Pres. Bush awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tenet, Bremer, Franks

(Washington, DC-NBC) Dec. 14, 2004 - On Tuesday President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to three recipients the White House says have been instrumental to US action in Iraq.
It's the president's latest answer to criticism of his Iraq policy. Tuesday's Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients are former CIA chief George Tenet, former head of the US Authority in Iraq Paul Bremer and former CentComm Commander Tommy Franks. All three men were central to the president's policy in Iraq.

President Bush said, "These three men symbolize the nobility of public service the good character of our country and the good influence of America on the world."

Tenet has been criticized for intelligence lapses leading to the attacks on September 11th, 2001. It was Tenet who said the case for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was a slam dunk.

Bremer oversaw creation of the interim Iraqi government. His decision to disband the Iraqi army after the US invasion is widely seen as a factor in the ongoing unrest.
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Ok, so why is Tenet getting this medal if he was forced to resign over these pre-war fuck ups? He wasn't ready to retire. Similar to Franks who was "retiring" after his indictment of war crimes for the 3,000 Afghans in those box cars. Bremer on the other hand, had a horrible situation and kept it to the point of medium to at times chaotic violence. What's a guy to do with a mess, other then attemp to not make it worse. He failed? He succeeded? I don't know. But Tenet. I still don't understand the logic in this medal if it's awared to people who are forced to resign months prior. Please someone clear this up for me. What am I miss here?[/b]

it's a nice retirement package....

One thing John Kerry was right about, is that this administration lives in a "fantasy world of spin."

and yet its not ok to question kerrys medals when many people have come out to say he didnt deserve them

Well, the difference is, Kerry actually FOUGHT in the war, as opposed to just planning and executing it. I'd say that's a little more deserving of a medal. And it's funny, no one questioned the guy's medals until he ran for president, against a guy who used the same tactics against another "war hero," John McCain in 2000.

dont bother me with small details, you know i look at the situation as a whole, and not on a case by case basis

now go listen to that damn cd and quit posting

This action does not compute.

Sure it does. This administration has always valued loyalty above all other things. Nobody gets fired when they fuck up, they don't even euphamistically "ask for resignations", they stand up for each other through thick and thin, and sometimes they ask someone to jump on a grenade for them, like Tenet did.

So it makes perfect sense to self-congratulate those who fucked up, and even those who may have claimed to have fucked up even if they didn't. If you get an award, it means you did something well, right? Just ask the Cowardly Lion. You see, everyone in this administration is smart and strong and brave and utterly faultless. That is how it must be. If a crack were allowed to appear in the facade, the whole thing could come crashing down to show the true nature of things.

--PunkDavid

See, I still don't think that the case. There's already TONS of cracks but the majority of the country just doesn't care. They could have given the award to Chris Farley and no one would notice or care.