Tuesday, March 23, 2004 :::
 
In an op-ed in the indispensable Journal this morning, Lawrence F. Kaplan of the New Republic dug up this quote from the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.

Never mind, too, that by his own account he voted in favor of a war for oil and the president's friends. Consider, rather, his argument in 2002 that "the record of Saddam Hussein's ruthless, reckless breach of international values and standards of behavior . . . is cause enough for the world community to hold him accountable by use of force," which offered the true and obvious rationale for war.

Mr. Kaplan errs in one thing. Sen. Kerry's (then held) sentiments offer only a rationale for the war, and A Mind That Suits found himself regretting that Senator Kerry did not write speeches for the President in 2002. He has busied himself rereading every Administration document justifying the war, and they all emphasize weapons of mass destruction. As the Administration has been all but silent on the missing WMD issue, all those quotes are just sitting there for their opponents to use in spreading the "Bush Lied" Lie. If only W. had listened to Senator Kerry back then, he might not have to be listening to him now.

The funny thing about all this is, even the Washington Post found that the Administration had not exaggerated the threat as deduced by our intelligence experts. And, of course, France, Britain, and Israel all reached the same conclusion about what Saddam had. (Contrary to what some like to say, Hans Blix and Scott Ritter of the UN both felt that Saddam packed away everything against the day when he would be free, which turned out to the truth, more or less. If we had listened to Mr. Blix and Mr. Ritter, of course, Saddam would eventually have gotten free of sanctions, and then where would we be?)

The truth really is on the Administration's side, yet all one hears on the issue is from those who are spreading the "Bush Lied" Lie. Why it is so hard for the Administration to say "we were wrong, but what we found was ample justification" is something somebody will have to explain sometime. In the meantime, they should just open their mouths and start explaining what we in fact found.

How far has the "Bush Lied" Lie spread? Around the world of course, and last week the President of Poland got tied up in it. As recounted in yesterday's Journal, Pres. Aleksander Kwasniewski knew full well what we had found, including the fact that Saddam lied about his weapons and Saddam's own people lied to Saddam about them. He commented that it was unfortunate that "we were misled" about WMD. An Agence France Presse reporter then translated it as "taken for a ride," and somebody tied it to a totally separate quote from the brave Polish President about his nation's troops' coming home sooner. That quote applied only to the increased pace of the transition, not to a loss of will or feeling of betrayal on his part. But those two quotes stuck together by somebody made a new lie to add to the "Bush Lied" Lie.

A Mind That Suits finds himself wondering if the Administration had just grabbed the bull by the horn when Dr. Kay issued his interim report last fall, the "Bush Lied" Lie would live on only in the fevered imaginations of leftwing conspiracy buffs. As it is, it lives on in TV commercials, and an ever-increasing number of Americans are buying into it.

For a thorough hashing out of how the "Bush Lied" Lie is playing out, please go to March 11's blog and then read forward.



::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 1:31 PM


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