Olbermann: Bush Admin Members Should Be “In Hell” for Ignoring Pre-War Warnings

On the December 9, 2008, Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann charged that Bush administration members – whom he did not specify by name but presumably President Bush was meant to be included – deserve to be "in hell," as he cited a report that a post-war insurgency in Iraq using roadside bombs to attack U.S. troops had been predicted by the U.S. military before the invasion. During the show’s regular "Bushed!" segment, Olbermann lambasted the Bush administration:

So not only did the Bush administration and the Bush Pentagon ignore the prewar intel, that the WMD we sought to recover were not in Iraq, but the Bush administration and the Bush Pentagon ignored that if we removed Saddam Hussein an insurgency of some sort would develop in Iraq. And now we learn the Bush administration and the Bush Pentagon ignored the prewar intel that when an insurgency did develop, it would use roadside bombs to kill the troops we needlessly sent there.

I don’t know what, if any religion you belong to, but I suspect you’ll agree that people who ignored that many foretellings of preventable death should have a long time to think about it in hell!

Below is a complete transcript of the "Bushed!" segment from the December 9, 2008, Countdown show on MSNBC, with critical portions in bold:

KEITH OLBERMANN: But first, because they’re not going away soon enough, the headlines breaking in the administration’s 50 running scandals, "Bushed." Number three, "Harriet-gate." The President expressing one of the great regrets of his tenure, the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. You mean how dumb it was? Oh, no. That he had to withdraw it. Quote, "There’s no doubt in my mind that my dear friend Harriet Miers would have had the same judicial philosophy 20 years after I went home and had the intellectual fire power to do the job."

He then described the nomination and withdrawal process as quote, "This really, really good person got chucked out there, and, man, the lions tore her up." Mr. Bush said this in an interview with the ultraconservative National Review, the same publication which of course called for the withdrawal of the Miers nomination 11 days after Mr. Bush proposed it, dismissing her as one of the quote, "President`s cronies."

Number two, "Gitmo-gate." So you set up this extralegal cockamamie "detain and try them" system, and you don’t even think through this scenario. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 plotters declare they want to plead guilty so they can get the death penalty and be executed, but nobody knows for sure whether or not detainees who plead guilty can be executed. So the judge has to tell them that and they withdraw their pleas?

So you tear up the Constitution and torture these people so you can find 9/11 plotters guilty, but you screw it up so badly that when they save you the trouble and they plead guilty, you might have to say, "No thanks." President Wile E. Coyote, super genius!

And number one, "IED-gate," one of the top 10 most disturbing realities of the war in Iraq. The concept, evidently a surprise to all on our side, of the improvised explosive device, the use of roadside bombs by insurgents to kill Americans. Well, it was not a surprise after all. The Pentagon’s inspector general has issued a 72-page report revealing that the military was aware of the threat posed by mines and improvised explosive devices and of the availability of mine-resistant vehicles years before insurgent actions began in Iraq in 2003.

Which makes the report’s other finding, that Marine Corps leaders simply stopped processing an urgent request from combat commanders in Anbar Province, for MRAPs, the IED-resistant vehicles in 2005, makes that even more heinous. So not only did the Bush administration and the Bush Pentagon ignore the prewar intel, that the WMD we sought to recover were not in Iraq, but the Bush administration and the Bush Pentagon ignored that if we removed Saddam Hussein an insurgency of some sort would develop in Iraq. And now we learn the Bush administration and the Bush Pentagon ignored the prewar intel that when an insurgency did develop, it would use roadside bombs to kill the troops we needlessly sent there.

I don’t know what, if any religion you belong to, but I suspect you’ll agree that people who ignored that many foretellings of preventable death should have a long time to think about it in hell!