Helen Thomas     

Helen Thomas says the United States is in a far worse situation now than our country ever was in Vietnam.  The 87-year-old is a 57-year veteran of the White House press corps and White House bureau chief formerly working for United Press International.

“We are in a bigger debacle now because it is much more widespread,” said Thomas, referring to the war in Iraq compared to Vietnam.  “The President has struck a match across the whole Middle East and it’s in flames.”

Thomas says that President Bush was flat-out wrong in his decision to go to war with Iraq.  She believes the president has wanted to go to war since the moment he stepped in the White House. 

Sharp as ever, Thomas spoke to students on Feb. 8 from George Mason University, Pace University and Denver University in a video conference session hosted by Steve Scully, political editor of C-SPAN.

“She is definitely a role model for all journalists and future journalists, myself included,” said Nadia Hajeer, a communication major at George Mason University.

Thoughts on President Bush

She has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, and for the last three years she has been silenced in a way by the Bush administration.  She traditionally sat in the front row and was known for asking the first question during press briefings and ending each briefing by thanking the president.

 She has nothing to thank President Bush for, however, because now that she no longer represents the wire service she has been moved to the back row during press conferences and had not been called on since 2003. 

In March of 2006, Thomas was called on by the president and she jokingly responded, “You’ll be sorry.”   Everyone in the room laughed, including the president.

Thomas proceeded to ask President Bush what his real reasons were for invading Iraq, and he responded by explaining that he made a promise to the American people to do everything he could to fight terrorism after September 11th, 2001. 

“We still don’t know why the President chose to go to war because there were no Iraqi’s involved in September 11th,” says Thomas.  “We went to war against a country that has done nothing to us”

If you asked 10 different people why the United States is at war with Iraq, you would likely get 10 different answers, she said. Helen Thomas believes that is wrong.

“The U.N. charter says there is one reason and one reason only to go to war, when you are attacked or have a treaty with another country that needs aid,” Thomas said.  “That is the only reason to go to war under international law.”

In addition to sharing her thoughts on the current president and the war in Iraq, Thomas spoke about her experiences covering past presidents.  She gave insight to students about the brilliant mind of President Kennedy, the scandals of President Nixon and President Clinton, and all the events she has covered in between.