Reader Hobson draws our attention to this Press Release dated 9/7/02, of a Camp David joint Bush/Blair press conference.
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THE PRESIDENT: Its my honor to welcome the Prime Minister back to Camp David. I look forward to spending a good three hours talking to our friend about how to keep the peace. This world faces some serious threat -- and threats -- and we're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about how to promote freedom around the world. We're going to talk about our shared values of -- recognizes the worth of every individual.
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THE PRESIDENT: AP lady.
Q Mr. President, can you tell us what conclusive evidence of any nuclear -- new evidence you have of nuclear weapons capabilities of Saddam Hussein?
THE PRESIDENT: We just heard the Prime Minister talk about the new report. I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied -- finally denied access, a report came out of the Atomic -- the IAEA that they were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need.
PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Absolutely right. And what we -- what we know from what has been going on there for a long period of time is not just the chemical, biological weapons capability, but we know that they were trying to develop nuclear weapons capability. And the importance of this morning's report is it yet again it shows that there is a real issue that has to be tackled here.
And in a response to a perfect setup question about 9/11, a perfect example of "Bushspeak," which I do not offer for our collective amusement, since I think we have to get real serious about how to counter that axis of propoganda where Rove's strategic brilliance meets Bush's canny political instincts.
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There's no way we could have possibly envisioned that the battlefield would change. And it has. And that's why we've got to deal with all the threats. That's why Americans must understand that when a tyrant like Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction, it not only threatens the neighborhood in which he lives, it not only threatens the region, it can threaten the United States of America, or Great Britain, for that matter.
The battlefield has changed. We are in a new kind of war, and we've got to recognize that.
There's no way I could have possibly predicted that future. I'm honored to be the President. And so long as I am the President, I'm going to work hard to make America safe, and the world more peaceful.
Don't miss that BBC report Lambert links to below on the crumbling case for WMD; its nine point summary is the perfect talking points memo for Democrats, and anyone else who wants to obtain early retirement for Mr. Bush.