Writes K.M.: “In his column today, Jonah Goldberg says that after digging through numerous documents, no one has been able to find a shred of evidence that Bush or anyone in his cabinet ever said that Iraq was an imminent threat. A few weeks ago, another regular Townhall columnist named Kathleen Parker wrote essentially the same thing. I have read similar columns several times in the last few months. They all claim that opponents of the Bush policy are criticizing the Bush administration for something it never said.

“I beg to differ. If you go back and look at some of the statements coming out of the administration in the months leading up to the attack on Iraq, it is plain to see that the Bush administration was telling the American people, the American Congress, and the world that Iraq was an imminent threat.“In his speech before the U.N., for example, Colin Powell said, ‘The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction pose to the world. Let me now turn to those deadly weapons programs and describe why they are real and present dangers to the region and to the world.’

“Now perhaps Powell’s statement could be interpreted in another way, but those of Donald Rumsfeld are perfectly clear. On September 18 and 19, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke before the House and Senate Armed Service Committee. The transcripts of these speeches are available. Here’s the first speech.

“In the first speech, Rumsfeld says: ‘But no terrorist state poses a greater and more immediate threat to the security of our people, and to the stability of the world, than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.’ Later in the same speech he says: ‘Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent ­ that Saddam is at least 5­7 years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain.’ Then: ‘But those who raise questions about the nuclear threat need to focus on the immediate threat from biological weapons.’

“Goldberg claims that no one in Bush’s cabinet ever said that Iraq was an imminent threat. He says that those who criticize the Bush administration for calling Iraq an imminent threat are engaged in ‘revisionist history.’ It is Goldberg who is engaged in rewriting history. It is Goldberg who is attempting to sweep statements such as those made by Donald Rumsfeld down the memory hole. Regardless of whether one supported or opposed Bush’s Iraq policy, one cannot deny what was said.

“There is simply no way any honest person can go back and read what these administration officials were saying and deny that they were painting Iraq as a grave and imminent threat to the U.S. Even if Bush himself never used the precise words ‘imminent threat,’ those in charge of the administration’s Iraqi policy did, and he is responsible for his administration.”

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.