White House Advocates Assassination

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was asked about the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that a war in Iraq would cost $9 billion dollars a month. Fleischer agreed that the non-partisan CBO’s estimate was a lot of money, and said it is more “than the cost of a one-way ticket.” After a somewhat dramatic pause, he added: “The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less.” When asked to expand on that, Fleischer repeatedly said that “regime change is welcome in whatever form it takes.” He then cooled things off with “I’m not stating Administration policy, I’m stating the obvious.”

Somewhat surprisingly, this episode was not picked up with much vigor. Perhaps the outlets simply weren’t that surprised. Many tucked the story inside other stories on reactions to the UNMOVIC agreement with Iraq.

The Washington Post produced a thorough piece, including comments from an international studies expert from Johns Hopkins, who drew the distinction between a political leader and a military leader — Saddam Hussein is a military leader, and so the rules that normally apply to political leaders do not apply.

The AP, though, trotted out disapproval from the Brookings Institution: “Generally, administration officials refrain from talking so coarsely in openly advocating the murder of others.” More to the point, Leslie Gelb of the Council on Foreign Relations said “It’s gross.”