Presidential security advisor Steven Hadley declines to call Iraq “apocalypse”
Washington, DC (Rotters) – Presidential security adviser Stephen Hadley yesterday, in a news conference at the White House, steadfastly maintained that the Bush administration was correct in its insistence that the conflict in Iraq cannot be referred to as a civil war. Answering questions from reporters, Hadley stated that the recently released National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq was far rosier than some of its misleading language would have some reporters believe. He insisted that the White House had taken great care to have the document reflect what the president believes is the true situation and that it was being interpreted incorrectly by the press.
In response to direct questions from reporters in regards to the White House’s refusal to use the term “civil war”, Hadley insisted that while that term might have been appropriate at some point in the past, the conflict was now far more complicated than just a civil war. He stated that the White House was determined at this point to merely give facts to the public and not labels.
A reporter then followed up with a question asking Hadley bluntly if the term “Apocalypse” might be more appropriate.
“No, no, that is not what the NIE says,” Hadley responded. “You ought to be very clear about that. Certainly, much of the chaos and destruction in Iraq might resemble an apocalypse, but what point does it serve to mistakenly label it this way, bringing a Christian term into the middle of an Islamic tinderbox? It does a disservice to our men and women in uniform and emboldens the enemy. If we leave Iraq before the job is done… and we won’t… the world will be facing Armageddon. Theoretically, if anyone is around to still debate the topic, perhaps at that point they might be justified in describing the current situation in Iraq as fitting the criteria for “apocalyptic”.
