RNC Convention 2004
RNC Convention 2004
Just when I thought I had heard everything here comes Gov George Pataki at the Republican National Convention. Even with Zell Miller, spraying like a rabid dog, spit flying from his mouth looking, as Michael Moore puts it, like Freddy Kreuger at a camp for girls, the most outrageous statements that I heard came out of the mouth of New York state’s governor.
George Pataki defends and even justifies the war in Iraq with one simple, outrageous and egregious statement.
“On September 11th in New York we learned that in the hands of a monster, a box cutter is a weapon of mass destruction. And Saddam Hussein was a monster – a walking, talking weapon of mass destruction,” Pataki said.
Excuse me?! First, did he not watch the footage like we all did stuck to our TVs in disbelief? I saw airplanes, taken over by religeous zealous, used as flying bombs flown into and even through the twin towers of the World Trade Center. I saw the Pentagon on fire where an airplane had been crashed into it. I remember walking my kids to school, talking very little about the things that we had seen on TV that morning, going about my normal activities on a day that was far from normal.
Here’s what I didn’t see. I didn’t see any flying box cutters, there were no fanatics shaving and cutting the sides of the buildings that eventually collapsed killing thousands. There were no Al Qaeda members standing on the street throwing box cutters at the twin towers. His comment is the same as saying one can commit vehicular manslaughter with the clicker that pops open the trunk of your car. If box cutters are WMDs, then watch out, I’m sure that I have at least 3 or 4 in my house alone. Send in the Marines.
Bottom line Mr. Pataki has taken what should have been a noble mission of removing weapons that have the capability of killing hundreds of thousands of people from Iraq and turning it into the Saturday Night Live episode where “proof” of Saddam’s weapons programs are presented: a two cup glass measuring cup and a spatula. How is it that a box cutter can be called a weapon of mass destruction? The box cutters were a means to an end. They were used to kill pilots and flight attendants. They were not directly used to bring concrete, glass and steel down into a pile of rubble.
