Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary for President George W. Bush, marked the 16th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War on Tuesday by decrying the notion that the president “lied” as justification for the war.
Fleischer’s tweet thread was not met with open arms. As of Wednesday morning the original tweet, where he claims that it was a “myth” that “Bush lied. People died,” was ratioed. The tweet had more than 5,400 replies compared to just 1,500 retweets and 4,900 likes.
“The Iraq war began sixteen years ago tomorrow. There is a myth about the war that I have been meaning to set straight for years. After no WMDs were found, the left claimed ‘Bush lied. People died.’ This accusation itself is a lie. It’s time to put it to rest,” he wrote.
The Iraq war began sixteen years ago tomorrow. There is a myth about the war that I have been meaning to set straight for years. After no WMDs were found, the left claimed "Bush lied. People died." This accusation itself is a lie. It's time to put it to rest.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) March 20, 2019
In the subsequent tweets, Fleischer pointed to a report issued in 2005 that said there was a “major intelligence failure” in the administration.
A quick reminder: The justification for the Iraq War was that its dictator, Saddam Hussein, had weapons of mass destruction. None were found and there were thousands of deaths as a result of the war.
As New York magazine noted in 2015, there was a second report that found “the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent.”
Fleisher’s thread was mocked by a number of people online.
https://twitter.com/FDRisGone/status/1108377158907502593
A washed-up Bush mouthpiece wants to "set the record straight" on WMDs. 😂😂😂 https://t.co/HKeEYKPnsz
— Vagabundo 🐙 (@libertadorzn) March 20, 2019
everyone from Bush on down stated definitively that Iraq bought aluminum tubes for uranium enrichment
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) March 20, 2019
DOE and State said the tubes couldn't be used for that and were likely for rockets
WH knew about the dissents (which were right) but chose to ignore https://t.co/1ZBiPsnhp7
Revisionist history, anyone? The drumbeat that outsiders don't understand because they didn't see the intel may help the perpetrators live with their actions, but it fails to address the fact that the intel was not dependable, they knew that, and they used it anyway. Period. https://t.co/J9bacbOCG2
— Doubting Thomas (@GonePosting) March 20, 2019
Aside from the fact that this is self-serving nonsense, it's an incredible feat of depravity to look back at sixteen years of carnage and failure in Iraq and decide THIS is the part you want reconsidered https://t.co/3nUEfQsSNd
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) March 20, 2019
I hope this man hasn't had a good night's sleep in 16 years, and for many multiples of 16 to come. https://t.co/ITf03wXsSI
— Nate the K (@NatetheK) March 20, 2019
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