administration officials used the power of the White House to make our lives hell for the last 27 months.
But more important, they did as an effort to cover up the lies and disinformation used to justify the invasion of Iraq. That is the ultimate crime.
I remember the Bork nomination, where the right-wingers were all wailing about character assassination against Bork, when it was clear that it was all about his extreme judicial views. If this is not hypocrisy and character assassination, then I want to know what is.
The war in Iraq has cost up 17,000 American casualties, many times more Iraqi casuaties, and close to $200 billion.
It has left out international reputation in tatters and our military broken. It has weakened the United States, increased hatred against us, and made terrorist attacks against our interests more likely in the future.
It has been, as General William Odom said, the greatest strategic blunder in the history of our country.
We expect no mea culpa from the President for what his senior aides have done to us. But he owes the nation both an explaination and an apology.
As for Wilson’s remark about increased terrorism, there were a series of bombings in India just this morning, leaving many people dead. Odom was one of Ronald Reagan’s most trusted generals, so it is amazing how reasonable Ronald Reagan seems today compared with the Bush administration.
As for a forthcoming explaination and apology, I am not sure we will get one. Bush is one of the most bullheaded people when it comes to admitting mistakes; when he was challenged to do so in the debates last year, he refused to do so. On the other hand, Democrats admit mistakes all the time.
But I am heartened by the fact that even some of our Republican elected officials, in this morning’s Post, are starting to admit that what Bush, Rove, and Libby did was wrong.