Myth-busting: Fleischer referring to "Operation Iraqi Liberation" (OIL)

It's not an urban legend. In the opening days of the Iraq War, President Bush's Press Secretary Ari Fleischer uses the name "Operation Iraqi Liberation" (OIL) as the name of the Iraq war.

When it was pointed out the acronym spelled out "OIL", the mission name was quickly changed to "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Bush
• war
• myth
• busting
• OIL
• O.I.L.
• Operation
• Iraqi
• Liberation
• liberation
• freedom
• politics
• republican
• dubya

[soleilsinclair]

OIF! And on April Fool's Day, of all things.

[cindiburkey]

Fleischer is a real smarty. There's no way he didn't know what that stood for. Personally I wonder who was responsible for that acronym. That would be interesting to know.

[wldeanml]

Amazing! I love how they mock us to our faces!

[BI30]

@mason6883 While Thorium-based reactors are a significant advance, Thorium fuel is MUCH more difficult to "breed", requiring more resources to produce enough Thorium to power a single reactor. And the by-products of its production are highly corrosive.

Thorium reactors have major advantages over traditional reactors, but Green power is SO much cheaper with NONE of the hazardous by-products that the costs outweigh the benefits.

[BI30]

@mason6883 If you are claiming the reactors in Japan "survived" to suggest nuclear power is safe, you are "either ignorant or lying" (to quote you). If you think the area around those reactors is "safe", may I suggest your next vacation spot?

[BI30]

@mason6883 I'll give you Chernobyl if you concede Japan and it's GE-made Mach-3 reactor.

[mason6883]

@BI30 Also, China has been making very big strides Thorium reactors, which are far cheaper and pose very little threat even under worse case scenarios. Because their nation isn't made up of anti-science Luddites like you, they will soon have access to near free electricity, allowing them to cut their costs of manufacturing even more and putting us even further behind. They will even be able to cheaply power their cargo ships with such reactors.

[mason6883]

@BI30 In Japan, a group of 8 separate 40 year old reactors survived the third biggest earthquaked in human fucking history, only taking minor damages. It took a tsnumi wiping out backup diesel generator for there to be any problems, and even then the problem was contained. The amount of people who absorbed more radiation then in an x-ray was very small, and even with the minor radiation leaks, there was less ambient radiation then in Denver, CO.

[mason6883]

@BI30 If you using Japan & Chernobyl as examples of what can go wrong, you are either ignorant or lying. The reactor at Chernobyl was not only lacking in even basic fail-safes, and researchers at the plant were running dangerous experiments at the the time of the meltdown.

[BI30]

@mason6883 Nuclear power is neither clean nor green (I refer you to both Japan & Chernobyl.) Keeping the nation dependent upon 100 year old fossil-fuel powered technology, and voting against renewable energy projects doesn't exactly stimulate "economic growth". I also refer you to my blog (see my profile for link) this week for my report on "$4 gas. The problem isn't Supply."