Have the nation and world been deceived on Iraq?








Have the nation and world been deceived on Iraq?



Have the nation and world been deceived on Iraq?


President George W. Bush’s popularity shot through the stratosphere this spring after U.S. armed forces, in a matter of weeks, rolled over Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It was a stunning victory for the world’s last remaining superpower and many Americans collectively basked in the glory of our military victory.


Before the war, some citizens, even "doves," reluctantly agreed with the president when he warned that Iraq would someday use its weapons of mass destruction or sell them to terrorist organizations.


It was a foregone conclusion that those weapons existed.


Maybe they still do.


Sadly, the appreciation for our military victory is starting to fade and that’s unfair because American servicemen and women deserve all the credit in the world for doing what they were trained to do. But U.S. intelligence and the Bush administration seem to have overstated the evidence of such weapons in Iraq.


Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised; the same thing has happened before.


After the Cold War ended, Soviet military leaders revealed that the U.S. government consistently over-estimated their capabilities. The Soviets, they said, weren’t nearly as strong as we thought they were.


Maybe these discrepancies are a legacy of Dec. 7, 1941. Under no circumstances can Americans accept another "Day of Infamy."


But unless Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction are found, U.S. credibility is at stake, at home and abroad.


Unless something changes, it appears that (1) U.S. intelligence agencies had led less evidence than the White House was led to believe or (2) the president exaggerated or (3) there was a combination of both.


None of the three is satisfactory.





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